Guide to Researching Companies, Industries, and Countries
Where job-seekers will find all the best research tools and resources
for conducting all types of critical career and job-search research.
A key resource for job-seekers is information. Job-seekers will not succeed in your job-search without knowledge of
the companies you are interviewing with or information on the industries and countries where these companies
do business. The materials you'll find in this section are designed
to serve as a resource for anyone trying to conduct research and find more information about companies,
industries, and foreign countries. Take advantage of all the online and print resources. Where do you
begin? Read our Step-by-Step Guide
to Researching Companies. (To find sources
for researching careers, go to: Career Exploration
Resources.)
Go to your favorite search engine
(our current favorites are Google
and WiseNut.com), and find the company's
Web site. Most public companies have a section of their Web sites dedicated to
investor relations and often have their annual reports online and in downloadable form.
Web100 -- Big Business on the Web: tracks
the largest American and international companies on the Web (ranked by revenue),
listing these corporations along with their Fortune500 and Global500 rankings. Can
search for companies or scroll through rankings. Links under each company to sites
that have more information about the companies.
Hoover's Online: once self-proclaimed as "the
ultimate source for company information," this Web site offers a lot of information --
very little for free and most for a fee.
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 for free and some for a fee.
CorporateInformation --
a great resource for researching companies and industries in the United States and around the world. Search
for company and industry information -- or search by U.S. state or by country to find companies that
operate within a specific geographic region. More than 350,000 company profiles. Free to job-seekers.
Vault.com
-- well-known for its insider reports on thousands of companies.
StockMarketYellowPages.com: allows
you to search for public companies based upon their descriptions, where you can then follow links
to other sources (including Zack's, Hoovers, BigCharts, and more) of key information about the company.
The Public Register's Annual Report Service (PRARS):
includes the ability to order printed versions of annual reports (for free) and a service titled
"Corporate Window," which provides various corporate and financial information for a select
group of companies.
The Forbes 500:
a comprehensive database of the 500 largest American public corporations as
measured by sales, profits, assets, and market value.
Forbes Largest Private Companies:
an annual ranking of the top private companies in the U.S., including number of employees, sales ranking,
and a brief company description.
Fortune.com Lists:
a variety of lists of the "best" and largest public companies, as well as
links to industry information, and other lists.
The Inc. 500: a listing and short description of
the 500 fastest growing privately-held companies in the U.S.
Better Business Bureau: includes links to companies that
are members of the organization.
Searching for
Company Information: From the New York Public Library's Science, Industry, and
Business Library, this site is a guide to conducting basic research on U.S. and global companies.
Thomas J. Long Business & Economics Library:
Research assistance into researching companies and industries from the Walter A. Hass School of
Business, University of California, Berkeley.
Competia Express --
a great tool for job-seeker research, where you'll find research links
(to associations, company information, online publications, and more)
for more than 40 different industries.
Fuld & Company: an excellent source of
information on a wide range of industries.
IndustryLink: where you can find a vast collection of
resources on 25 different industries.
Industry Portals: a nice collection of
industry portals for many different industries.
Print Resources:
U.S. Industry & Trade Outlook. DRI/McGraw-Hill, Standard & Poor's, U.S. Department of
Commerce/International Trade Administration. DRI/McGraw-Hill.
U.S. Industrial Outlook. United States. Bureau of Industrial Economics.
Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys. Standard and Poor's Corporation.
Annual Survey of Manufacturers. Statistics for industry groups and industries
(including capital expenditures, inventories and supplemental labor, fuel, and electric energy costs).
United States. Bureau of the Census.
Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios. Dun & Bradstreet Credit Services.
Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios, by Troy Leo. Prentice-Hall.
Annual Statement Studies. Robert Morris Associates.
Key Tools for Conducting Country Research
Online Country Research Resources:
America's
Best Places to Live and Work: from Employment Review and BestJobsUSA.com,
provides professionals with information on the 20 cities with the best employment opportunities.
CIA World Factbook:
detailed snapshots, compiled by the U.S. government, of just about every country in the world.
CountryReports.org: a great source for
finding top-line information about just about every country in the world, including culture, geography,
economy, political system, news, maps, and more.
Country Studies: from the
U.S. Library of Congress. These guides cover social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions
of more than 100 countries throughout the world.
globalEDGE: a comprehensive global business
resource center from the folks at Michigan State University. Key strength are links to further information.
Global Insight: provides comprehensive
economic, financial, and political coverage of countries, regions, and industries available from any source -- covering more than
200 countries and spanning more than approximately 170 industries.
International Business & Technology:
a learning portal that provides links to business, communication, import-export, linguistic, legal, marketing, media, monetary,
public affairs, research, technology, trade, and travel information at both world and country levels. From BRINT Institute.
Sperling's BestPlaces.net -- where you'll find
a wealth of data, statistics, and comparisons about U.S. cities, counties, and foreign countries.
Virtual International Business &
Economic Sources: a portal to more than 1,600 Internet sources of international business and economic
information. From the folks at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
World Trade Organization: a great source of
worldwide business and trade information and trends.
Key Tools for Conducting Research on People/Individuals
ZoomInfo --
a great tool for researching people. Calls itself a unique summarization search engine that finds,
understands and extracts the latest online information about people and companies and
instantly delivers it to you in concise and useful summaries. No cost to job-seekers.
Other Key Research Tools/Resources for Job-Seekers
Other Guides to Researching Companies:
Researching Companies: from the
great folks at JobStar: California Job Search Guide.
Researching Companies: from the
Career Development Center at Worchester Polytechnic Institute.
Media Jumpstation:
from the folks at Imediafax a search engine to more than 3,000 media.
MediaLinksNow.com:
supplying links to the publishers, catalogs, newspapers, industrial, technology,
sports, fitness, financial, health magazines and news originations from around the world.
NewsDirectory: providing links to newspapers and media
in the U.S. and internationally.
NewsLink: with links to major U.S. and
international newspapers, magazines, and radio and television stations.
