Guest Article by: Louise Garver
Your job not only consumes 40+ hours each week, but also determines how you spend the remaining hours. Would you consider taking a vacation without any information about your destination? Not likely. Yet many base their employment decisions on little or no information. Utilizing a combination of resources mentioned in this article will give you an edge in optimizing your job search and satisfaction.
Through firsthand research, you will gain information that goes beyond the selective, often superficial, information exchanged during the interview process. The benefits include:
First, information about a company’s financial health, hiring/cutback practices, treatment of employees and corporate culture will provide a more realistic picture of prospective employers to help you make more informed decisions.
Second, research will help you expand your job possibilities and industry knowledge, as well as help you focus your search on the best opportunities, careers, salaries and geographic regions.
Third, research will increase your effectiveness during the interview process, creating a more prepared impression than someone who uses job interviews for information gathering.
Get the scoop about employers
Once you’ve identified your target employers, investigate an employer by finding answers to questions about its age…locations…services and products…number of employees…size ..divisions and subsidiaries … publicly or privately owned…sales…assets…earnings…competitors…reputation…growth pattern, plans and forecast…foreign owned…mission and culture…recent events, product launches…major issues…key achievements
Off- and online sources of information
There’s a vast universe of information sources-people, publications and online-that can be overwhelming. Because there are countless Internet sites and publications for researching information, this article will get you started with some of the most key resources.
Print and Internet Sources
The reference department of any library offers online databases, CD-ROM products and printed sources such as directories, magazines, journals, newsletters and reports. You can compile lists of employers and search firms, as well as data on your target industries and employers through print and on-line resources.
Data on Companies and Industries
• Directories in Print: lists thousands of business and industrial directories of all types in any field
• American Business Information Directory: database of 10 million US and one million Canadian companies
• US Big Business Directory: list of companies with 100+ employees
• American Manufacturers Directory: 500,000 manufacturing companies can be found in this directory offering information on headquarters, employee size, branch locations, metro areas and sales volume
• Standard & Poor’s Register: 55,000 public and private companies by region, state, city zip code, area code, product lines, as well as 400,000 executives and biographies of 70,000 corporate officers and directors
• SEC Documents
• The Big Book: companies are listed by industry or state
• Hoover’s On-line, vault, knowX and dnb: provide information on companies as well as detailed fee-based company reports
• Thomas Register: 155,000+ companies listed by trademark and type of product
• Directory of US Private & Public Companies
• Directory of Corporate Affiliations-US Private: financial and other data on 8,000+ privately held companies
• Wall Street Research: links to company SEC filings, stock quotes and history, news releases, earnings and other data
• Annual Reports: free service providing links to annual reports of thousands of companies
• Patents: patent information by invention type or description
• Vertical Net: has the scoop on a variety of industries
Federal Government Agencies and Position Announcements
• US Federal Government Agencies: lists government agency home pages for researching information and finding job leads
• How to Find Business Intelligence in Washington: identifies sources of information, including key experts, in the federal government
News Releases and Publications
• Business Wire: check out company news releases by industry
• On-line and print business periodicals: Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Forbes, Industry Week, Financial Times, Chronicle of Higher Education, Fortune, New York Times, Barron’s, Fast Company, Institutional Investor, BizJournal and other newspapers and magazines.
• Company web sites: find recent articles and news releases on company web sites that can provide ideas to prepare informed, well-conceived questions to ask at the interview
Biographical Information
• Who’s Who directories: numerous directories listing business professionals in your field or other industries
• Reference Book of Corporate Management (Dun and Bradstreet): basic biographical information on principal corporate officers and directors; you can also conduct a search on “Google” to find information on specific people in your target organizations
Professional Associations
• Encyclopedia of Associations: names and locations of 22,000+ organizations, membership number, contact information and more
Search Firms
• Directory of Executive Recruiters: contingency and retained search firms listed by industry, geography or specialty
People and Networking
Tap into your existing network of contacts, including colleagues or people in a field you are researching, to gather information on your target employers. You can find new sources of information through on-line chat rooms where you can get advice and ask others for information. To find a chat room in your field or any other, visit: Clickit, AboutWork, and TalkCity.
You can also visit netshare, execunet and 6figurejobs (.com) as sources of career information, job leads and networking activities for executives.
On-line newsgroups are network discussions groups that provide opinions and information on a variety of topics. Select one that is related to your field of interest and begin a dialog by posing a question. With newsgroups you can sometimes get instant responses. Listservs are groups of people who exchange emails about a particular subject or profession. You can find listservs through liszt and reference (.com). In addition there are on-line networking sites such as LinkedIn, Networking For Professionals, ItsNotWhatYouKnow and others.
When using any of the on-line resources such as chat rooms or networking discussion groups, keep in mind that you never know who you could be chatting with in cyberspace-it could be someone from your company. So beware if your search plans aren’t common knowledge.
In addition to on-line contacts, you can call regional industry experts to gather information on employers:
• State and country economic development offices
• State and local chambers of commerce
• State-level industry regulators
• University-affiliated research labs are on the cutting-edge of new technologies and industries-they would be willing to discuss future of industries spawned by technologies they are studying
• State libraries (industry reports)
• Newspaper business editors and reporters (who can provide information on pending acquisitions, financial health and related facts)
• Industry/professional associations, conferences and trade shows
• Special-interest groups (watchdog groups) who monitor or try to influence employer activities
• Securities analysts
• Foreign embassies
• Public relations department to obtain employers’ newsletters and contact the investor/financial relations office to obtain financial reports from your target employers
Although candidates who do their homework have a distinct advantage, don’t go overboard on the research phase. More is not always better. If you’re partial to the ease of Internet research, keep in mind that it’s only one of many tools useful in conducting a job search. Technology is no substitute for strategy, so don’t spend 100% of your search efforts on the Internet. Remember that personal, direct contact should be a major component of your campaign. You can use the Internet to help you find contacts, but rely on a combination of tools and strategies to help you identify the right opportunities that will lead to your next position.
As the strategic partner in designing targeted job search campaigns, Louise Garver, President of Career Directions, LLC, provides the services and tools to position you above the competition and win the career you deserve. A certified career coach and certified resume writer with 20+ years of experience in helping people find rewarding, meaningful work they love, Louise provides expertise in resume development, career branding, online identity positioning, networking, interview and salary skills enhancement, and career management. Through a personalized, consultative approach, she will help you identify your distinctive talents, career passions and success stories to produce career documents described as “compelling and highly effective” by recruiters and hiring authorities. Her resumes are published in over 30 publications. Please visit her Web site at http://www.careerdirectionsllc.com
