Brian Mann

CNS 743
Assignment 2.3
April 5, 2014

Career Development Websites for Aging Adults

General Resources
www.aarp.org

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AARP Inc. (formerly American Association of Retired Persons) operates as a non-profit advocate
for its members and as one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the United States. Its
website is a clearinghouse of information that has everything to do with the aging population in
the US. The work and retirement page (www.aarp.org/working_options) consolidates resource
access by categories such as Your Retirement, Encore Careers, Your Job Hunt, Social Security,
and On-The-Job. This is a great starting point for almost any search for information regarding
services for seniors.
www.ncoa.org

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The National Council on Aging is an advocate agency dedicated to helping seniors. It provides
tools, resources and networking opportunities to support professionals who work with the aging
population. This site is not nearly as robust as AARP, but still may be useful for networking.
Most of the information on this site has to do with health and financial information that concerns
seniors and their caregivers. Only a small percentage is dedicated to employment and
volunteering.
www.ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sp/resources#list_resources_all-R117-NCDA Rating:

National Career Development Association offers and maintains an excellent online reference
directory of Employment Information. Of most interest to aging adults is: Self-Assessment;
Career Development Process; Occupational Information; Employment Trends; Salary
Information; Educational Information; Apprenticeships and Other Alternative Training
Opportunities; Job Search Instruction and Advice; Job Banks; Career Search Engines; Resources
and Services the Older Client; Industry and Occupation Specific Information; and Researching
Employers.
www.encore.org/

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Encore.org is building a movement to make it easier for millions of people to pursue second acts
in their careers, for the greater good. They call them "encore careers" jobs that combine

personal meaning, continued income and social impact in the second half of life. While
Encore.org is not a job placement service, it provides free, comprehensive information that helps
people transition to jobs in the nonprofit world and the public sector.
www.quintcareers.com/mature_jobseekers.html

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This section of Quintessential Careers has job and career resources for baby boomers, mature
third-age job-seekers, and older workers looking for new job, work, and career-change strategies
and tactics.
www.whatsnext.com/

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Whats Next is an organization dedicated to providing older adults resources necessary to create
the life you want. It offers a wide range of how-to guides focused on career issues. It also
features a Careers 2.0 page that links to many pertinent resources under categories such as Back
To School for a New Career; Be Your Own Boss; Change your Career; Never Too Old; Green
Careers; Health Careers; and Nonprofit Jobs. The site offers a wide range of services including
self-assessment tests, job listings and career & retirement news.
www.experienceworks.org

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Experience Works is an organization dedicated to improving the lives of older workers through
training, community service, and employment. They focus their resources on increasing
awareness, prompting dialogue, developing new synergies, and fostering collaborations in local
communities. This organization also has an active involvement SCSEP programs.
www.operationable.org

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The mission of Operation Able is to provide market responsive programs to meet the
employment needs of mature individuals along their career paths, to promote lifelong learning
among individuals, businesses and government and to assist the employer community in
developing a competent workforce. The site provides links to job search websites, training and
career resilience advice. This organization focuses efforts at a local level through chapters. At
this time Massachusetts and Michigan are the only active chapters, so it may not be very
impactful for those living outside these areas.
Interest/Ability/Skill Inventories
www.psychometrics.com

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Psychometrics administers and trains on the proper administration and interpretation of results
for many of the common personality assessment tools used in the human resources and career

counseling fields. The Work Personality Index assessment, for example, provides a valid and
dependable measure of personality that directly influences a persons work performance and task
effectiveness. Based on a model of 17 personality traits the Work Personality Index assessment
helps describe an individuals style in terms of job related strengths and weaknesses which can
be applied to performance and satisfaction in the workplace.
www.viacharacter.org/www/

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The Values in Action Test measures 24 core elements of human character that have been found to
be universal in defining what is best in people. Results can help you to understand your essential
self.
www.kuder.com

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Kuder provides evidence-based career assessment, education planning, and guidance resources.
One assessment tool, the Kuder Journey, aids adults as they navigate transitions. It measures
interests, skills, and work values, and results are mapped to the 6 Holland clusters.
www.self-directed-search.com

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The Self-Directed Search (SDS) is a career interest test that asks questions about your
aspirations, activities, skills, and interests in different jobs. From the responses, the SDS
produces your personal three-letter Summary Code, which you can use to find occupations and
fields of study that match well with your personality. The SDS is based on John Hollands theory
that both people and working environments can be classified according to six basic types:
Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional (RIASEC).
www.mynextmove.org

