• Making Professional Connections
  
• Marketing Your Skills
  
• Campus Recruiting
  
• Employer Research
  
• Job Listings
  
• Resumes & Cover Letters
  
• Interviewing
  
• Working Overseas
  
• Job Offers
  
• Making the Transition
  

Employer Research

Ideally, you have already researched careers and industries before you begin your job search. Now that you have narrowed your choices, you should determine what kind of employers you want to target and what kinds of jobs you want to have. Understanding the industry you want to work in, and the role you want to play in that industry, is an important step in developing a sound and successful job search strategy.

Why Research?

In your job search, you must learn as much as possible about potential employers so that you can target those that are the best match for you and so that you can stand out among other applicants. Learn about their mission, products, services, and their clients. Find out about their organizational structure and the workplace culture. This will put you in an excellent position to make clear connections between your skills and their needs when you prepare your resume and cover letter, or in an interview.

Career Search™

We recommend that students begin their employer research with Career Search™. This is an online index of companies and organizations in a wide range of industries. It allows you to start with your areas of interest and identify and learn about potential employers.

Benefits of Using Career Search™

• Allows you to find companies and organizations, both for- and not for-profit, by industry, geographic region, size, product, and keywords.
• Offers information about a range of industries – education, government, technology, arts and entertainment, social services – as well as every possible professional organization.
• Provides information about small companies (with fewer than 100 employees) that do not post jobs on large national Web sites, or who may not advertise positions at all.
• Listings give company descriptions, information on principals and department head, contact information, Web site hyperlinks, map locator, and competitor information.
• Database is regularly expanded and updated, and Career Search™ adds new industry areas monthly.
• Career Search™ results are downloadable in word processor, spreadsheet, or text email format.

How to Use Career Search™

Career Search™ is NOT a database of available jobs—it is a tool for researching industries and employers. Once you find organizations that interest you, you will need to contact them directly, undertake further research, or network to find out what opportunities are available.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The first time you use Career Search™ you must create an account for yourself. We recommend that you use the same user name and password that you use in the eRecruiting program. You may also need to enter the Client Referral Key, which is uma60.

Go to Career Search™ to get started.

Tips for Using Career Search™

• Wherever the category is underlined and printed blue, you can further refine your search.
• The Key Word function allows you to target very specifically the kind of firms you seek.
• The Zip Code function allows you to target firms within your acceptable commuting distance.
• Find graduate school information by clicking on “colleges and universities-grad” and using the key word function (for example, “medical”).

Other Sources for Researching Employers

CollegeGrad: Top Entry Level Employers
Hoover's
JobWeb: Research Employers
Step-by-Step Guide to Researching Companies
Vault
WetFeet

Researching Workplace Culture and Values

Transgender at Work
Human Rights Campaign Worknet
Diversity and Inclusion at Monster.com

Company Rankings

Best Places to Work in the Federal Government
Computerworld Magazine: Best Places to Work in IT
Forbes 200 Best Small Companies
JobStar: Best Companies
Working Mother's 100 Best Companies List
Fast Companies Directory of Innovative Companies
Business Week's Global 1000 Companies
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation Best Places to Work
Philanthropy 400

Diversity Resources

The following resources provide career-related information (such as online journals, job banks, etc.) specifically geared to people of color, individuals with disabilities, or to women in male-dominated fields.

Black Enterprise
Black Voices.com
Diversity Link
Hispanic Online
Minorities Job Bank
Minority Career Network
Minority Executive Search, Inc.
National Association for Female Executives
National Business & Disability Council
NativeWeb
Saludos Hispanos
Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering

Library Resources

The W.E.B. Du Bois Library offers excellent resources for career research. Their Web site includes a Business Collection Reference Page with print and electronic resources that can help you research companies and organizations. You will also find directories of schools around the country and around the world at their page of K-12 Internet Sites.

More Research

Once you have identified specific companies for whom you’d like to work, research them further. Start with their own Web site to learn about the company and to check for job postings. Look for links in the navigation such as “Human Resources” or “Career Opportunities.” Read about what others say about the companies as well. Search under Google News for articles, as well as the main Google site for references on other Web sites.