Question:
I am looking for an entry-level marketing/advertising job and I am finding that the jobs I want are not advertised. How can I find potential companies in a specific industry, within a specific city, that hire people in my field?
Answer:
If you are a student or recent graduate of a four-year college or university, your career services office may be able to help you by providing a password to
www.jobtrak.org,
www.jobdirect.com,
www.collegecentral.com (click on "students," then "Top Jobs") or another web site targeting recent college graduates. National employers list such post-college entry-level jobs with these services. Your college may also have its own proprietary job posting web site where local employers post jobs.
For companies within a specific industry, visit the reference librarian in your local public library and ask for direction to Internet/CDROM/print versions of standard directories such as Hoover's, Dun and Bradstreet, and Thomas' Register. There are international versions of some of these directories. You need the library because the full texts of these directories are only available to institutions that pay for them. There are national directories focused on one industry, such as Adams Job Bank Guide to Health Care Companies.
For guides to companies in individual cities, look for the Adams series of Job Bank books, revised annually, such as Metropolitan New York Job Bank 2000 edition.
There is also a real gem of a book I have just discovered missing from my book case, so I can't provide the title. It lists employers in many industries across the country hiring at very high rates, based on their previous year's increase in staff and their projections for the next year. Last year's edition is usually in the bargain section of Barnes & Noble.
In big city newspapers or their employment advertising web sites, you may find a section titled "College Grads" where employers place ads for entry-level jobs.
National Business Employment Weekly, found on newsstands, publishes inexpensive guides to major cities in the US and a few overseas ones, including employers, recruiters, Chambers of Commerce phone numbers, pay scale adjustment factors from one city to another, and other information useful to job seekers.
Lastly, don't limit yourself to finding companies with current ads. Make a list using the above sources, and any others you learn about or already admire, and show this list to everyone you meet via networking. Ask "if I am interested in companies like these, what companies haven't I listed that ought to be on this list?" and "Do you know anyone in any of these companies whom I could talk to about what it's like to work there?" (not "whom I could ask for a job?") While networking seems like to most indirect way to find a job, it is the most direct!
-- Carol Anderson, Career Development and Placement Office, Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy at New School University in New York City
