Define a local question before collecting numbers
See this course’s project requirements
Assemble a local career evidence brief using the six lesson outputs.
Keep your working files in your own notebook or software. Save a private description, checklist, and work link in My Proof.
What to include
- Define two or three occupation matches and the statistical and practical areas.
- Compare dated wage measures and show two gross-pay scenarios.
- Distinguish employment, projections, and a checked posting sample.
- Include task evidence and an access comparison with unresolved questions.
- Provide source links, a weighted decision, sensitivity check, and review trigger.
Review and revise
Use these criteria to check your work and choose what to improve.
- Comparability: occupation matches, geography, period, and wage statistic remain visible and incompatible data are flagged.
- Numeracy: pay, growth, travel-time, and weighted-score calculations can be reproduced from the stated inputs.
- Interpretation: employment, projections, postings, and personal access are kept distinct without promises.
- Decision quality: the conditional recommendation follows the evidence and changes appropriately in the sensitivity check.
Want more background?
The idea in everyday life
A national salary headline may describe work that is scarce near you, and a familiar job title can refer to very different duties. Local career research starts by deciding what counts as nearby and what work you mean. This lesson creates the labels that will prevent misleading comparisons throughout your brief.
A useful comparison keeps the occupation, geography, measure, and date visible.
One step at a time.
Use the sample or information you have permission to use. Keep your work as you go. You can pause between steps.
- 1
Write a decision question naming two or three occupations and one practical location boundary, such as counties reachable by bus within 45 minutes. Use the fictional River County case if researching your own area is inconvenient.
- 2
For each title, list two actual tasks. Use the O*NET report structure to choose the closest occupation and record its code; keep an uncertain match marked provisional instead of forcing a precise code.
- 3
Open the BLS area directory and identify a metropolitan or nonmetropolitan area. Record its name, covered counties, reference period, and access date. A cross-state area may extend beyond your usable commute.
- 4
Create one row per occupation with blank columns for wage measure, employment estimate, task fit, and source. Enter missing values as unknown. Never silently substitute national data for an unavailable local estimate.
See how it works.
Fictional practice case: Rowan can reach River County and East County by bus, but not Lake County. A regional table covers all three counties. Two advertisements use the title office coordinator: one schedules meetings and files records; the other supervises a six-person team and approves budgets. Rowan keeps the first as an administrative-support match and flags the second for separate classification. The brief labels the table River–East–Lake region, not Rowan’s commute area. Rowan writes a limitation: regional employment may include inaccessible jobs. This permits useful regional research while preventing a false claim that every estimated job is locally reachable.
Did you cover these?
- Name a usable commute boundary.
- Record tasks and a code or explicit provisional match for each occupation.
- Separate the statistical area from the practical commute area.
What to finish
A research header and occupation-code table with geography and source-date fields.
Watch for this
Treating similar titles as proof of identical work.
How can I tell I understand it?
Another reader can identify the intended work and the area actually measured.
Quick knowledge check
Answer all 3 questions. Get at least 2 right and the lesson completes automatically.
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Answer all 3 questions above and get at least 2 right. You can review the explanations and try again.
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Sources and further reading
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Source & access notes · checked 2026-09-10
Opened the current area directory, headed May 2025 on review. Verified that areas can cross state boundaries and have defined county coverage. No fictional practice wage is represented as a BLS estimate.
Access: The specific BLS directory or methods page is public and free. Optional data-table downloads need no paid subscription; supplied fictional data make the exercises usable without downloads.
Reuse: This specific BLS — Metropolitan and nonmetropolitan occupational estimates resource supports the cited lessons. Life Starter’s scenarios, calculations, scripts, and questions are original; no source worksheet, logo, or endorsement is reused. Free reading is not a general reuse license.
Source & access notes · checked 2026-09-10
Read geography, wage definitions, median/mean, and data-not-collected sections. OEWS describes employment and wages, not current vacancies; benefits and self-employment coverage have limits.
Access: The specific BLS directory or methods page is public and free. Optional data-table downloads need no paid subscription; supplied fictional data make the exercises usable without downloads.
Reuse: This specific BLS — OEWS frequently asked questions resource supports the cited lessons. Life Starter’s scenarios, calculations, scripts, and questions are original; no source worksheet, logo, or endorsement is reused. Free reading is not a general reuse license.
Source & access notes · checked 2026-09-10
Opened the report guide and reviewed its task, work-context, skills, training, and wage/trend sections. Occupational summaries are not employer-specific admission rules.
Access: This O*NET report or report guide is public and free without an account. The course does not require a separate assessment, paid tool, credential, or application.
Reuse: This specific O*NET OnLine — Understanding the Summary Report resource supports the cited lessons. Life Starter’s scenarios, calculations, scripts, and questions are original; no source worksheet, logo, or endorsement is reused. Free reading is not a general reuse license.
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