Jobs, Companies, and Résumés - Oh My!

  1. Baseline: a place to start; enabling you to compare job ads and offers of employment
  2. Expand Your Knowledge: find additional information about your intended career
  3. Job Search: finding available job opportunities
  4. Researching Companies and Company History: show your potential employer that you know something about the company and what they do
  5. Résumés: the employable you on paper and on-line

Baseline: a place to start; enabling you to compare job ads and offers of employment

Occupational Outlook Handbook
http://www.bls.gov/oco
Published by the U.S. government, this book and online resource lists the pertinent facts about occupations: working conditions, employment, training and advancement, job outlook, and additional information.

WOIS: Washington Occupational Information Service
http://www.wois.org/online/wci.cfm (Note: this will ask for your student number if you are not on campus)
Similar to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, but specific data for Washington State. Indicates colleges and universities offering the degree(s) needed to enter an occupation.

Expand Your Knowledge: find additional information about your intended career

ProQuest Direct
http://www.proquest.com/pqdauto/ (Note: this will ask for your student number if you are not on campus)
In the Collections menu, select only ABI-Inform Trade & Industry. Doing so will yield the most relevant newspaper and magazine articles for any career field.

Job Search: finding available job opportunities

Local: Whether you plan to stay in the Seattle-Tacoma area or to relocate to another city, the most current, reliable source of information will be the local newspaper. Most large newspapers like The Seattle Times and The Oregonian offer their daily want ads on their websites.

National: There are a number of websites offering job listings and employer-employee matching services. Among the best are:

Google features a large number of U.S. and international newspapers: http://directory.google.com/Top/News/Newspapers/Regional/

Google also has a comprehensive list by occupation, including a Job Search category: http://directory.google.com/Top/Business/Employment/

Researching Companies and Company History: show your potential employer that you know something about the company and what they do

American Big Businesses Directory
Holman Library Reference 338.644 A512 2000

Million Dollar Directory
Holman Library Reference 332.63 D897m
The basics about publicly traded and private companies-revenues, executives (including the head of Human Resources!), addresses and other contact info

Value Line Investment Survey
Holman Library Reference 332.63 V215
Tracks stock value of publicly traded companies. Includes text about company performance in current quarter compared to its past performance and to competitors.

EDGAR
http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml
10K reports for publicly traded companies

Company websites: search http://www.google.com for the company name.

Résumés: the employable you on paper and on-line

See section 3 above for job sites that enable you to upload your already-created Résumé or assist you in creating one.

Marian the Librarian says:
Never pay to post your Résumé!

The most reputable employment websites get their revenues from employers posting ads--NOT from job seekers!