RESOURCES AND WEB SITES

National Resources

Some of the national resources listed below cost over one hundred dollars per year and are found only in libraries with a major business section. Go to your nearest library first to find out what local and national directories they have. Eventually you may need to visit a larger library.

National resources are useful primarily for those who want to work for companies over 500 employees and are willing to relocate to do so. If you want to remain in your metropolitan area, or at least in your state, there will virtually always be local directories which will be more helpful than the national directories.

Dun and Bradstreet—Million Dollar Directory. This publication lists 160,000 companies with a net worth of $1,000,000 or more. The alphabetical section includes company names, names of parent companies, addresses, telephone numbers, SIC numbers, sales figures, number of employees, principal officers, and whether companies are involved in importing and exporting. Dun and Bradstreet also has geographical and SIC sections.

Dun and Bradstreet Middle Market Directory. Same as above except it covers companies with a net worth between $500,000 and $1,000,000.

Standard and Poor’s. This directory includes 37,000 corporations, with names, addresses, telephone numbers, products made, number of employees, and sales volume. Volume 1 has an alphabetical listing, volume 2 has biographical information on 75,000 key officers listed alphabetically by last name, and volume 3 lists corporations by SIC and geographic area.

Dun’s Directory of Service Companies. It lists 50,000 organizations in the following categories: management consulting, executive search, public relations, engineering and architectural services, business services, consumer services, research services, repair services, hospitality, motion pictures, amusement and recreation. All have more than 50 employees.

The Career Guide—Dun’s Employment Opportunities Directory. The guide describes 5,000 major companies that actively recruit. It describes the company, the college majors it recruits for, its training program, internships offered, and locations of facilities apart from the headquarters.

Career Employment Opportunities Directory. It includes 1200 companies that recruit college grads. There is a separate edition for liberal arts, social sciences, business administration, engineering, computer sciences, and sciences.

The College Placement Annual. Contains national companies and lists the college degrees they desire most. Basic information about the company is provided. One section lists college majors and the companies which are seeking those majors.

CorpTech Directory. Lists 45,000 high-tech firms by their products and indicates total sales, percent of sales from export, and key employees.

Mac Rae’s Blue Book. Mac Rae’s lists 50,000 firms and is primarily used by purchasing agents. It provides addresses, primary products or services, telephone sales offices and distributors, and cities and phone numbers for sales reps or outlets. Volume 1 has an alphabetical listing plus about 100,000 brand names listed alphabetically with name of company. Volumes 2 through 4 are arranged by product with manufacturers of that product listed below each heading. Volume 5 contains the catalogs of over one hundred companies.

Thomas Register of American Manufacturers. This directory is like Mac Rae’s—it was designed primarily to assist purchasing agents locate companies that offer certain products or services. More than 150,000 manufacturers are listed in the 34-volume set. Volumes 1-23 list firms under 59,000 product headings. Volumes 24-26 contain company profiles. It provides names, addresses, telephone numbers, dollar values of tangible assets, subsidiaries, and affiliated companies. In other volumes over 70,000 brand names are listed and the companies that own them. Other volumes contain the catalogs of over 1,000 companies.

Brands and Their Companies. Identifies the producer of various products listed by their trade names. Over 365,000 brand names and trademarks from 84,000 manufacturers

Who Owns Whom. This is useful for tracing subsidiaries, parent companies, affiliations, or divisions—320,000 company affiliates of 23,000 companies.

America’s Corporate Families. Describes 9,000 U.S. parent companies and 45,000 subsidiaries. Volume 2 lists U.S. subsidiaries and their foreign parents.

Directory of American Firms Operating in Foreign Countries. Section 1 lists firms alphabetically and the countries each one operates in. Section 2 lists countries and tells which American firms operate in each. About 2,450 American corporations with 29,500 subsidiaries or affiliates outside the US.

Directory of Foreign Firms Operating in the U.S. This directory lists foreign firms operating in the United States and describes their products.

Ward’s Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public. Ward’s provides information on 90,000 mostly privately held companies with a net worth greater than $500,000. What makes Ward’s distinct from Dun & Bradstreet and Standard & Poor’s is that it concentrates on privately held companies (which is difficult information to obtain) and provides various rankings such as the largest pharmaceutical firms in the U.S.

