IV. Company Research
 General Advice
Finding the Right Fit
Resources
Company Job Listings
Top Companies (separate
section)
[Finding the Job
Part I: General Advice]
[Finding the Job Part II: Job-Search Strategies]
[Finding the Job Part III: Job-Search Maintenance]
General
Advice
• Company
research: Why you need company information
The amount of of knowledge you have about a potential employer can give you a competitive
edge. This pertains both to making initial contact with employers and before going on
interviews. In addition, having information on a company is also invaluable when it comes
to evaluating a job offer.
• Researching
Companies Online: A Tutorial
Step-by-step process for finding free company and industry information on the Web.
• A
primer on researching an employer
Once you know the latest industry trends and your potential employer inside out, your
homework may pay off with a job offer.
• Top
10 things to know about researching companies
It can't be stressed often enough -- effective job hunting starts with research.
• Employment
research
There is no such thing as having too much information in a job search. Information is
power. Information gives you control and confidence.
• Sources
of public information on private companies
Lengthy list of offline resources.
• How
to dig for details on prospective employers
Hiring managers expect serious candidates to learn everything they can about their
company's industry, products and corporate philosophy. By studying up on the employer,
you'll also gain self-assurance that will help you present a professional image.
• Understanding
the annual report
If you know what to look for, the annual report is a uniquely valuable resource.
• Tips for reading
an annual report
There are nine identifiable sections in most annual reports; here's what to look for in
each.
[Top of Page]
Finding the Right Fit
• Four
ways to read a company
Strategies for finding the right fit.
• Parking
lot politics: What kind of image is a company projecting?
Much can be learned about a company by watching from the parking lot.
• Make
sure the job works for you
Yes, you have to choose a job based on the ... job, but it's increasingly important to
take into account the company's culture in your pursuit of work/life happiness.
• A
company's culture is as important as the job
Professionals find their company’s culture as important to their job satisfaction as
the activities they perform. What are the keys to a strong and desirable culture? Consider
this checklist.
• Recognizing
a bad corporate culture
No matter how detailed a job description or want ad is, you can't fully know
what it will be like to work at a particular company without getting an understanding of
its corporate culture.
• Seek
company that fits your personality
Finding a suitable match between your personality and that of a company is like
finding the right spouse. Personalities have to be compatible to make the relationship
work.
• Research
may prevent unpleasant surprises
Disappointed in the last company you joined? Don't feel you got the straight scoop on the
company's financial situation, business challenges or culture when interviewing? Do more
research next time, urge career management and
outplacement consultants.
• Looking
into job sites
What does an employer's Web site really tell you? They often offer some very
telling insights into the company's culture, priorities and values.
• Look,
listen & learn: Corporate culture
Whenever you plan to accept a new job, you know you're advised to examine and evaluate the
company's corporate culture. But too few people really understand exactly what that is,
and how to examine it.
• Don't
forget the small companies
Is a small company right for you? Are you right for a small company?
• Start-ups
vs. large companies: Criteria for choosing
Making choices among corporate cultures and environments start with your unique personal
values and preferences, for what is one person's hell is another's heaven.
• Should
you accept a job at a family-owned firm?
If you're thinking of signing on with a family-run company, realize from the start that
issues will be handled differently and the environment and pressures will differ as well.
• Seven
steps for evaluating early-stage start-ups
Today, job seekers are finding that getting hired by a pre-IPO startup is not a problem;
the problem is finding the right job (a job you really want to do) with the right start-up
(a place where you feel like there's a cultural fit and you're going to like working).
[Top of Page]
Resources
• America's Career
InfoNet: Employer Search
Drill into this database of 10 million U.S. businesses to find general information about
potential employers. This search will not provide you with job listings, but it will give
you contact information for individual employers.
• ZDNet:
Company Finder
Details on virtually any technology company, including contact info, Web site links,
product lists, news, technical help, and shopping.
• Business.com
Find detailed information on 10,000 U.S. public companies, 44,000 private companies and
14,000 international companies: profiles, executive biographies, financials, news and
more.
• Hoovers' Intelligence
Monitor
Enables subscribers to easily monitor over 7,700 information sources for mentions of
specific companies, people, products, trends and other topics. Expensive but a free 2-week
trial is available.
• MSN
Money Central: Stock Research
Find detailed financial reports on any publicly traded company in the U.S. Want to know
what the company's business is, find out if it's financially sound, and see if it's
growing? Use the nifty Research Wizard
to get the answers.
• AOL.COM:
Electric Library Business Edition
Offers unlimited access to millions of documents -- articles, reports, periodicals,
transactions, and more. Try it now for a free 30-day trial.
• Business Wire:
Corporate Profiles and Company News Archives
Profiles of thousands of companies, both public and private (page loads very
slowly.)
• U.S.
Business Reporter: Company Research
Lists several hundred companies in 36 industries. Includes sections such as Company
Overview, Important Developments, Products & Services, Major Competitors and
Key Executives.
• JobWeb:
Employer Profiles
Search more than 350 employer profiles for detailed company information. Many profiles
provide a link to the employer's home page, where you’ll find current job listings
and information on internships, co-operative education programs, and part-time and summer
jobs. Geared toward college students.
• jobs.com:
Employer List
Research thousands of employers, large and small. Info available includes company
profiles, benefits and job openings.
• Monster.com: Research Companies
Lists several thousand companies, searchable by state or alphabetically. The section
heading, Company Profiles, is a bit of a misnomer as relatively few of the links
lead to actual profiles; most simply connect to job postings.
