Connections newsletter

CareerOneStop Connections

Boosting a job search with an occupational certification

For some of the job seekers you work with, earning an occupational certification can really help them stand out to potential employers and give them a leg up in the job market. You probably know it’s a key item that hiring employers look for on resumes—but even if your clients are motivated to earn a certification, it can be hard to identify the best options for their specific situation.

CareerOneStop’s Certification Finder is a simple tool to help identify certifications in any field. It’s a searchable database of more than 6,300 certifications. You can get started by entering a keyword to search for the certification name or the name of a certifying organization you may have heard about. Or you can enter a keyword for an occupation or industry.

You’ll find a list of certifications related to your keyword. Your results list will include the name of the certification and the organization that sponsors the certification. Click on the name of any certification to find more details, including a brief description and a link to the certifying organization’s website. Plus, you’ll find details, such as any required work experience, whether the exam is oral or written, and how the renewal process works.

From your initial list of results, you can also see whether each certification is considered Core (meaning its education or work experience requirements are two years or less) or Advanced (meaning both its education and work experience requirements are more than two years). You can filter your results to see only Core or only Advanced certifications so you can tailor the list to your client. You can filter your results even more to focus on a particular certifying organization or on the industry the certification is most closely related to.

Pay special attention to certifications marked with a chili pepper icon. Those certifications are considered “in demand” because they are frequently mentioned by employers in job postings, according to CareerOneStop analysis of more than two million job postings. If you have a long list of certifications, it can be helpful to filter for only the in-demand ones so you can review those first.

Want to learn more?

Visit the Certification Finder Help section to find information and tips about searching for certifications. Visit the Career Advisor section to find more resources for workforce professionals.

Hot occupation

CareerOneStop’s Business Finder can help your clients target their job search

If you help clients with job searches, chances are you have a list of favorite online job banks.  And you probably also know that the majority of job openings are never posted on job banks. Visiting company websites is often a better avenue for discovering open positions. And reaching out directly to employers or hiring managers can be even more fruitful.

CareerOneStop’s Business Finder can help you identify employers in their area. It’s a great tool to use along with clients, or to have them use on their own at home. To get started, they simply enter their preferred location and job title, industry, or company of interest.

Once they’ve entered their search terms, they’ll see a list of businesses that match their criteria—businesses that employ people in the occupation or industry the client is interested in (or that match the business name that was entered). They’ll find the business's address, number of employees, and distance from the entered location.

Then they can use the filters to narrow down their list to a targeted, manageable number of good prospects. Here are some ideas for ways to filter results:

Find employers in a specific area

Does your client use public transportation? Or need to find work near their children’s school or day care? Or just prefer a shorter commute? When you enter a ZIP code in the location search box, you’ll see the distance from that ZIP code to the businesses on the results list. Then you can sort the results by “Distance: Low to High” to see the closest companies first.

Target small or large companies

Are your clients seeking a job at a smaller company? Or do they want to work at a larger business where they might have more defined job descriptions and tasks? They can filter their results to show businesses of the size they prefer, by approximate number of employees. Jobs are sorted into categories of 1-4, 5-9, 10-99, 100-499, or 500+ employees.

Once your client has identified target businesses, you can help them network to learn more about the employers on their list. They’ll also find contact information right in the list of Business Finder results.

Latest Blog posts

• Second Chance Month: boost your resume with an occupational certification
• Spring job search refresh: Start targeting employers
• Find technical training near you

CareerOneStop's event schedule

Look for our booth at any of these upcoming conferences:

• National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE)
  June 9-11, 2025  |  Philadelphia, PA
• National Career Development Association (NCDA)
  June 18-20, 2025  |  Atlanta, GA
• American Library Association (ALA)
  June 26-30, 2025  |  Philadelphia, PA

Questions? Please email info@careeronestop.org.