Keep your career on track

February 22, 2001: 6:16 a.m. ET

Conducting thorough research about prospective employers is crucial
By Peter Weddle

NEW YORK (CNNfn) - As the economy slows, many of us are putting our career development efforts on hold. According to a recent survey by Bernard Haldane Associates, the career management company, just 9 percent of Americans are planning to look for advancement opportunities this year.

While exercising care is always a smart move, it's also important to stick with the research and other preparatory activities that will keep a career on track, whatever the direction of the economy.

Conducting research about prospective employers is a particularly important part of successful career management.

The information you acquire will help you focus on those organizations that offer the best advancement potential for you, today and in the future.

The Internet can connect you with a wide range of resources for determining a company's financial health and plans for growth, its leadership and stature in its industry, its benefits and work culture and the location and caliber of its facilities.

You can access information provided by the organization itself as well as by third-party analysts, the Federal Government, and even its current and former employees.

Perhaps the best place to start your research is the Web site of those employers that have caught your eye. Although not all organizations have an Internet site, those that do often include information about their employment opportunities.

If you're unsure about where to find an organization online, use the search engine HotBot.com to track down its Internet address or Universal Resource Locator (URL).

Then, visit the site and look for a link to its Career, Jobs or Employment area.

Often times, it's prominently featured on the Home Page and easy to spot; on other sites, unfortunately, it's hidden away, usually in areas called About Us or Who We Are.

Inside these areas, you're likely to find everything from the company's mission, work environment, and opportunities for development to its commitment to diversity, benefits and other factors that can determine whether it's the right place for you.

For another perspective, pay a visit to one of the sites that specialize in company research. They offer brief descriptions of both public and private companies in the United States.

The descriptions detail each organization's industry, products and markets, key executives and headquarters location. They're provided at no charge, while more in-depth information is available for a fee.

The two leading sites for such research are Hoovers Online and Companies Online, each of which covers thousands of potential employers. In addition, you can find the address, business and toll-free telephone numbers, and fax number for over 16 million businesses in the United States at SuperPages.

If the company is publicly traded on the stock market, you might also want to visit the EDGAR database at the Securities and Exchange Commission site. It includes all formal corporate filings with the U.S. Federal Government.

If you can wade through the legal mumbo jumbo, you can tell which of the company's business units made and lost money, any extraordinary liabilities it may have and even how much money it has in the bank. If the prose is too dense, stop by a site called Downside.

It uses the information in the SEC filings to calculate a company's financial position and when it is likely to run out of money given its current rate of profitability (or lack thereof). What's the name of this feature? It's called the Deathwatch.

Finally, you can get the "straight" scoop on an organization by stopping by one of the sites that offer a forum where visitors are encouraged to talk about their employers. Although the commentary is clearly subjective, it can give you a taste for some of the internal issues and concerns at certain organizations.

If you want to see how it looks from the inside and don't mind wading through some personal ranting and grandstanding, visit the Message Boards at Vault.com or the Discussion Boards at Wetfeet.com.

All of these resources make it easy and convenient to acquire information about prospective employers.

So, keep up with your research, and you'll be much better able to keep your career moving forward.

-- Peter Weddle is one of the nation's leading experts in online job searching. He has written numerous books, including "Career Fitness" and "CliffsNotes: Finding a Job on the Web." For more information, please visit his site at http://www.weddles.com/.