Researching Industries Tracie Thomas
Why Do Research? • Better cover letters, more targeted resumes • Demonstrates a sincere interest in working for that particular organization • Better prepared to answer interview questions such as: Why do you want to work for our organization? What do you find interesting about our company? Why should we hire you? • Better prepared to ask good interviewee questions • Overall Increased confidence when interviewing
Which sounds better? An Interviewer asks… “Why do you want this internship?” “I have always been interested in working in Finance, and Ford Motor Company is a well-know company”
OR “ I am very interested in working for a top-3 automaker in the US especially since Ford recently posted it’s 1st profit in 4 years. I am particularly interested in using my quantitative and analytical skills to help with Ford’s long term plan of lowering automotive and structural costs”
What Are You Researching?
What You Should Know about Careers (job function)
• • • •
Potential job titles Daily duties Work environment Skills needed (content vs. transferable)
Researching Careers • • • •
Occupational Outlook Handout O*Net UCS Career Information Library WetFeet/Vault
What You Should Know About Industries • • • •
How the Industry is Organized Trends Growth potential Job Titles/Occupations within the Industry
Researching Industries • • • •
OOH Guide to Industries Wetfeet UCS Guide To Researching Industries Professional Organizations
What you should know about the company • Mission Statement/philosophy • Current and potential products and/or services • Competitors • Organizational size • Annual production and performance growth • Public or private
Even more impressive… • Names of Top Executives (are they NU alum?) • Organizational culture and structure • Recent news/press releases • Geographical location of headquarters, branches, subsidiaries
Examples of Professional Orgs • • • • • • • • • •
American Medical Association American Public Health Association American Association of Museums Advertising Association of America Society for Human Resource Management American Public Policy Association Screen Actors Guild Mechanical Engineering Association Biomedical Engineering Society American Historical Association
• • • • • • • • •
Public Relations Society of America Be An Actuary Sustainable Business Association American Sociological Association Association of American Publishers International Association of Business Communicators American Institute of Physics Association of Finance Professionals National Association of Social Work
Researching Companies • • • • • • •
CareerSearch Vault Guides Hoovers Lexis Nexis GuideStar (nonprofits) Idealist (nonprofits) Industry/Trade Magazines
The website: what to look at? • • • • •
Mission Statement About us… Corporate Information Media Center/Press Releases Blogs/twitter/linkedin/facebook
• • • •
US State Department Accenture Abercrombie and Fitch Leo Burnett
• “Careers” page
Finding People Who Work in the Industry/Company:
• CareerNet • Kellogg Mentors • Council of 100 • LinkedIn
Action Steps • Narrow down industries to research • Identify at least 1 news and 1 social media site to explore for each company • Create a notebook/folder/bookmark page to keep rack of your findings • Mention research findings in your cover letter • Think of questions to ask employers based on research
University Career Services Main Office 620 Lincoln Street 847-491-3700 CareerLab Core Reserve Main Library, 2nd Floor North Web www.northwestern.edu/careers Facebook www.facebook.com/northwesternuncs Twitter http://twitter.com/northwesternucs LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration? gid=1926036