The Career Discovery Encyclopedia can run with both a PC and a Macintosh computer. The requirements for the PC are: An IBM PC/AT compatible computer with an Intel‐compatible 80286 processor or better, 2 MB of RAM (4 MB recommended), a hard drive with at least 4 MB of free space, a monitor capable of displaying graphics and a compatible video card (VGA card is recommended), a mouse is highly recommended but not required, Windows 3.1 or higher. Installation is simple and quick. Run set‐up and then launch the program.
The Career Discovery Encyclopedia is a multimedia version of the Ferguson Publishing Company’s original hard copy encyclopedia. This interactive career search tool enables youth to explore over 500 jobs, each described by a brief, yet conclusive article. Each article contains hyperlinks at the bottom, which direct one to other related jobs found within the encyclopedia. There are also links to information sources regarding the selected job and addresses to those sources. The encyclopedia contains more than 300 photographs which offer a visual affiliation to some of the jobs.
The opening menu is quite primitive; so there should be no trouble in operating the program. It offers several choices ‐ methods really ‐ for conducting a search. One can choose to see a list of jobs alphabetically from A‐Z, where each job choice is a hyperlink which will go right to the article summary. One can choose to see the program’s list of skill categories, i.e. Language Arts, Social Sciences, and Manual Skills. There is an option to view 5 graphs which have been compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor. These graphs show things like Fastest Growing Occupations, Fastest Growing Occupations Requiring Some Training Beyond High School, and Fastest Growing Occupations Requiring a High School Diploma or Less. Within these graphs, each job field is a hyperlink which will go directly to the article regarding the specific job.
One can also choose to use tools to find job listings in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and the Guide for Occupational Exploration. By doing a Booolean search on three or four criteria such as school subjects, personal interests, minimum education requirements, the user can narrow down a list of jobs which he or she can print or read by pursuing hyperlinks to those entries.
The program’s main downfall is its presentation. The colors are an ugly yellow and purple. The general appearance and layout of the program instill feelings of apathy in the user. It does not look like the software technicians put much effort in the appearance. The program is boring to use. Occasionally, when you are lucky enough to have picked a job that has a picture to spice it up a bit, the picture is unpleasant and uninteresting. There’s a picture of a lawyer but not one of an archeologist. Which one seems like it would make a more interesting snapshot: a suit and tie guy, or a small archeologist standing next to a tyrannosaurus skeleton? I would pick the latter.
Despite the lack of interactive enjoyment the encyclopedia is very easy and friendly to use. The hyperlinks are extremely useful; and they cut the travel time within the program to a minimum. The main menu offers a Tutorial function and the standard Help features. There is no hard copy manual to aid you along; and nowhere is there mention of an Internet address. However, they do have a toll‐free telephone number for technical support.
While the search engine is very fast and friendly, the Folio Corp. is in rigid competition with other software companies. I have explored and used a number of job search engines and have seen many up to this particular one’s caliber. The sluggish physical appearance of this program may prove to be its downfall. While it is very useful, it has an ugly yellow and purple window which has a limited number of graphics which are not exceptionally pleasant. In addition, as I mentioned before, the program is boring to use. I offer a marketing rule of thumb: Companies selling to youth will suffer from dire rejection if the product has no “ummfff.” I also think the hard copy and multimedia version are overpriced at $129.95.
