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| Researching Employers |
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Choose Or Change A Career June 1999 • Vol.5 Issue 6 |
Researching Employers Go To The Interview Well-Stocked With Information | ||
 One of the best ways to blow an interview is to go in knowing nothing about the organization you hope will hire you. "Why do you want to work for us?" is a question every interviewee will face, and knowing the answer can mean the difference between landing a new job or attempting to answer the same question at a different company. Research also is important for determining a fair salary, seeing if the corporate culture of a company is agreeable, and finding out if the company you are about to interview with is financially stable. As with many tasks these days, the Web can make research easier. Many Web sites are devoted to keeping users informed by providing up-to-date corporate information, and nearly every business has a Web site. Most of these resources are free, but for additional subscription or one-time fees you can get enough data on most companies to put their CEO's knowledge to shame. We'll look at the basic steps job-seekers should take when researching companies and list the best resources we've found for finding out nearly anything about a potential employer.  General Advice. The most basic level of research job-hunters can perform is to determine the state of the industry they are attempting to find work in, especially in the particular state or city where the work will be performed. It is important to know in advance if pending legislation or industry-wide cutbacks are going to result in layoffs or otherwise affect the job security of employees. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has an online version of its Occupational Outlook Handbook (http://www.bls.gov/ocohome.htm) that is indispensable for getting a birds-eye view of a particular industry on a national scale. This guide gives an easy-to-understand overview of specific segments of the job market, along with good advice on the growth potential, average salaries, and typical working conditions. The conclusions of a national occupational outlook survey may not apply to the job market in a particular state, so it can pay to see how things are looking on a more local level. A helpful site is ALMIS (America's Labor Market Information System; http://almis.dws.state.ut.us), run by the Employment and Training Administration of the Department of Labor. In addition to good national occupational outlook information, the site has links to similar information for nearly every state. This data is especially useful if you are planning to move and need a general take on the job situation in the area you're moving to. Once you have researched the viability of an industry, it's time to find out more about the specific companies. We recommend starting with the Council of Better Business Bureaus Inc.'s BBBOnLine. The BBBOnLine site (http://www.bbb.org) has links that let visitors find all of the BBB locations and Web sites in their states and cities. If the company you are about to work for has had a lot of customer complaints or been sued for alleged unethical business practices, you will find out here. It's also easy to determine if a company is a BBB Member. Researching Public Companies. If you are trying to get a job with a publicly owned company, the task of research is fairly easy. Publicly traded businesses are required to publish financial statements, and the nature of these businesses means they show up in the news more often than private companies. Investors and potential investors want to know every detail of a public company before buying shares, so more information about those companies is readily available.
The links to competitors found in nearly every information capsule are another nice aspect of the Hoover's Online database. They show a list of companies that are in direct competition with the company you are researching, and information can be accessed for each by simply clicking on the company's name. It really helps to round out knowledge and can provide an edge during an interview by letting you know where a company sits relative to its competition. Hoover's Online is a terrific free resource, but paying a membership fee buys even more detailed information. The free overview capsules likely are enough to let you ace that first interview, but if you are called back for further interviews, digging into the detailed Hoover's Online database could be a smart investment. These expanded profiles are not available for every company, but they contain a ton of information, including the company histories, an expanded list of competitors, and highly detailed financial information. Membership is $14.95 per month or $109.95 for an entire year. You might not be able to find smaller companies at the site, but Hoover's Online is an absolute gold mine if the company you're researching is in its database. It currently has information on more than 13,500 companies.