Reference USA

Reference USA is found in many libraries. Its database contains information on 14 million businesses in the US. Some libraries will also have a database on Canadian businesses. The information includes Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes as well as Yellow Page categories to help you find organizations in your desired industry. You can find desirable organizations primarily by indicating your geographic preferences, industries you are interested, and the size of organization you would like. Reference USA will tell you the industries the organization is involved in, approximately how many employees it has, its approximate annual revenue, names of key officers, address, phone number, and often web addresses and fax numbers. It also provides a credit rating.

Since creating a list of potential employers is so important for conducting an effective job search, Reference USA is one of the most important resources available.

Industry Directories

Thousands of directories exist which are helpful to job seekers. As an example, the Whole World Oil Directory lists all oil and gas companies, drilling companies, oil well services, and refineries. For some it could be the only resource they would need.

Keep in mind that while being very useful, no directory is complete. Small companies are often listed haphazardly, and even large ones are sometimes left out. The information may be outdated or sometimes just plain wrong. Frequently businesses have moved or gone under. Still, these directories are great sources of information.

Several resources are available to help you locate useful directories. Most libraries will have either the Guide to American Directories or Directories in Print. Both list and describe over 5,000 directories that are divided into over 300 categories. They are quick and easy to use. They have an alphabetical section and a subject section. They will also tell you what the directories cost and where to order them. Most directories cost $15–30 but some cost in the hundreds. After you identify a useful directory, check the library catalog to see if the library has it. Even if your library does not have it, an interlibrary search with the help of your reference librarian, may help you find a library which does.

Below is a sampling of some of the more useful directories. They are listed merely to give you an idea of the types of directories available. When you use either Guide to American Directories or Directories in Print, assume that there is a directory for your field or your industry, and 99 times out of one hundred, you’ll be right. Virtually every major industry has at least five directories.

Stage Two—Obtaining Information About The Organization

Once you’ve landed an appointment or an interview, it’s time to shift into high gear and get prepared. Since knowledge of the organization is critical for interviews, researching an organization can enable you to go in armed with knowledge. This knowledge will give you added confidence in your appointments and interviews. Avoid overwhelming the interviewer with your knowledge about products or financial figures, though. Instead, keep your information in reserve and use it only when appropriate.

The following resources will provide valuable information.

Company Websites. If you have the name of a company, use Google (www.google.com) to find its web address as well as articles that may be of interest to you. Simply type in the name of the organization and let Google do the rest.

Moody’s. Moody’s Industrial Manual—Provides financial information, history, subsidiaries, products and services, sales, principal plants and properties, executives, number of employees. One to two pages are devoted to most companies. All of the Moody’s manuals concentrate on large companies.

Moody’s OTC (Over the Counter)—Same format as above but covering smaller companies.

Moody’s Municipal and Government Manual

Moody’s Bank and Finance Manual

Moody’s Public Utilities Manual

Moody’s Transportation Manual

Moody’s Industrial Manual

Clipping Files. Many libraries maintain files of news articles and feature articles about local businesses clipped from local papers. While most articles are short news releases, you will also find highly informative feature articles about new developments within target companies.

Some libraries will have a CD ROM of the Seattle Times. You simply type in the name of the organization you’re interested in, and you can then access articles from the Times where that company name appeared.

House Organs. Companies publish house organs (in‑house newsletters) as internal public relations vehicles and will have such things as a letter from the president describing past achievements and future goals, pictures of the bowling team and those retiring, and usually a feature article about a person, department, or a new product. House organs are especially helpful. Check with your library to see if a file of house organs is maintained.

Annual Reports. If the company is publicly owned (stock which is publicly traded), it is required by law to publish an annual financial report. Understanding the financial jargon is unnecessary. The past year’s failures and achievements will be summarized along with descriptions of new products and future goals.

Recruiting Brochures. Major companies which recruit at college campuses produce recruiting brochures. The brochures describe the history and background of the company, training programs, company benefits, and desired training and characteristics of employees. College placement offices will have many on file.

Indexes. In addition to clipping files, you will want to use one or more indexes to locate articles in magazines or newspapers. First look up the company by name in the index. If you don’t find the listings you want, you could read articles about the industry that your target company falls in and possibly find a reference to your target company in that way. The indexes can also be used to research a topic, a product, a new technology, or an entire industry.

Encyclopedia of Business Information Sources. Lists trade associations, periodicals, directories, bibliographies, and an abstract index of recent articles. An outstanding resource.

Readers Guide to Periodical Literature. Lists articles found in over two hundred popular magazines, giving the periodical, date and title of article. This is the same green-covered resource you used in high school when you did research reports.

