Find Your Next Job: A Guide to Career Explorer
Discover how LinkedIn's free Career Explorer tool can map your skills to new jobs. Get a step-by-step guide to navigate your career path with confidence.
Does your job search ever leave you feeling a little stuck? You might scroll through job postings and wonder, "What's next for me?" That's a common feeling. Many people think a career follows a straight line, but today’s job market is much more flexible. It is built on skills, not just job titles. The great news is you already have valuable skills that can unlock doors you may not have even noticed.
What if you had a map, one that could show you exactly where your current skills could take you next? Imagine seeing new career paths that are a great fit for your experience, along with a clear guide on how to prepare for them.
That is exactly what LinkedIn's Career Explorer offers. It is a free tool designed to be your personal career map. It helps you see all the possibilities your skills create and supports you in building a plan to get to your next great role.
Let's walk through how you can use it to find your way. Before you dive in, just a heads-up, not all locations are included in the data on that page. However, it still provides you with some valuable insights into the job titles you might want to focus on.
What Is LinkedIn's Career Explorer?
What exactly is this tool? In simple terms, think of LinkedIn's Career Explorer as an interactive guide for your professional life. It was created by LinkedIn's data scientists to help people like you understand where their career could go next.
Its main purpose is to look at the skills you have from your current or past jobs and show you how they match up with other, sometimes unexpected, careers. It is like having a career counselor who has access to information from millions of professionals and can see the successful moves that people with your background have made.
The tool analyzes all that data to suggest new paths that could be a great fit for you. It helps you discover exciting job opportunities you might not have considered, clearly identifies any skills you might need to learn to make a switch, and even gives you an idea of the job market trends for those roles. It takes the guesswork out of your next career move and replaces it with data-driven insights.
You enter your current job title and location, and it shows you:
Job titles that are a close match to your skills
How similar each suggested role is to your current one
What skills you already have for that new role
Which new skills you might need to develop
Open job listings you can explore
LinkedIn members who currently work in those roles
It’s like having a data-powered career advisor helping you map out your next steps. Whether you're a recent graduate, someone returning to the workforce, or just ready for a change, Career Explorer can be a great way to understand your options based on what you already know and what you’re capable of learning.
A Step-by-Step Manual to Using Career Explorer
I will walk you through exactly how to use the tool, describing what you will see on the screen at each point so you can follow along with confidence.
Step 1: Finding the Tool
First, you need to get to the Career Explorer.
When the page loads, you will see a clean, straightforward design. There are no distractions. Your attention will be drawn to two main boxes in the center of the page, which is where you will start.
Step 2: Entering Your Information
This is where you give the tool the information it needs to help you.
In the "Select Your City" field: Start typing the name of the city where you are looking for work. This is important because it helps the tool provide results that are relevant to a specific local job market.
In the "Enter a Job" field: Next, type in your most recent or relevant job title. As you type, you will see a dropdown list of standardized job titles appear. For the best results, select the one from the list that most closely matches your role.
Once you have filled in both fields, the tool will automatically generate your results.
Step 3: Understanding Your Results Dashboard
This is where the magic happens. The page will transform into your personal career dashboard. Let’s break down what you are looking at.
Your Skills List: On the side of the page, you will see a list of skills that are commonly associated with the job you entered. This is a fantastic starting point. Look at this list and ask yourself if these skills are highlighted on your resume and LinkedIn profile. If not, this is your first easy win.
Exploring Career Moves: The main part of the page will show several boxes, each containing a potential new job title. These are roles that people with your skills and background often transition into. You will also see a "Similarity" score next to each job. This percentage tells you how closely the skills required for that new job match the skills from your old one.
Step 4: Diving Deeper into a New Career Path
Now it is time to explore. Find a suggested job title on the dashboard that sparks your interest and click on it. This takes you to the most valuable part of the tool.
The Skill Comparison: The screen will now show you two lists, side by side. This is your personal skill gap analysis.
Skills You Have: This list shows you all the skills that overlap between your current role and the new one you are exploring. This is powerful. It confirms you are already partly qualified and shows you what strengths to emphasize in an application.
Skills to Build: This list is your personal development plan. It clearly shows you the skills you need to learn to become a strong candidate for this new career path.
