How You Are Like Shampoo for Job Seekers. Brenda Bence

in a big company. Not only is that impossible, but it’s not even necessary to get the job you want.

      Instead, you can think of the entire company as an “individual” with its own set of facts and attitudes. As a great marketing sleuth, you can take what you learn about a company and begin to piece together a profile of how it operates, just as you would if you were learning about one particular person. You’ll discover if the company has a relaxed, more casual atmosphere or a more structured, buttoned-down way of functioning.You will find out if the company finds innovation important or if it values adhering strictly to policy— that type of thing. Here are some of the ways you can dig deeper to find out more about your companies of interest:

      Talk, Talk, Talk. Take the time to ask your friends and other people you meet if they know anyone who currently works for, or formerly worked for, your target companies — your potential Audience. If the employee is someone your contact knows well, you could even call or e-mail that person to ask them a few questions about the company.

      Meet and Greet. If you get an opportunity to attend an event where you’d have the chance to meet people who work at one of the companies you’ve targeted — by all means, take it! Of course, in that kind of situation, it’s important to keep up a professional image — even if it’s a casual event — because you’ll be meeting people face-to-face for the first time.

      Search the Internet. Thanks to the worldwide web, it’s easier than ever to find out a lot about potential employers. The number of online directories has quadrupled in the past ten years. While reviewing the company’s website is the absolute best first place to start, it still only scratches the surface of what you can discover about a company online. With just a few research skills, you can mine an enormous amount of great information that you can use to put together a more detailed profile of your target companies.

      Try typing the following into your search engine to discover more about a company:

      [Company name] [your desired division or department]

      [Company name] annual report

      [Company name] press release

      [Company name] event

      [Company name] brochure

      [Company name] newsletter

      [Company name] e-zine

      [Company name] charity

      [Company name] values

      [Company name] culture

      Through these searches, you should be able to find out a great deal of information, including:

      •How does the company present itself in the media?

      •What is the tone and style of the various documents the company publishes?

      •When you read the company’s annual reports, brochures, newsletters, and e-zines, what facts and attitudes do these documents reveal about the company?

      You’ll be amazed at the amount of information you can gather about potential employers this way. What other aspects of a company are you interested in? Use your search engine, and see what comes up.

      The Old Stand-Bys. You can look up companies on a number of traditional lists such as Standard & Poor’s, Dun & Bradstreet, Dow Jones, Moody’s Investors Service, and Polk’s. While not all countries will be represented, many international companies are included. If searching these lists online requires that you pay a fee, check your local library to see if you can use the printed versions of these publications there for free.

      Information from these lists and the company’s website can help you uncover the following:

      •Is the company on the stock exchange, or is it private? Family-owned?

      •Does the company do business locally or internationally?

      •How long has the company been in business? Has it changed owners more than once?

      •What other companies are its biggest competitors?

      •Has the company grown in recent years, or is its industry suffering?

      •What trends taking place in the world today might have an impact on the company’s business?

      Articles About the Company. Search for articles about the company on the Internet, too. You will no doubt find dozens of online articles, or even hundreds if it’s a large company. If you find references to printed publications with articles, go to your library to look them up. There, you’ll find answers to questions such as:

      •Has the company been in the news lately? If so, why? What are others saying and writing about the company?

      •Where does the company as a whole place its focus?

      •Has it merged or set up partnerships with any other companies?

      •Has it introduced new products or services?

      •Has it hired new executives?

      •What charities has the company supported, and what do these charities say about the company’s character and values?

      •Is the company actively involved with the charity or simply making contributions?

      •What is the primary focus of the charities — humanitarian, environmental, local, international, educational, or other?

      Articles By or Regarding Key People. Try another Internet search for articles by or about some of the company’s top executives. These will give you a good feeling for the company and what it’s all about. You may even find articles that reference a key individual before he or she joined the company. If this person could be your immediate boss or the head of your potential division, knowing this background will tell you a lot about the kind of people the company values. You might even be able to find direct quotes from some executives to give you an inside look into facts about this person and what kind of behaviors they like or dislike. No matter whether this person is likely to be your interviewer or not, by understanding more about a company’s execs, you will develop a more in-depth profile of the company and its important players.

      Articles will also give you a good idea of the kind of experience the company is looking for. If you can find out the background of some of a company’s current employees, you might start to see patterns in the types of people the company likes to hire. This kind of probing is definitely worth your time. If you look long and hard enough, you might even find an article mentioning someone who holds or who held the very same position you want!

      The LinkedIn Advantage

      Social networking sites like LinkedIn.com are another great source of company information. You may even discover companies of interest that you didn’t know about. For example, LinkedIn hosts hundreds of

      interest groups, and if you search for groups in your areas of interest, you should be able to find others in your targeted industry who are working for great companies.

      You can search for specific companies, a city you’re interested in, or a particular industry. Make sure to search for old friends and classmates as well to find out where they’re working. You might end up with a direct connection at a great company that you didn’t even realize you had!

      When you search for one of your targeted companies on LinkedIn, you’ll find lists of those companies’ employees who maintain LinkedIn profiles. Look for people working in the division you’re interested in, for example, and read their information. You will find out more than you ever thought possible. These profiles often even include testimonials, so you can get a sense of the kind of people the company tends to hire.

      When you review the profiles, look for trends rather than just specifics about individuals. Does a particular company’s employees have things in common that could help you create a company profile? For example:

      •Are the profiles similar in tone — such as all very buttoned-down or