Business Periodicals Index. The BPI uses business periodicals which are generally not covered in the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature. Examples: Human Resource Management and Automotive News.

The Magazine Index. An automated system found in many libraries which indexes articles in about 400 general interest magazines. It is published by Information Access Company which, in a similar format, also publishes: National Newspaper Index, Business Index, and Legal Resource Index.

Infotrac. A computerized database found in many libraries, it indexes 1,100 magazines, going back ten years. With the help of a librarian it takes under five minutes to learn how to use. Some libraries just have the magazine index, while others will also have the newspaper and business indexes as well. The business index indexes articles found in magazines which are not included in the magazine index. With it you can research industries, products, new technology, and companies. The business index provides information about the companies themselves, including address, products, number of employees, etc., and articles written about them. With most articles you can also read an abstract, which is a short version of the article. Both the abstracts plus the information about the article such as the name of the periodical, date, and page number, can be printed out so you don’t have to write them all down. In that way you can get a print-out on many articles and then later decide which ones to look up.

ABI Inform. Same concept as Infotrac, it abstracts 700 business journals.

F & S Index of Corporations and Industries. Lists articles on industries and companies, including mergers, acquisitions, new products, and emerging technology. Lists trade journals, addresses and their costs.

F & S Index Europe. Same format

F & S Index International. Same format. Covers Canada, Latin America, Africa, and Asia

Wall Street Journal Index. The first section is alphabetical by company; the second section is alphabetical by subject and peoples’ names.

New York Times Index. Same format

Chicago Tribune Index. Same format

Los Angeles Times Index. Same format

Washington Post Index. Same format

Libraries which carry these indexes will probably also have the newspapers on microfilm.

Your Interviewer. Search the clipping file and house organs for articles about your interviewer. Before you go to a specific Who’s Who, look up the name of your person in Index to Who’s Who Books. The information tends to be strictly biographical with date of birth, address, school graduated from, and offices held. Most of the information is supplied by the individuals themselves. The primary Who’s Who include:

Who’s Who In America

Who’s Who In The West

Who’s Who In The East

Who’s Who In Finance and Industry

Who’s Who Of American Women

You will also find other specialized Who’s Who In ..., covering various subjects such as human resources: Who’s Who In HR.

Other resources that include biographical information include:

Dun & Bradstreet Reference Book of Corporate Managements—Lists companies alphabetically, then lists executive with name, title, year born, summary of career, education.

Standard and Poor’s, vol. 2—Register of Directors and Executives. Same information as Dun’s, but executives are listed alphabetically by last name.

JOB HUNTING ON THE INTERNET

The Internet can be a great resource for a job search, but it must be used systematically or you can spend hours and have little to show for it. Initially, just allow time to surf the web to identify your most useful sites. When you find a good site mark it as a “favorite” or “bookmark.” Once you’ve done that you can return to the site by simply clicking on it.

The Net is most useful for 1) discovering posted job openings, 2) submitting resumes to resume databanks, 3) obtaining information about organizations of interest, and 4) obtaining information about career decision making and job finding techniques.

Information about organizations can be obtained by using the various search engines. I like Google. Type in the name of an organization you have an interest in. When your “hits” come on screen you simply click on those articles that have titles indicating they may be useful. If you want to visit the organization’s website, click on that organization’s web address that is usually found at or near the beginning of your hits. For more on search engines see page 10.

To use the Net effectively you need the attitude of an explorer. Once you arrive at one of the key sites simply follow links to other sites that look interesting. If you don’t find what you expected, you simply use the back button to return to where you just came from. You cannot get lost on the Internet.

The best way to get started is to select one of the recommended sites. Visit the site and click on any item or subject that interests you. Figure you’ll spend eight to twelve hours on the Internet before you feel you’ve identified the sites that you want to return to on a consistent basis, particularly to search for open positions. While twelve hours might sound like a lot, most people enjoy their time on the Internet and time goes by quickly.

Plan to enjoy yourself. If you find an interesting article, read it on the screen or print it out so you can read it later. Once you click to print you can go on to another page at your current site or even move on to another website.

If you’re going to post your resume, simply start with one site and then go to another. Once you’ve created your plain-text electronic resume, it is a quick and straight forward process.

Before starting your Internet search, keep in mind that most jobs never get advertised anywhere, not in your local newspaper, not on a website. Despite the rapid growth of the Web, the majority of jobs are still found through the hidden job market. Use the Internet as a tool, and get everything out of it you can, but do not use it as your only resource.

