Place to get career advice online?

[whitwhit]

I have been living outside the US for 2 years in Japan. I recently moved to China, for several reasons, but one of the most important being that living here, I'll have the opportunity to save a lot of money. My job pays me extremely well, and affords me an upper middle class lifestyle here in China.

 

However, it has become apparent since moving here that I want to one day go back to the states. Something which I didn't think I would want to do. I'd been thinking, even last year, that I'd immigrate somewhere else if/when I got tired of Asia. But I want to be close to my family, and I want to be in a good position to meet someone and start my own maybe in the next 5-7 years (I'm 26 now). I'll need to stay here at least a year more, maybe 2 to get to the place financially that I'd like to be.

 

Therefore, I need to start thinking more seriously about what I will do when I get back and how I can best prepare in the meantime... besides saving money (which I am already doing). I have lots of free time. Which means I could be doing online school, taking language learning a bit more seriously... lots of stuff.

 

I don't know exactly what I want to do for work when I go back. I know I don't want to continue teaching, at least not in a classroom to american school-age children for 7-12 hours a day... I know I don't want to go back to my old job from before I left for Japan.

 

I have been thinking about going to into Mental Health Counseling or Human Resources. But like I said, I'm not sure. I don't know if these will be a good fit, or whether I'll hate them just as much as what I was doing before I left. Doing my best to self-research, but I'd feel better if I could bounce ideas off another human being.

 

Does anyone know of a free online service to speak to or write to someone about career advice? Google can only do so much.

[chickadeedee]

Try this: link removed

 

Govt. run research site on every career there is and info on whether the career is in demand or declining, what the salaries are, what education you'll need to work in the field, a description of the career and what you'll do if you pursue it etc.

 

It also lists similar careers in relation to one other if you are interested in changing careers into a different area.

 

btw, i think someone who speaks chinese would be very in demand in some fields or certain govt. jobs. there is so much commerce/trade with china these days you might be able to get all kinds of jobs based just on knowing the language.

[chickadeedee]

Here's a fully accredited online university that is reasonably priced and offers all kinds of new degrees and programs 100% online. Since they are fully online, if you contact them, they might be able to talk to you about career choices or resources to research that more even though you are still far away from the U.S. (i.e., you don't have to appear locally to investigate programs/careers):

 

link removed

 

Here's a link to the career resources page:

 

link removed