Occupation Research

How can you make more informed career (and education) decisions?

This webpage is focused on online career research.  However, a person's understanding about a given career will be more complete, accurate, and meaningful if it also includes:

  1. Labor Market Information (LMI) research
  2. Job posting research
  3. Experiential research
  4. Informational interviewing
  5. Education research

HUD 135: Career Exploration & Planning Course (1-credit)

Introduces students to the career exploration and planning process. Students use online tools and supplemental resources to complete self-assessments, engage in self-reflection, gather information about careers of interest, and relate potential careers to educational opportunities. Through this class, students create an action plan for achieving their education and career goals.

If you have questions about the content of the class, please contact Shannon Doran at dorans@gcc.mass.edu.

If you would like to register for this class, please contact:

Occupation Research Platforms

Look for state and region-level labor market information (LMI), especially when it comes to wages, job growth rates, and occupation sizes. MassCIS360 defaults to state-level data, but most tools default to national-level LMI. The latter varies way too widely to base life decisions about.

MassHire360 (previously MassCIS) is free for all Massachusetts residents and highly recommended for: career assessments, occupation research, and education research.

If you are not a GCC student, use the "Massachusetts Resident" tab to login.

If you are a GCC student, use the following credentials the first time you log into the MassHire360 site.

Username: greenfieldcommc
Password: MassHire2025

Then fill in the short form to create your own MassHire360 account. This will make it possible for you to save and refer to useful information within the MassCIS360 dashboard. Click 'Yes, it is ok for the school counselor to view my comments.' so GCC Career Readiness Services can do more to assist you.

What are Career Paths?
Additional Career Exploration Processes & Resources

Woman looking at computer screen with phone to her ear in one hand and the other writting on a sheet of paper. checklists and documents float above the computer.