You're figuring out what work to do and how to get hired

Find out what things actually pay before you commit

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the Occupational Outlook Handbook: real median pay, typical education required, and projected growth for essentially every occupation in the country. It's free, it's not selling you anything, and almost no one under 25 has heard of it.

CareerOneStop, from the Department of Labor, breaks the same data down by state, which matters enormously. The same job title can pay very differently in Phoenix and in Boston.

College Scorecard shows actual earnings of graduates by school and by major. If you're weighing a program, that's the number to look at, not the brochure.

Degrees are one path and not the only one

Registered apprenticeships pay you while you train and typically end with a credential and no debt. Apprenticeship.gov lists them.

Licenses and certificates in trades, healthcare, and IT can take months rather than years. Community college and workforce boards are the usual entry points, and many programs are grant-funded.

None of this means don't go to college. It means run the same math on every path: what does it cost, how long does it take, what does it pay, and how many of these jobs exist near where I want to live.

Pay transparency changed your leverage

There is still no federal pay transparency law. But as of 2026, roughly a dozen states plus Washington, D.C. require employers to put a good-faith salary range in the job posting itself, including California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, and Washington. Several others require disclosure on request or before an offer.

Many states also ban employers from asking your salary history, so a low-paying past job can't anchor your next offer.

Practically: check whether your state requires a posted range, and if a posting hides it, that's information too. Ask for the range before your first interview and use the time you save on employers who answer.

Asking for a raise, which is where the money actually is

Most people negotiate once, at the offer, and then never again. That is backwards. Over a career, the raises you ask for compound on top of each other and matter more than the starting number.

Time it deliberately. The best moments are after you have delivered something visible, at the point a budget is being set, or when you have taken on work beyond what you were hired for. The worst is immediately after bad company news.

Build the case before the conversation. Write down what you have delivered, with numbers where you have them, and what you now do that was not in the original job. You are asking to be paid for the job you actually hold rather than the one you were hired into.

Know the market number. Pay transparency laws mean many postings now list ranges — including the posting for your own job if it is being advertised. That is your strongest and cheapest research.

Ask for a specific figure rather than “a raise.” A number invites a yes or a counter; a vague ask invites a delay.

If the answer is no, the follow-up question is the valuable one: what specifically would need to be true for this to be a yes, and when should we revisit it? Get the answer, write it down, and hold them to the date.

Two things worth knowing. Changing employers usually produces a larger jump than an internal raise, which is uncomfortable but true. And a raise you never ask for is not neutral — it is a real amount of money you have decided to leave, every year, compounding.

Applying without wasting your life

Most applications go into software that scans for keywords before a person ever sees them. Mirror the language of the posting in your resume — if they say 'inventory management,' write 'inventory management,' not 'kept track of stock.'

One page. Plain formatting. No columns, tables, graphics, or photos, all of which confuse the scanner. Save as PDF unless they ask otherwise.

Lead every bullet with what happened, not what you were responsible for. 'Cut register errors by handling closing counts for a six-person shift' beats 'responsible for closing procedures.'

Twenty tailored applications beat two hundred identical ones. This is the part everyone gets backwards.

Experience you already have

If your resume feels empty, you're defining experience too narrowly. Fast food and retail teach cash handling, conflict resolution, and working under pressure. Caregiving for family teaches scheduling and responsibility. Sports teach coordination and showing up. Volunteering counts. Coursework with a real project counts.

Employers hiring at entry level are screening for reliability and coachability far more than for skills.

Most jobs come through people

That sounds discouraging if you don't think you know anyone. You know more people than you think: former managers, instructors, coaches, family friends, people from your program.

The ask that works is not 'do you have a job for me.' It's 'I'm looking at this kind of work — do you know anyone I should talk to?' That question is easy to answer and it's how most referrals actually start.

American Job Centers, funded through the Department of Labor, offer free job search help, resume review, and training referrals in most communities. Free, and badly underused.

Watch for job scams while you search

Any 'employer' who hires without a real interview, sends you a check, asks you to buy equipment with your own money, or requires payment for training is running a scam. See the section on fraud.

Where to check this yourself

bls.gov/ooh for occupations and pay. careeronestop.org for state data and American Job Centers. apprenticeship.gov for paid training. collegescorecard.ed.gov for earnings by school and major.