The following subject guide will help you find extensive information on companies related to a particular industry while restricting to a particular geographic area, if you choose. Once you have a list in hand, you will be well armed with the information you need to seek employment in the field and location you desire.
In order to conduct a thorough search of job candidates, you will need to approach your research from multiple angles. The following is a list of steps your subject specialists recommend you take:
- Begin with a Nexis Uni Company Dossier Search (see the next tab over). This database makes it very easy to limit to a particular industry (which will be labeled by a standard SIC or NAICS code number) and geographic area (by country, state, county, zip code or area code). You can use the information you gather in Nexis Uni, specifically the SIC or NAICS code, to assist you in searching the other databases.
- With the SIC or NAICS code from the Nexis Uni Company Dossier Search, you can go to the Other Business and Company Databases tab in this guide to search for even more companies:
- Gale Business Insights: Global allows searching by SIC or NAICS code and by company name. Use the company's "History" tab to get background information and a list of competitors. The "Rankings" tab accesses lists of top companies related to the one you are searching, such as top tech companies for a particular year or location.
- Business Source Complete's Enhanced Business Searching Interface searches for company information by name or industry and provides information on the overall state of a particular industry. Click on the "Advanced Search" tab to get multiple search options. On the right hand side of the screen, use the "SWOT Analyses" button to get the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of a company and a forecast of its near-future performance. The "Industry Profiles" can be searched by keyword.
- Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage provides not only company profile information, it contains Industry Survey reports for looking at the current state of an industry and quickly locating one compact list of companies under a particular industry. The best way to search Standard & Poor's is to begin with a company search on a company that best represents the industry of interest to you. Once you access that company's profile page, click the HTML or PDF link under the "Industry Survey" link on the left hand side of the page. The survey will discuss the current state of the industry, trends, how the industry operates, and end with a very useful comparative company analysis. This final part makes it very easy to ascertain and evaluate like companies in an industry or field.
- The Patent Information for Corporations tab will instruct you on locating information on a particular company and its patents. The searching capabilities are limited, but this database is currently the only one available for patent searching.
- The Resume Books, Interview Books, and Job Hunting Books tabs list recommended titles in paper and electronic formats here in the library.
- Lastly, the Employment Websites tab provides one simple, easy-to-use list of some of the best, most popular sites for job hunting, determining salary and training requirements, interviewing techniques and more.