An issue facing job seekers today is that some devote virtually all of their job search time to Internet searching. Most often they do this because it seems easy and because there is much less “personal” rejection. There is plenty of “passive” rejection, however, in the form of not receiving responses from employers. Still, that form of passive rejection does not seem so personal and so does not hurt so much.

Research on the effectiveness of the Internet as a job finding tool has been scarce, but is starting to come in. Drake Beam Morin, a national outplacement firm, determined from a study that 6% of hires for management-level jobs came directly from Internet job hunting, versus 61% of managers getting their jobs through personal networking.

CareerXroads studied nine large public companies and found that out of 62,000 hires, 16% were hired after initiating contact through the corporate website. This finding suggests that identifying highly desirable employers and visiting each employer’s website for job opportunities can pay substantial dividends. Another study has indicated that Monster.com, Hotjobs.com, and CareerBuilder, the three biggest job boards, account for about 2% of all hires.

We need more research regarding the effectiveness of the Internet for job hunting. Still, the message is clear: Use the Internet extensively, but do not rely on it. For those who are unemployed, I would suggest no more than 20% of time devoted to the Internet. For those who are employed and have little time for job hunting, up to 40% of time might be devoted to the Internet. Significant time should be carved out to meet people with the power to hire and to network with friends, relatives, and acquaintances. When using the Internet you are competing with thousands of others who also feel they don’t have time to devote to the other proven job search strategies. This in part explains the relatively poor results most people get from using the Internet. When 200 people apply for the same position and only six are going to be interviewed, it’s no wonder that many people can devote hours to the Internet each week yet obtain no interviews.

The Key Internet Trio

The following three websites are great because they provide excellent advice on how to use the Internet for a job search and give great links to other valuable sites.

The Job Hunter’s Bible (www. jobhuntersbible.com)

This site is produced by Richard Bolles, author of What Color Is Your Parachute? I like the site because he not only provides links to some of the best sites on the web, but he provides a description of what you’ll find and what makes each one useful. In his unique way, he also provides his view on how to best use the Internet. You can also access many of Bolles’ articles on various aspects of job finding. Start with this site.

The Riley Guide (www.rileyguide.com)

This is Bolles’ top pick for a must visit site. Margaret Riley Dikel, has been showing job seekers for years how to use the Internet for job hunting. She also has great link to key sites with explanations of their value. There are also great links to highly useful articles on job finding.

Career Resource Center (www.careers.org)

CRC has the most links to job, career, and educational sites, with over 4,000.

The Big Eight

These are the key sites that are devoted entirely to job hunting. Visit these and explore them. Then visit the search engines/portals below. Monster, CareerBuilder, and Hot Jobs are the three most popular sites.

America’s Job Bank (www.ajb.dni.us/)

CareerBuilder.com (www.careerbuilder.com)

CareerJournal (www.careerjournal.com)

Flip Dog (www.flipdog.com)

JobBank USA (www.jobbankusa.com)

Monster Board (www.monster.com)

NationJob Network (www.nationjob.com)

WetFeet (www.wetfeet.com)

Websites Where You Can Post Your Resume

There are dozens of sites where you can post your resume. The following are merely the biggest. Follow each site’s instruction as to how to post your resume. If privacy is a concern of yours, look for their link to their privacy policy and read it.

America’s Job Bank www.ajb.dni.us

CareerBuilder www.careerbuilder.com

Career Engine www.careerengine.com

CareerJournal www.careerjournal.com

Career Mart www.careermart.com

CareerSite www.careersite.com

Career.Com www.career.com

Flip Dog www.flipdog.com

HotJobs www.hotjobs.com

Job Bank USA www.jobbankusa.com

JobOptions.com ww1.joboptions.com

Monster www.monster.com

NationJob Network www.nationjob.com

Net-Temps www.net-temps.com

New York Times www.nytimes.com

PassportAccess www.passportaccess.com

The Internet Job Locator www.joblocator.com

Search Engines

Search engines open up the entire Internet to you. By typing in a word or phrase in the “search” box and hitting your enter key or clicking on “search,” the search engine immediately goes through Internet sites to find web pages and articles that contain your desired word or phrase. You can search for companies, career fields, industries, or topics such as salary negotiating. Google is currently the most used search engine. They all use slightly different methodologies to find what you are looking for on the Internet, so you may want to use more than one. Google and Yahoo use quite different methodologies for scouring the Internet so using both can provide you with excellent results.

