[MUSIC] You learned in the last lesson
the importance of research. Research can help you decide which fields
and industries you want to work in. And research can open your eyes to
the vast array of opportunities available to you. [MUSIC] If you have no idea what
companies might be best for you, there are some good places to start. Readers Digest describes job-hunt.org
as vacuum-packed with solid advice. The guides on this site will make
it clear why that description fits. Each is written by an expert in the field. These experts constantly contribute
articles that can help your job hunting. Fortune.com, the organization behind
the Fortune 500 has done a great deal of research for you. They produce best of lists that
you can use to identify targets. You can find the best large,
medium and small work places in tech. Or you can search private
startup companies with at least $1 billion
in market capitalization. These are the so-called unicorns. You can find great places to work for
diversity for the best small or
medium sized business employers. You can search the best multi
national companies to work for, as well as the fastest growing
inner city businesses. You can research the fastest
growing companies, the companies that are changing the world,
the world's 500 largest companies or the 100 best workplaces for millennials. Of course, you can search
the list of fortune 500 companies as well as the world's
most admired companies and those 100 companies that
are deemed the best to work for. Finding information about
private companies can be tricky. Fortune's unicorn list,
shown earlier, is one source. Another is the inc 5000 list of America's
fastest growing privately held companies. The list is put together by
the editors of inc magazine. Going outside the US,
the Canadian Business Resource offers in-depth information and
profiles as well as links to more than 2,600 of Canada's
top-performing businesses. Some profiles are available for
free and some for a fee. And job seekers interested in a directory
of European businesses have Europages. This site front ends and
database and more than 26 business sectors together with hundreds of
thousands of European companies. Another tool is The Quintessential
Directory of Company Career Centers. There you'll find hundreds of companies, organized alphabetically
as well as by rankings. Links are to the career and employment
centers on the corporate websites. These are more useful than job boards because they list all
current job openings. They also provide you
specific requirements of how you should respond to job postings. If you're interested in international
developement job's, NGO job's, or working for a non-profit, jobs4developement.com
is the online site for you. If you're interested in volunteer work,
which can not only be personally satisfying, but also
a great way to develop leadership skills, then volunteer.gov provides
a valuable portal. A bit later in this course, you'll learn about sites where
you can research salaries. One we don't mention there
is job search intelligence. This is a great salary research tool for
job seekers. Providing accurate and
up to date data on compensation. As of 2016,
you could find information on 480 occupations within 560 geographic regions. When you're interested
in a specific company, you're usually seeking
two kinds of information. The first is General Company Information. You might gather your
information about products and services, history in corporate culture,
organizational mission and goals, key financials, organizational
structure, and of course location. The second set of information
deals with employment issues and includes such things as career paths,
and advancement opportunities benefits, diversity initiatives, and
other human resources functions. Probably the single best
resource of company information is the company's website. In the next lesson you'll get details
about how to analyze a company's website. One of the best sources for gathering information on public
companies is Hoovers online. You can search for a company,
for people, or by industry. You have to pay a fee for
many of their reports, but if you're in the United States, many public libraries offer free access
via their own database subscriptions. Another great source of company
information comes from articles and stories published in the various
business media outlets. There are thousands of media outlets,
from national news and business publications, to specialized
industry specific publications. Those shown here are among
the most prominent. For information about employment issues,
vault.com is a great source. You can click on industry areas and it will bring up the leading
players in that industry. The goal of this site is to provide
you with insider information from a job hunters point of view, that
means from the employee's perspective. Another great site for helping job seekers get inside information
on prospective employers is Glassdoor. Here you can find anonymous employee
job reviews for thousands of companies. Wet Feet is another valuable site. Here you can find information
about various types of careers, the latest industry news, and
the key players in each area. Its focus is on companies
in the United States. On the other hand, Corporate Information
is a great resource for researching companies and industries, not only in the
United States, but also around the world. You can search for company and industry
information or search by country or find companies that operate within
a specific geographic region. The site features more than 35,000 company
profiles and it's free to job seekers. The next level of sophistication
in conducting research is getting a handle on the competitive
nature of the industry or industries that your target
companies operate within. If you can speak knowingly about
the competitive opportunities or threats your perspective employer faces,
you will stand out from the competition. Not only will you communicate your
value in a dramatic fashion, but you'll also demonstrate
a level of interest and commitment few other
candidates will match. Look for the falling about
any industries you research. Number 1, trends and future prospects. Number 2, areas of growth and decline. Number 3,
the challenges the industry faces. Number 4, the culture of the industry. Number 5, the top-level
organizations in the industry. And number 6, the second and
third tier firms in the industry. Having good information will help you
determine whether or not you're in sync with a particular industry and whether or
not there could be a place for you there. One good source of industry
information is industry portals where you'll find links to
many different industries. You'll find portals for industries
in the United States, as well as for industries outside the United States. You'll also find a step by step process
that can guide you to doing research about an industry or a specific company. Here you can find everything
from general information to competitive analyses to information
about geography and history. You're going to also find information
about leading people in the industry. Associations can be another
source of information. If you don't know much at
all about an industry, associations are the place to start. The eye school at Drexel, college of
information science and technology host ipl2 where you can find a list of
more than 2,000 associations on the net. Simply search for a profession. For example, if you, as shown here, search
for accounting, you'll find a number of associations representing industries
in different parts of the world. Although the ipl2 site
is no longer updated, you can still find useful
information there. Another source is
the Weddle's Association Directory. This site lists several thousand
associations from around the world by their primary professional or occupational
focus and or industry of interest. The site is maintained by Weedle's,
a research publishing, consulting and training firm. The final step in your research
process may be to gather information about specific parts of the US or
other countries to help you decide if you want to relocate to
where a prospective employer is located. Here are a few of the most
useful resources on the web. For conducting research
within the United States, your best bet is Sperling's
bestplaces.net, where you'll find a wealth of data, statistics and
comparisons about US cities and counties. You can compare cost of living,
get a break down on schools, climates, housing prices even compare crime
rates among various locations. Outside the US, let the CIA work for you. I'm sure you've heard
the stories about the CIA, but you might not know that they provide
a World Factbook on the web. It's available to everyone at no cost. It provides snapshots of just
about every country in the world. Countryreports.org is
another great source for finding information about almost
every country in the world. You can learn about a country's culture,
its geography, economy and political system. You can read about its news,
look at maps and more. The service is not free, but a 12 month
personal membership only costs $1.75. You can dig even deeper using
the Global Resource Directory hosted by the Broad College of
Business at Michigan State University. Access is available to anyone at no cost. You can find links here to international
business and trade related resources. Finally, if you're looking for
information on worldwide trends and business in trade,
you can find economic research reports as well as a comprehensive set of statistics
at the world trade organization. Access is available to
everyone at no cost. [MUSIC] I trust you recognize that there is
a wealth of information online to guide your research. The more you know, the better the position
you'll be in for an interview. In the next lesson,
you'll learn a strategy for analyzing a company's website. [MUSIC]
