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Researching Companies & Industries

Why research a company?

  • to identify potential employers
  • to tailor your resume and cover letter to a particular position and / or company
  • to prepare for an interview
An effective job search involves learning as much as you can about the company that interests you. Knowing how to find this information is an important skill. The more you know about a company, the better able you are to communicate your qualifications to it. Employers place a high value on applicants who know them and their products (i.e. "research the company") because it demonstrates your interest and enthusiasm. This common base of information also allows both the interviewer and the applicant to more accurately evaluate the match between the position, applicant, and company.

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What information should you look for?

Begin your research locating general information about the company that interests you. Follow this up by focusing on aspects of the company that relate specifically to your skills, knowledge, and qualifications. Here are examples of types of information to seek:
  • Products / Services
  • History / Reputation
  • Recent Changes / New Products or Projects
  • Organizational Goals
  • Structure / Divisions and Subsidiaries
  • Number of Employees / Locations
  • Financial Status
  • Competitors within the Industry
Check to see if they have a page on their co-op program in the career or human resource section. You may be able to find out a great deal about the company from personal testimonies on that page.

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Where do you find information?

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Libraries

  • Utilize the library's reference section to check business and industry directories, indexes and CD ROM databases.
  • Ask the reference librarian for assistance in finding these resources.
Your college, university, or local library is still one of the best places to locate information. The reference librarian can point you in the direction of many useful directories and indexes. In today's library, CD ROM databases are often available. Examples of resources that you will find at the library are:
  • Standard & Poor's Corporation Records- Information about publicly held companies in the USA including financial records, brief history, products, subsidiaries and properties, and more.
  • World Business Directory- Profiles of 100,000 businesses worldwide.
  • Ward's Business Directory - Information on publicly and privately held companies arranged alphabetically, geographically, and by sales volume.
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World Wide Web

  • Start with the company's home page, if they have one. Use any of the major search engines to search for the company home page.
  • Government sites, professional associations and industry guides can also provide valuable information.
  • If you have trouble locating a company's web page, check to see if there is a parent company that has an Internet site.
For the best Internet research results, know what you are looking for before going online. Making a list and checking off sites and information as you locate them can help you stay focused. It is easy to get side tracked when searching the Net. Bookmark major sites so that you can readily access them again. It is also a good idea to print out a hardcopy of important information or save it to your hard drive.

Company Research on the Internet -This business research tutorial presents a step-by-step process for finding free company and industry information on the World Wide Web.

Links

The links listed here are to get you started. There are many more Internet sites that are valuable sources for company research that you may stumble across as you do your research. [Back to list] [Back to top]

Other

  • Contact the company directly and request an annual report or other information.
  • Contact the chamber of commerce in the company's community.
  • Contact the Better Business Bureau.
  • When possible, gather other items on each company, such as brochures and sales flyers, magazine, newspaper and trade journal articles, press releases, reports from Dunn & Bradstreet and the Better Business Bureau, and employer recruitment brochures.
The International Chamber of Commerce & City-State-Province Directory - A searchable comprehensive directory of North American Chambers of Commerce.

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