No excuses could be the Bermuda Careers Centre's motto.

They have done the homework for all up and coming students, and adults, as they prepare for their careers.

All the BCC needs is for people to use the information they have placed at their fingertips.

"We are a clearinghouse for career information in Bermuda," says director Derek Smith.

"But more importantly we want people to understand the information. For instance, we can know that of 736 first level accountants in Bermuda nearly five hundred of them are here on contracts.

"Now some people interpret that as too many people taking jobs from Bermudians.

"The way we try and get people to see it is 500 opportunities. It depends on how you interpret the information."

The BCC has a host of services available to career seekers including an in depth website (www.bdacareers.bm) with virtually any and everything you could hope to know about the job market in Bermuda.

Their latest career building tool is Pathfinder. This Bermuda-specific software programme examines the user's career interests and then highlights what it might be like to work in that industry and what they need to do to prepare for such a career, particularly in Bermuda.

"We have a lot of students making blind decisions," says Mr. Smith. "By the time they start trying to figure it out what they want to do they go to a counsellor at their college who has no idea what it is like in Bermuda."

Mr. Smith says too often we have Bermudian students on the outside looking in because their degree is not specific to opportunities that exist on the island.

"We want to address the attitude that says all you need to do is go away and get a degree," he continues. "Because then you end up just taking any old job that is not only financially unfulfilling but also emotionally and psychologically unfulfilling."

Pathfinder asks detailed questions such as: Would you like to help with the treatment of drug addicts; write information leaflets; or persuade companies to hire people with disabilities.

It will then give you a list of job suggestions and a breakdown of the qualifications or degrees required, suggested colleges, entry level responsibilities, and opportunities and pay specific to Bermuda.

"Most people enjoy using the programme because it is a website type interface, its almost like playing with a new toy," says Mr. Smith. "The programme took more than a year to develop with quite a few people involved including school counsellors and the Department of Education."

Pathfinder is just one of the services provided by the BCC. They also offer career counselling and will help students find scholarships (www.scholarships.bm).

"Every year scholarships go unused," laments Mr. Smith. "Usually people look for industry specific scholarships and they miss out on the more general ones. That is why we created the scholarships page (www.scholarships.bm)."

If students sign up as members, the BCC will keep their information on file for future job prospects.

"We get companies calling us looking for young Bermudians training in their field," explains Mr. Smith. "We are their advocate, looking out for them and making sure they don't miss out on opportunities. All they need to do is sign up."

But, typically, many young people fail to fill out all the relevant information making their membership relatively useless. The job market in Bermuda offers tremendous opportunities but it is also very competitive and specialised. This means young Bermudians and their parents need to pay attention to the specifics of our job market.

"We don't have a particularly wide scope in our job market," concludes Mr. Smith. "So the sooner students line up with their career interests the more likely they'll succeed."

www.bdacareers.bm

www.scholarships.bm