To use a search engine first type in its web address (URL) in the box that says “address.” You will be deleting the address for the site you are currently at so you can go to the site of your desired search engine. Type in the address and then hit “enter.” Once at the search engine site type in the word or term you want to search for.

To research a company or industry, start with any of the search engines. If you were interested in aerospace you would type in “aerospace industry” in the search box to find articles on aerospace. If you wanted to find information on a specific company, you might type in Paccar in the search box to find articles on the truck manufacturer. When the findings come on screen, click on any that seem that they will provide you with what you want. You will be taken immediately to that article.

Search Engines

Alta Vista: www.altavista.com

Excite: www.excite.com

Google: www.google.com

HotBot: www.hotbot.com

Lycos: www.lycos.com

MetaCrawler: www.metacrawler.com

MSN: www.msn.com

Snap: www.snap.com

WebCrawler: www.webcrawler.com

Yahoo: www.yahoo.com

Newspapers With Classified Want Ads

JobFactory. www.jobfactory.com

Click on 1067 Online Newspapers which will give you access to the classified ad section in over one thousand newspapers, arranged by state.

Salary Information

Several good salary sites exist including: www.salary.com, www.salaryexpert.com, www.wetfeet.com. JobStar at http://jobstar.org provides links to 300 salary surveys.

Salaryexpert takes you to a site that uses a salary database from ERI (Economic Research Institute). There is a charge for the service called Salary Assessor. I believe ERI offers the best salary information available.

Homefair.com enables you to calculate the difference in the cost of living between your current location and cities you are considering moving to. It also offers information about schools and the cities themselves.

Employer Websites

Flip Dog (www.flipdog.com) has a somewhat unique way of gathering job openings—it goes directly to company websites and pulls them all together, enabling you to find them by location (state, city, or metro area) and by occupational field. When you find an interesting job you can learn more about it by going directly to the company website.

A resource I like better than Flip Dog is Job Watchers (www.jobwatchers.com). Job Watchers charges for its service and is worth it. You tell Job Watchers the types of positions you are interested and each week it will send you a listing of jobs it has found at major job boards such as Monster and Hot Jobs, smaller, more specialized job boards, and company websites. The neat thing about Job Watchers is that the job posting is accompanied with valuable information about the organization including the number of employees, its products and services, web address, and names of key managers. It will also have a brief description of the job. If you want the complete job description you simply copy and paste the job’s URL and read the complete job description online. You get a month of service for $50 and three months for $100. If time is money to you, this is an excellent resource.

Excellent Resources

FindArticles.com (www.findarticles.com) provides the full text of articles from 300 magazines, journals, trade journals, and a press release source. You can read and print out all articles for free. It has an excellent search engine to locate articles of interest. Excellent for industry and company research.

Electric Library (www.elibrary.com) provides full articles from many different magazines and wire services. Great for information on companies and industries as well as other topics. You will frequently access press releases which give you a good sense of the hottest things the company is doing. You can subscribe for 30 days for free, afterward it is $9.95 per month. Well worth the subscription rate. When you want information about an organization, this is one of the best resources.

NewsLink (www.newslink.org). This site has links to thousands of newspapers and magazines where you can review help wanted ads and articles about companies and industries. It also has hundreds of links to radio and television stations. The radio and television stations offer transcripts of broadcasts, with some offering audio or video clips as well. All articles are free.

Business Journal (www.bizjournals.com). I’m most familiar with the Puget Sound Business Journal, but there are approximately 30 from around the US. Find the one you want and then search for companies or industry information. Excellent search engine to quickly find articles about your target organizations.

Business.com (www.business.com). This site leads to great articles on dozens of topics.

Yahoo (www.yahoo.com). Click on Business & Economy and go to dozens of topics. The Directories category is especially useful. Right below Business & Economy click on Jobs, which provides links to many excellent sites. Yahoo has topics arranged in ways that make it easy to find what you want.

Books To Help You Navigate The Internet

Books on Internet job finding offer little value if they are more than two years old. The older books will list sites that no longer exist and will miss sites that are less than two years old. The following books all provide excellent information and tips.

The Guide to Internet Job Searching 2002-2003, Margaret Riley Dikel, Frances Roehm, NTAC/Contemporary Publishing, 2002. Richard Bolles feels it is the best Internet book on the market.

Job Hunting on the Internet, Richard Bolles, Ten Speed Press, 2