15 Invaluable Websites for Job Research

15 Invaluable Websites for Job Research
There are dozens of free sites on the web that help you advance your job search. From these you can learn all about a company including getting a candid insider's view from those who work there. You can also get expert advice on industries, resume writing, networking, using LinkedIn, networking and more. Here are some of the best.

Quintessential Careershasover 4,500 pages of free content to empower your career success. This site has tons of expert advice, templates and career articles for all levels. If you have a question, you can find your answer here.

Job-Hunt.orgoffers a comprehensive list of useful job-search resources and services on the Web. All the sites listed are audited by the job-hunt.org staff to ensure they will add value to a candidate's search and not compromise the job seeker's personal information. Job-Hunt is a wonderful resource for helping clients sample multiple job search tools.

LinkedInhas become a powerful tool for researching a company and its employees. Using the company search feature, you can identify companies, see who has joined, who left, where they came from and all sorts of other useful information. Of course, this is a must-use tool for networking and should be a major part of anyone's job search plans.

ZoomInfois a business information search engine used to quickly find information about industries, companies, people, products and services. It crawls millions of company Websites, news feeds and other online sources to identify fresh information on people and companies. ZoomInfo currently has profiles on 37 million people and over 3.5 million companies, and its search engine adds more than 20,000 new profiles every day. ZoomInfo also lets users, create and customize their own profile online. This is a great tool for researching people before an interview or finding the right decision makers at a given company.

SpokeSpoke provides business data and detailed contact information on demand. It contains over 40 million people at 2.3 million companies. Spoke lets you create, customize, and promote your own online profile as well. Like ZoomInfo, Spoke is a great tool for finding decision makers. Spoke even has an interface with Simply Hired (a job aggregate board) that allows users to search for decision makers in the companies where Simply Hired has posted jobs.

Jigsaw is an online directory of more than 8 million business contacts. Users can access names, titles, postal addresses, e-mail addresses and direct dial phone numbers. Membership is free and you can get a contact by adding one of your own. For each one you add, you get access to any other in the Jigsaw directory. As an alternative, you can sign-up for a premium account and access 25 contacts for $25 a month. We all know that the best jobs are found through the hidden job network. Tools like Jigsaw help job seekers uncover the right person to talk to at their target companies.

FTT Research can leverage information on millions of domestic and international companies and provide in-depth coverage of thousands of the world's top business enterprises to identify target companies and business contacts. FTT canvases an entire industry, geography, and job function to find the right kinds of decision makers across multiple potential targets.

Highbeam is an online library and research tool that collects millions of research articles from trusted published sources and puts them all in one place. You can access some information for free or purchase a very reasonably priced annual subscription. This is an excellent resource for you to use when searching for potential company targets or preparing for an upcoming interview. By thoroughly researching a company ahead of time, job seekers can have more engaging and thought-provoking questions based on what they have read about that company. This helps them gain credibility during the interview, and in turn, elevates their candidacy.

Glassdoorlets you post anonymous employer reviews and salary information. In exchange for your data, Glassdoor offers you free access to browse other people's comments about their employers or salary information. While the information is self-reported, it is still a resource that can help job seekers uncover information about a company's culture and salary ranges.

The Vaultallows job seekers to read employee surveys on particular companies and view message boards for sharing job search information for a nominal fee. It is a great resource for gaining an insider's perspective on a company's culture.

Wet Feet enables job seekers to search company and career profiles and salary information. This information can help job seekers with company targeting and it can help them prepare for interviews.

Internship Programs is a paid/unpaid internship search engine owned by Wet Feet. This is an excellent tool for uncovering coveted and hard to find internships.

Airs Job Board & Recruiting Technology Directoryis a free resource listing hundreds of job boards. It's a great way to find niche boards within your industry, profession, and geography.

AnnualReports.comallows you to search their database for free electronic files of annual reports. This is a great way for you to better understand the firm's mission, key accomplishments, and problem areas over the past year.

CEO Expressprovides dozens of links to current newspapers and periodicals in a variety of industries and genres. It's a great way for job seekers to stay on top of the current events that impact their industries and professions.

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