You will also notice that for many of the items in the "Skills to Build" list, the tool provides direct links to relevant LinkedIn Learning courses. This gives you an immediate, actionable step you can take to close that skill gap and get ready for your next move.
Tips to Get the Most Out of Career Explorer
Now, let's talk about how to turn those insights into actions that will get you noticed. This is how you take the data from the tool and use it to make your job search smarter and more effective.
1. Be flexible with job titles
When you're exploring new career paths, it's easy to get stuck on job titles that sound familiar or safe. But here’s the thing, job titles vary widely between industries and companies. One company’s “Operations Coordinator” might be another company’s “Project Specialist” or “Workflow Analyst.” If you only focus on what you know, you might miss a great opportunity hiding behind a different label.
Career Explorer can show you job titles that are similar in function but different in name. Some may even come from industries you've never considered. This is where flexibility becomes your secret weapon.
Let’s say you’re a “Marketing Assistant.” You might expect suggestions like “Marketing Coordinator” or “Social Media Specialist.” But the tool might also show roles like “Content Strategist” or “Customer Insights Analyst.”
These may sound unfamiliar at first, but when you click into them, you’ll see they share many of your current skills. One may require stronger writing, another more data analysis. That’s not a wall — that’s a window into your potential.
Try this:
Write down the unfamiliar job titles Career Explorer suggests.
Google them. Check LinkedIn profiles of people in those roles.
Ask yourself, “Could I grow into this with a few new skills?”
Being open-minded with job titles can open the door to faster career growth, better pay, and roles that truly excite you. Your dream job might already be within reach, just under a name you’ve never typed into a search bar.
2. Update Your LinkedIn Profile and Resume
Remember that "Skills You Have" list the tool generated? That is pure gold for your resume and LinkedIn profile. Go through your profile and make sure you have listed those exact skills. Recruiters often search for candidates using specific keywords, and this tool just told you what they are. Sprinkling these relevant skills throughout your profile's "Experience" and "Skills" sections will make you more visible to the right people.
3. Tailor Your Job Applications
You can now stop sending generic applications. When you find a job opening for one of the roles the explorer suggested, you know exactly how to tailor your approach. Your cover letter and resume summary should highlight the skills that you know overlap between your past experience and this new role. In an interview, you can confidently say, "I know that my experience in [Skill You Have] has prepared me to succeed in [New Job Requirement]."
4. Create a Professional Development Plan
The "Skills to Build" list is your personal road map for growth. Do not let it overwhelm you. Instead, see it as a clear guide for what to learn next. Pick one or two skills from that list that seem most important or interesting to you. Then, you can look for ways to learn them. This could be through a LinkedIn Learning course, a free online tutorial, a local workshop, or even a volunteer project. This shows employers that you are proactive and dedicated to your professional growth.
5. Network with Purpose
The Career Explorer shows you the destination. Now, it is time to talk to people who have already made the journey. Use LinkedIn's main search bar to find people who currently have the job titles you are interested in. Reach out to them for a brief informational interview. You could ask them about their experience, what their day to day work is like, and what advice they have for someone looking to enter the field. This not only gives you valuable information, it also builds your professional network.
From Unsure to Empowered
A job search can sometimes feel like navigating without a map, leaving you feeling unsure of the right direction. But as you can see, you have tools available to light the way. The LinkedIn Career Explorer transforms your job hunt from a guessing game into a journey of discovery. It gives you clarity on where you can go, a direction based on your unique skills, and a concrete action plan to get there.
Remember, your career is not a rigid, straight line. It is a path you build, and your existing skills are the foundation for more opportunities than you likely imagine. You are not starting from scratch. You are starting from experience.
So, take the next step today. Set aside just fifteen minutes, open the Career Explorer, and see what it reveals. The insights you gain in those few moments could be the start of a new, exciting chapter in your professional life. You have the map now. It is time to explore.
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5 Career Explorer Hacks to Find a Job Faster
It is one thing to explore career options. It is another thing to build a clear path to getting hired. While LinkedIn's Career Explorer is a great starting point, simply looking at the suggestions is not enough to land your next role. You need a proactive strategy.
If you want to stop browsing and start making real progress, these five tips will show you how to use Career Explorer to accelerate your job search and make your next move with confidence.