Challenge 9: Vault

Hello everyone! I'm running a little late today, but here you go. Before I get started, if you've already looked at Challenge 8, go back and answer some questions for me. It seems I forgot to actually give you a challenge. Have you ever come across a website that required registration? Would you use Bugmenot, or just register? Why or why not? Would you recommend the Retailmenot site to a friend? (The subject of online shopping may never come up with patrons, but I'll bet you have a few friends who might want to know how to get coupon codes for free.)

Challenge 9: Vault

We’ve had the Vault Databases on our website for a while now. Have you taken a look at them?

Vault is a pretty handy career toolkit, providing everything from resume advice to "A day in the life of an Alaskan fisherman". In order to access it, our patrons must go to our databases page, and click on the Vault Online Career Library link. Patrons need to know the password in order to login, and our website directs them to ask someone on staff for the password. Do you know the password? (Hint: I’m sending it out to the staff mailing list again today.)

There, patrons can do several things. Vault provides company profiles, industry profiles, forums, as well as downloadable PDF versions of all their Vault Guides. In order to access these, you fill out a short form (first name, last name and email) and indicate whether you would like to be put on Vault's mailing list. You don't have to check yes in order to download the guides. An email link will be sent to your inbox, and clicking on this link will begin downloading your guide.

One very handy thing that Vault provides on their site are the Vault Occupational Surveys. These are anonymous surveys filled out by real people in specific fields. Not sure how accurate an employer's description of their work environment and employeee benefits are? These are real employees doing everything from software development to teaching High School Science. The only drawback to these is you cannot search by company, only by industry and then by job title. (You can go into the company profiles and see similar surveys there, but they aren't quite the same.)

Your challenge: Go to the Vault website and explore. Browse what they offer, download a guide to see how it works, and see if you can't find your dream job (or what you wanted to be when you were a kid) in the database. Is it nearly as cool as you thought it would be? Would you show this to patrons who were looking for a job? Is it just as helpful for teens as for adults?