An excellent site for information that goes beyond the typical dry corporate histories and financial information is Vault Reports Inc.'s VaultReports.com (http://www.vaultreports.com). The Companies subsection of its Career Research section provides a wealth of data on larger companies, including quotes from employees, a list of job benefits, and a fairly comprehensive list of competing companies. The information capsules also let users know what departments are hiring and where to apply, among other useful bits of data. The greatest aspect of VaultReports is that it offers comprehensive Snapshots that give detailed information about a company at no charge. Here users will find detailed company information, tips on how to land a job, and more detailed employee reports. As a finishing touch, users can have job openings in a particular industry automatically E-mailed to them and can even tailor the openings to match their job experience and work preferences. Finding Financial Information. Because most companies file reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), it usually is easy to find out how they are performing financially. Many news sites offer these reports, but the master archive can be found at the SEC Web site (http://www.sec.gov). Clicking the EDGAR Database option will take you to the archives. EDGAR stands for Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system, and the database contains nearly everything companies submit to the SEC, either voluntarily or as required by law. Online stock brokerages also are invaluable sources of information if the company you plan to work for has stock that is publicly traded. A quick look at E*TRADE Securities Inc.'s site (http://www.etrade.com) gave us the entire financial history of the company we were looking up, along with its ownership, an overview, and analyst predictions of the company's future. This information, along with the real-time stock quotes, is terrific for preparing for interviews and is especially important if your job offer includes stock options in the benefits package. Yahoo! Inc.'s Yahoo! Finance (http://quote.yahoo.com) is another gem. Yahoo! has teamed with a variety of information providers to offer a surprisingly complete, searchable database of financial information for nearly any company. Although Yahoo! itself does not produce the content, it does let visitors access all of the resources, including Reuters, the Associated Press, and Standard & Poors, from a common interface, which makes browsing much easier. Researching Private Companies. Privately owned companies account for more than 95% of all the business in the United States, and they range in size from a single incorporated individual to United Parcel Service of America Inc. with its 300,000-plus employees. Finding useful data on private companies can be impossible, since they are not required to issue annual reports or make other public disclosures. Many times the best place to begin is the company's Web site, if it has one, but there are a few sources of free information that are helpful. Hoover's Online is again a valuable resource when researching private companies, as is the Fortune magazine site. Forbes Inc.'s online Forbes Digital Tool (http://www.forbes.com/tool/toolbox/private500) maintains a list of the top 500 private companies, which is especially helpful for job-seekers in a metropolitan area. CompaniesOnline (http://www.companiesonline.com), a reference site run by Dun & Bradstreet in partnership with Lycos, maintains information on more than 100,000 companies, with a specialization in companies with a Web presence. Most of the information here is basic, typically including contact information, Web site addresses, and the general industry the business is in. A free registration gives access to additional data, such as the number of employees, annual sales, and parent companies. More detailed information usually can be accessed for a fee, but the main draw of CompaniesOnline is the sheer number of companies for which it has data. One of the best meta-sites (or list of lists) we found is Winthrop Corp.'s Corporate Information page (http://www.corporateinformation.com). The site has information on nearly every site imaginable that has either free or fee-based corporate data, and it includes separate sections for private and public companies. The Corporate Information page is extremely useful if you are seeking a job overseas, since it has links for company information in every country from Albania to Zimbabwe.
News & Opinions. Many of the sites we mentioned above include links for finding press releases and news stories about companies, but there are few spots on the Web devoted entirely to this task. PR Newswire (http://www.prnewswire.com) and Business Wire (http://www.businesswire.com) are great sources for press releases and company news. Both have fully searchable databases at their respective Web sites, but you can access both resources and more by visiting Yahoo! Finance. Another terrific site that aggregates news and company information from an enormous variety of sources is News Alert Inc.'s NewsAlert (http://www.newsalert.com). Here users can configure their own personal news page to automatically track several companies. The free service will even send E-mail alerts if important new information becomes available. A pay service with expanded features also is available, but the basic free service is perfect for people doing basic research. Searching Usenet groups is a good way to gather public and employee opinions regarding a company, but few Internet Service Providers (ISPs) maintain a large backlog of these messages. We suggest trying Deja News (http://www.dejanews.com), a Web-based archive of Usenet newsgroup postings containing messages that go back several years. Use Deja News to search for a company name to see what people are saying about it. Bear in mind that not everyone who posts to Usenet is level-headed, and some comments may be offensive. If you see only one negative comment posted about a company, the person who wrote it likely has a problem with the company that won't affect you. A substantial number of negative messages, however, usually indicates something is amiss. Cold Calls. Sometimes the Web just won't have the information you need regarding a specific business, and you'll be forced to call or visit the company for help. When this happens, turn to GTE New Media Services Inc.'s BigBook (http://www.bigbook.com), a comprehensive Yellow Pages directory with superb search features. BigBook lets visitors search for businesses by category rather than a specific name, making it a boon for job-seekers. For example, we entered the term "Accounting" in the category field to find every accounting firm in a particular city. Company names, addresses, and phone numbers were then displayed, and we were able to click on the company name to bring up a locator map for printing. The process really couldn't be easier, and the site taps a database of more than 5,000 Yellow Page directories from practically every city, town, and village in North America. A nearly identical service is Bell Atlantic Electronic Commerce Services Inc.'s BigYellow (http://www.bigyellow.com). You shouldn't be hesitant to pay a little for information if you are attempting to get hired in a competitive job sector or popular company, just keep the receipts. Nearly every expense related to job-hunting—from long-distance phone calls to moving expenses—is tax-deductible, so be sure to discuss any money you spend on obtaining company information with your tax adviser.  by Tracy Baker |
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