• JobCircle.com:
Hi-Tech Profiles
Detailed profiles of 105 brand-name tech companies. Excellent insider info provided by Vault.com.
• incpad:
Company Insights
Profiles of more than 150 tech companies; info provided by Vault.com.
• The Public Registrar's Annual Report
Service
Almost 2,300 links to online annual reports. Hard copies of most of these reports can also
be ordered here.
[Top of Page]
• Report Gallery: Annual Reports
Links to over 2,200 companies' annual reports.
• Individual.com:
Company Look-Up Screen
Access stock quotes, charts, news, financials, management discussion (invaluable
resource!), profiles and more for public companies around the world.
• PR Newswire:
Company News On-Call
Provides an up-to-the-minute, three-year, archived database of all stories appearing on PR
Newswire from thousands of participating companies.
• Internet Prospector:
Locating U.S. Corporation Records Online
Identify key contacts for private companies by accessing corporation databases of 25
states.
• Northern Light:
Business Search
Specialized searching of industry-focused Web pages, market research, economic analysis,
and company reports.
• Company Sleuth
Track news, financials, insider views, outsider perspectives, intellectual property issues
and more for publicly traded companies. Free registration required to access most
information.
• TopStartups.com
Basic info on several hundred start-ups, most in California. Strangely, many of
the companies listed have been around for as long as 20 years.
• StartupZone
Directory of 3,000 start-up/pre-IPO companies, with brief description of the business and
detailed information such as location, founders, founded year, investment stage,
investors, job listings and more. Subscription fee is $29.95/mo. but free trial is
available.
• Lycos:
Company Research
Find SEC documents for 10,000 public companies including insider filings, annual and
quarterly reports.
• Disclosure-Investor.com
Financial information for over 12,000 U.S. public companies and more than 13,000 global
companies. Company press releases too.
• Fast Company: A-Z
Fast Companies
Hundreds of companies handpicked from the pages of Fast Company magazine because
they house the knowledge workers, management innovators, and idea merchants leading the
business revolution.
• Hoover's
Online: Company Directory
Information on nearly 15,000 public and private
enterprises worldwide (and access to an additional 37,000 companies), including company
descriptions, financials, news, names of key executives and more. The Washington Post site
offers an advanced
search interface incorporating Hoover's data, allowing one to find companies by
location, industry, annual sales, or a combination thereof.
• Business
Week Online: Company Research
Pulls together info from several different sources on more than 4,000 public companies.
• IndustryLink
Large directory of companies organized by industry.
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• Wall Street Research Net: Company
Research
Entries for over 17,000 companies. Includes approximately 500,000 links to such items as
SEC documents, company home pages, annual reports, press releases and other investor
information, stock quotes, graphs, audio and more.
• PriceWaterhouseCoopers:
EdgarScan
Well-done interface to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Electronic Data
Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval (SEC EDGAR) Filings. EdgarScan pulls filings from the
SEC's servers and parses them automatically to find key financial tables and normalize
financials to a common format that is comparable across companies.
• Vault.com:
Company Research
Advertises "more than 3,000 profiles of the world's top employers," but most of
the companies lack full profiles as of 9-29-01. Follow the link to any company's
message board to read rants and raves submitted by other Vault.com visitors.
• WetFeet.com:
Company Research
Insightful profiles of over 1,600 employers.
• CareerCity:
U.S. Employers
Search by state and industry for the addresses, phone numbers, descriptions, and site
links for 27,000 employers.
• CorporateInformation
Profiles of over 20,000 companies from around the
world. Get basic information about a company: a brief description of its activities, names
of the top officers, address, phone number, stock chart, etc. In addition, find more than
15,000 research reports
on publicly traded companies with in-depth analysis of sales trends, profitability,
financial position, R&D expenditures and much more.
• Yahoo!/Market Guide:
Industries
Comprehensive research on over 10,000 publicly traded companies. Search for companies by name, ticker symbol, industry classification or industry rank. Profiles include contact
info, business summaries, officer and employee info, earnings announcement summaries, and
financial statistics and ratios.
• Hoover's
Online: IPO Central
IPO news, filings, pricings, scorecards and scheduled offerings. Connect to profiles of
those companies already trading.
• Ostman:
Alert-IPO!
Detailed IPO information for over 3,700 filings, including company profiles, management
bios and risk assessments.
• Renaissance Capital: IPOhome.com
IPO news, filings, pricings, calendars, rankings and profiles.
• IPO.com
IPO news, filings, pricings, calendars, profiles and more.
• MSN
MoneyCentral: IPO Center
IPO news, new filings, upcoming filings, performance reports and more. Directory lists all
companies that have filed for an IPO since May 6, 1996.
• SiliconValley.com:
Venture Capital Survey
Searchable database of U.S. firms that received venture capital financing in 2000.
• Kompass International
Access information on 1.5 million companies, 23 million key product and service
references, 2.9 million executive names, 600,000 trade and brand names, and 50,000 Kompass
classification codes in close to 70 countries. Some of the information is free but most is
not.
• J.P. Morgan: ADR.com
Good information source for international (non-U.S.) equities, with concise
company-specific data. Choose from news, quotes, analyst estimates, institutional
ownership and more for several hundred companies.
[Top of Page]
Company Job Listings
• JobSafari
Direct links to the job listings of about 1,000 companies.
• Employers Direct
Lists the job boards of several thousand companies.
• Career Exposure
Several hundred direct links to corporate HR pages and job listings, organized by
industry.
[Top of Page]
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