Researching Companies

I’m always amazed by how little job hunters use the Internet as a research tool. That’s probably the most important role that the Internet can play in helping job seekers learn about new jobs, corporate culture at a company, salary information, and how to stay marketable regardless of the present economic climate.

So, my first rule is job hunting is "Research Comes First." Many of you emailed me asking for practical research sites and steps to take as part of your job searching strategy. This article is dedicated to giving you a step-by-step guide to the kinds of research you need to do and showing you what I have found to be some of the most informative research sites available.

To get started, create a folder in your favorites titled "Research." In this "Research" folder, create subfolders entitled "Associations/Conferences," "Company Profiles," "Industry Specific," "News," "Reference Helps," "Location Helps", "Labor Market Information", and "Search Engines."

One of my favorite sites for gathering a ton of research is CEO Express. This research aggregator site has every online news site available (broken down by category), industry resource sites (broken down by industry), the Fortune 500 listings, the list of lists, financial market sites, SEC sites, statistical sites, company research sites, international business sites, reference sites and a whole lot more. This site is somewhat overwhelming with its wealth of resources so I’d suggest your spending some time on it and book marking those pages of interest under the various sub folders you have created.

Another excellent source, used by Secretary of State Colin Powell among others, is RefDesk.com. Again there is a ton of information to guide (and slightly overwhelm) you with your knowledge base.

And my third favorite is LibrarySpot.com, a free virtual library resource center for educators and students, librarians and their patrons, families, businesses and just about anyone exploring the Web for valuable research information.

To get you started effectively and efficiently, let me suggest that you bookmark these sites under each subfolder and later spend time getting to know them.

ASSOCIATIONS/CONFERENCES

The American Society of Association Executives has been kind enough to create a directory of 6,000+ associations that you can search by name, category, city and state. Bookmark this page so that will take you straight to their search engine. Don’t forget that there are probably multiple associations for you to check out, especially if you are a woman or a minority. For example, there is a Black Engineers Association, The Women in Technology Association, and the Hispanic Society of CPA’s as well as mainline associations in these fields.

If you don't find what you're looking for at ASAE, then try Yahoo!'s Professional Organization listings. Hopefully between these two sites, you will be able to bookmark the associations that are specific to your industry under this sub folder.

Associations are excellent resources for information about your field, jobs and contract positions that are available, and networking opportunities with other professionals in your field who can help you. Keep track of their local, regional, and national conferences which are terrific "meat markets" for new jobs and opportunities.

COMPANY PROFILES

For any professional level position, there are great places to source. Some of my favorite company profile sites are Hoovers.com and Edgar Online. Edgar is produced by the (US) Securities and Exchange Commission, and delivers all public U.S. company submissions as required by law. The information is factual and numerical -- and includes both current and past submissions. Hoovers and Edgar are "subscription" sites, but you can still access quite a bit of information for free.

Vault.com is a wonderful way to find out about a company from an insider’s point of view. What I mean by this is that you can ask questions at an individual’s company’s chat room about the working climate at that place and find out first hand what employees are saying.

INDUSTRY SPECIFIC

In this folder, you should bookmark all of those relevant sites that are specific to your industry. It would be a good idea to create subfolders within this folder if you are searching for more than one industry.

A good place to start collecting this industry information would be at CEO Express or Virtual Pet that has hundreds of additional resources and ideas for you to find more information than you knew possible about a given industry.

NEWS

This is a great research area to find out more about high level positions or to get information about industry news or late breaking press releases about a company’s activities.

News sites that I recommend and regularly tap are

Fortune magazine, especially the Fortune 100 Best companies

Forbes magazine

The New York Times where you can get daily business and technology updates

Christian Science Monitor for original reporting and analysis

Financial Times for an international perspective

The Economist for excellent British based weekly analysis and synopsis of international and American business and economic news

Business 2.0 for excellent commentary regarding the New Economy

Fast Company for information about free agency

The Industry Standard for daily updates regarding E-commerce

News Index is a news meta-search site that searches 300+ news sources.

REFERENCE HELPS

Good reference sites to bookmark in this folder include:

Whatis.com to find technical terms

Acronyms and Abbreviations

Word a Day to increase your vocabulary

Webster's Dictionary

Internet Public Library

Your Dictionary to help spell check your resume; it also has an excellent thesaurus.

LOCATION HELPS

For those of you who are thinking about relocating, it is important to have a good location reference section to tell you exactly which area codes to use. Sites that can help you include:

555-1212.com that allows you to enter in a city and retrieves the many area codes associated with that city.

Aegis has an excellent map that will help you find area codes throughout the U.S.

Business Journals in cities around the country

CareerBuilder to access 70+ major newspapers throughout the US

Home/consumer price indexes per Coldwell Banker 1999 data

Labor Market Information

It’s amazing how ignorant the average job seeker is about local salary information, emerging occupations, and training providers who can give him/her a leg up on a new career. For those of you in 40+ areas around the country, Eriss databases may be the answer. Check out www.eriss.com to find out if your area is covered with this comprehensive and easy to understand material that is based on annual employer surveys. Major parts of Ohio, Indianapolis, the Chicago area, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Kentucky, Florida, Virginia, Texas, California are already enjoying this valuable information. More states and metro areas will be coming online shortly.

Other sources of information are the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics that gives national labor statistics and can guide you to the appropriate state agency. And monitoring Gary Johnson’s BraveNewWorkWorld site site regularly will also keep you up-to-date regarding workforce and workplace changes.

Search Engines

There are more than 1,700 search engines to use during your research. It’s a good idea to pick 10-20 of the top ones to use in your research. Think of search engines as you would your personal librarian. Each one has its own way of searching. While there will be overlaps, of course, in the material you’ll find online, each one has its own twist on relevant materials. An excellent resource to keep up with the fast changing world of search engines is Danny Sullivan’s monthly newsletter entitled Search Engine Report.

The most popular and sweeping ones are

Google

Dogpile

Alta Vista

Ask Jeeves

Direct Hit

Northern Light includes Hoover’s extensive business database and lots of governmental resources and information.

In conclusion, these resources are meant to help you position yourself effectively in your initial job search and throughout the interview process. You should be VERY well informed about your potential new employer and the challenges and opportunities in your chosen industry. You should also be in a good position to keep yourself marketable and upwardly mobile once you are employed. Keep returning to each of these sites weekly so that they become your regular online "friends."

Feel free to contact me re questions or comments about research sites that are favorites in your job search. I can be reached at jlommel@WorkforceAssociates.com

Next month we’ll focus on older workers and age discrimination in the workplace.