Best science and practices of career counseling + top user experience
For 25 years, our Student and Talent First activities and assessments have empowered millions of people to make informed decisions and strengthen their career well-being.
Our History
In 1997, our founders Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, NCC and his wife Jeanine Wehr Jones launched Career Key on the Internet as a free public service primarily for middle - high school students and college students. Based on decades of research and fieldwork with school and career services counselors, Career Key’s career interest inventory was the first formal, research-validated career assessment made available online. With added self-help resources, CareerKey.org became a hub for expert, ad-free career guidance.
Now an education technology company, Career Key has evolved to combine the best science and values from our past with modern agile IT and content development.
We know individuals need practical, personalized career assessments and resources to navigate complex decisions that significantly impact their well-being. Professionals want to help individuals adapt and succeed in challenging conditions. Working together we can achieve our vision: career well-being for all.
CEO Juliet Jones-Vlasceanu & her father, founder Dr. Lawrence Jones
Our recent work makes that possible
2016 -2020
Built our cloud-based platform in Microsoft Azure, including the newly redesigned and updated assessment, Career Key Discovery (CKD)
Launch of Career Key Central, our group administrator portal and Resources collection for advisors and counselors
Launch of the online Career Decision Profile, a unique career decision readiness measure based on 30 years of research
New website design with enhanced security, updated content, usability
2021
Became the first to show counselors an estimated service level (need for support) for each student or client to make follow up easier, faster and more relevant
Launched Transitions, the new version of Career Key Discovery specifically designed for adults making career transitions and career change
Published new, free practice tools: Career Readiness Competencies Map and Holland-RIASEC Career Clusters Map
Dr. Jones authors new well-being and happiness eBook
2022-2023
Career Decision Profile receives EdTech Cool Tool Finalist award for Higher Education
Created and classified by personality type and worker trait group the most diverse set of postsecondary education programs and credentials found in the public and private sector
Career Key Career Well-Being Bundle launched with new activities and assessments
Online college bookstores worldwide add Career Key access through VitalSource and Barnes and Noble College
Our Team
Juliet Jones-Vlasceanu
President & CEO
For over 20 years, Juliet has helped people navigate complex and intimidating systems in the world of work with greater confidence. For 10 years as a labor and employment lawyer, she advised individuals, unions, managers and state agencies. In 2006, she joined Career Key and helped lead its transformation into a career well-being and education technology company. Juliet is a Global Career Development Facilitator (GCDF) and a graduate of Princeton University and the Seattle University School of Law.
Suman Gurung
Director of Technology
Suman oversees all aspects of Career Key’s technology including security, architecture, deployment and development operations. He has extensive experience developing software applications and web services for 10 years. During his free time, Suman likes to play the guitar. He enjoys being outdoors, hiking and cycling. Suman completed his Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering from Siddaganga Institute of Technology, India.
Kristine Compton
Customer Success Manager
For more than 20 years Kristine has experience in B2B media, digital marketing and account-based marketing, her professional career includes publishing, social media, advertising and platform technology with an emphasis on customer experience and revenue management. Kristine is our newest team member and she looks forward to working with you.
Lawrence K. Jones
Founder, Vice President
For more than 50 years, Larry’s passion has been to create practical, science based career and education resources for youth and adults, and the counselors that serve them. He is a Professor Emertus in the College of Education at N.C. State University. A first-generation college graduate, he earned his Master’s degree in counseling psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri. He enjoys hiking, boating, photography and guitar.
Kate Bates
Executive Advisor
With more than 20 years of operations experience, most recently as COO and then CEO of a digital media company, Kate’s professional career includes executive level positions with major national companies including Hasbro, Microsoft and Amazon.com. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Organization Behavior and Business Administration from the University of San Francisco and recently completed Cornell’s Diversity and Inclusion executive program.
Our Founders
Dr. Lawrence K. Jones (Larry) and his wife Jeanine Wehr Jones, a public school media specialist and librarian, founded Career Key because they wanted to help people and their families, worldwide, lead happy and more satisfying lives. By providing accurate, practical career and education advice to everyone, their goal was to empower people to make informed decisions and act in their best self-interest and, ultimately, the best interests of their country.
Dr. Jones is a Professor Emeritus in the College of Education at North Carolina State University, where he specialized in the areas of school counseling and career counseling and development. He received his Master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and earned his Ph.D. in counseling psychology at the University of Missouri. Learn more here about Dr. Jones, his personal life story and unique perspectives on career and life well-being.
Memberships & Partnerships
Professional Career Development & Academic Advising
American Counseling Association
National Career Development Association
American School Counselor Association
National Association of Colleges and Employers
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Distribution Partnerships
Business Schools
Technology
K12 CCR Platform
Career Key is in the top U.S. College & Career Readiness Platform Naviance, by PowerSchool.
Certifications
Certified Learning Tools Interoperability® (LTI®) v1.3.
Career Key is Women's Business Enterprise (WBE) certified by the national Women's Business Enterprise Council (WBENC).
Philanthropy
Career Key has long operated with strong values and a social mission from our founders to make the world a better place.
For 25 years, Career Key has donated to groups working for the development of youth, alleviation of human suffering, protection of the natural world/environment, and excellence in journalism. In 2023, we added a new scholarship program for high school and college students in partnership with Friends of NAEOP, the Northwest Association of Educational Opportunity Programs to support Career Key’s vision: career well-being for all. Equitable access to postsecondary training and education programs is critical to achieving that vision.
Career Key’s scholarship award program is a partnership with Friends of NAEOP, the Northwest Association of Educational Opportunity Programs. The Larry and Jeanine Jones Memorial Scholarship is established in honor of the founders of Career Key, now based in the Pacific Northwest. Friends of NAEOP will award this $5,000 scholarship annually in 2023 and 2024 to TRIO participants in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Federally funded TRIO programs help low-income, first-generation students attend and succeed in college.
Nationally recognized counselor educator Dr. Lawrence K. Jones and his late wife Jeanine Wehr Jones founded Career Key in 1997 with the mission of empowering people everywhere to make more informed career decisions. Dr. Jones, first in his family to attend college, and his wife have been lifelong supporters of postsecondary education making this Friends of NAEOP scholarship program a natural fit.
Larry and Jeanine Jones, Career Key Founders
Environmental Commitment
Career Key is committed to doing our part in securing a sustainable and healthy environment for life on planet Earth with these programs, services and commitments:
Purchases energy through eco-friendly utility plans (Blue Sky, Seattle's Green Power Program)
Offers carbon-free products and services (e.g., web applications, PDFs); paper products are printed on 100% recycled paper; printed with eco-friendly inks)
Helps Career Key users understand "green careers and jobs", "green economy" - how they are related to the Holland theory, career and college major decisions
Donates to conservation organizations
Gives preference to purchasing goods and services from certified green companies
Watch & Discover
Take a quick video tour of Career Key. Please share it with colleagues, students and clients.
Personality-Major Match
Career Key
for Administrators
Career Key for Enterprise
Discovery for Students
Career Transitions
Decision Profile