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My Next Move sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment & Training
Administration. It features an assessment tool called the O*NET Interest Profiler, which can help
you find out what your interests are and how they relate to the world of work, helping you decide
what kinds of careers you might want to explore. The link to the O*NET Interest Profiler is
www.mynextmove.org/explore/ip .
www.discoveryourpersonality.com/

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Discover Your Personality is an on-line testing service that offers a multitude of personality and
career tests such as: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (including the Step II MBTI), the Strong
Interest Inventory, FIRO-B, TKI, CPI 260 and 16PF. This is a convenient one-stop shop,
that provides realtime results.

www.whatsnext.com/content/life-values-self-assessment-test

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WhatsNext.com offers a proprietary test called The Life Values Self-Assessment Test (LVAT). It
is a systematic comparison of core life values that helps users to get a clear sense of what they
need to focus on to achieve a more balanced, fulfilling life.
www.stewartcoopercoon.com/jobsearch/freejobsearchtests.phtml Rating:
Career Values Test and Motivated Skills Test are two excellent tools that can help get useful
insights into how values, priorities, and competencies relate to your potential work
satisfaction. Stuart, Cooper & Coon offer these test for free.
Job Openings
www.seniorserviceamerica.org

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Senior Service America is a site dedicated to putting the talents of seniors to work both as a
means to gain employment and to keep seniors engaged in service areas needed most in the
community. The major initiatives that Senior Service is involved with are the digital inclusion
initiative; the senior environmental employment program; the agriculture conservation
experienced services program; and the senior community service employment program. The
digital inclusion initiative brings training on internet technology to older people who have little
or no experience with it. The senior environmental employment program provides opportunities
for workers at least 55 years old to assist the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on
federal, state, and local environmental projects, including pollution prevention, abatement, and
control. The Agriculture Conservation Experienced Services Program offers individuals 55 and
older temporary paid assignments to provide technical services in support of the conservationrelated programs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) is a community service and
work based training program for older workers. Authorized by the Older Americans Act, the
program provides subsidized, service-based training for low-income persons 55 or older who are
unemployed and have poor employment prospects. SCSEP enhances employment opportunities
for unemployed older Americans and promotes them as a solution for businesses seeking trained,
qualified, and reliable employees. SCSEP is committed to providing high-quality job training
and employment assistance to participants. SCSEP has an extensive network of service providers
throughout the U.S. Services available through the SCSEP program include community and
participant services for older workers. The program provides over 40 million community service
hours to public and non-profit agencies, allowing them to enhance and provide needed services.
participant services include - Individual Employment Plan (IEP) development, orientation,
community service placement, training specific to community service assignment, other training
as identified in the IEP, supportive services, wages, fringe benefits, annual physicals, assistance

in securing unsubsidized employment, and access to local American Job Centers, formerly
known as One-Stop Career Centers.
www.seniorjobbank.com

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Senior Job Bank focuses on employers that are interested in attracting talented, dedicated people
over the age of 50. Many companies advertising on this site are committed to hiring baby
boomers and older workers as part of their hiring strategy and truly believe in the value of this
talent pool. This site produced quite a few job opportunities in each of several random zip code
searches that I conducted.
www.retiredbrains.com

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Similar to Senior Job Bank, this site specializes in attracting employers who are interested in
hiring people over the age of 50. This site has more emphasis on part-time, seasonal and
volunteer positions than most other sites. Its a free service and its easy to navigate the site.
www.rileyguide.com/

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The Riley Guide provides everything from resumes to interviews to employer research to finding
job leads online. Within the site, there is an Explore Career Options section which contains
assessment tools, including their own Career Research Center with detailed employment and
education summaries for each line of work. It also contains Networking and Support Groups
resources. As a source for job openings, it features a very extensive list of sites it searches. It can
conduct searches by geography, industry type, and position type.
Occupational Information
http://www.doleta.gov/seniors/

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The US Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration has as its mission to
contribute to the more efficient functioning of the U.S. labor market by providing high quality
job training, employment, labor market information, and income maintenance services primarily
through state and local workforce development systems. This site contains job postings, training
opportunities, and career information as well as links to assessment tools, and various
government funded initiatives. This site is helpful for those looking to find details on
government data, legislation and federal programs. However, it is not very user friendly, and is
probably most valuable when seeking very specific information.