As a result of Step 1: Identify Green Niche and Step 2: Define Work Setting, you have two or three career ideas that intrigue you.

Although it may be tempting to jump into action to figure out how you can land a job or start a business in those areas, your current ideas are based on your own picture of those careers. Until you have more information, please remember that your picture is based on assumption.

In Step 3, your goal is to gather more information about these careers to:

1) Verify that your picture of the careers are accurate.

2) Confirm that these careers are a good fit for you and your life.

As you gather information about the true nature of your target career ideas, you may find one of these patterns:

• The information you gather absolutely confirms your impression of your target careers - if this is true, move on to Step 4.
• The information completely counters the picture you had of the career and now the career no longer interests you - if this is true, turn your attention to explore other ideas.
• The information you gather is mixed. Some confirms what you thought about the career and some offers some additional information you weren't aware of - if this is true, take a deep breath. Know that mixed results are actually quite common and nothing to be alarmed about. We encourage you to take a step back to review everything you've collected thus far. If you've discovered too many red flags, your best course of action is to turn your attention to your next career idea. If you've found a few yellow flags and you are comfortable with the idea of continuing to pursue this idea, it's probably worth continuing on to Step 4.

Actions to take in Step 3:

1) Set aside 30 minutes to explore each career idea on your target list. Your goal is to get an accurate impression of each of your target career ideas. Review the rest of the articles in Step 3 for guidelines on how to research your ideas.

2) As you read about each career idea, ask yourself:

• Is this career what you thought it was?
• Does this career intrigue you?
• Are you excited about this career?
• Do you want to learn more?
• Can you imagine doing this work?

3)Fill in a profile sheet for each career you explore. Visit the Downloadable Files area to download a Career Profile Worksheet. Print out as many copies as you need. Don't be concerned if you can't fill out all of the sections. Do your best to collect information from several sources.

4)Review your completed Career Profile Worksheets to determine which career ideas you'd like to pursue. If you can, narrow the field of career ides to your top two or three ideas.