These companies should be interested in hiring you, but you need to watch out for the following landmines that can trip up your job hunt and potentially land you in legal trouble.  Specifically, watch out for these five:

1. Being interviewed for competitive information when no job is available.
2. Providing information in violation of a clause in your Employment Agreement.
3. Accepting a position with a rival very close to your current responsibilities that is forbidden by your non-compete agreement.
4. Soliciting customers or former co-workers in your new position.
5. Taking confidential information with you when you leave your employment.

Being Pumped for Competitive Intelligence

This ploy is not common, but very serious if it happens. You have one or more interviews with a competitor, but there is no job—the competitor is solely seeking information about your current or former employer.

Detecting this behavior is difficult since your employer’s rivals can have a real interest in you.  None of these signs are definitive, but they can add up to a pattern:

• Did some one from the competitor contact you directly to suggest an interview, indicating that they knew about you and your position? Some companies have been known to publish a non-existing opening so a lack of a published job description is not a definitive sign.
• Do the interviewers have a written job description and a clear business reason for seeking to hire?
• Are they asking questions about your employer’s future plans or directions? They and you should be focusing on your accomplishments in the past (use examples as far back as you can justify), not questioning you on the future.
• Are they asking questions on areas/functions outside of your responsibilities?
• Where is the interview taking place? Jurisdictions vary in how they view this type of behavior.

Violating the Terms of Your Employment Agreement

Employment agreements are very common and contain clauses that may restrict your employment options.  Please note that I am not a lawyer and you should seek the advice of a lawyer to discuss your individual situation.  The enforceability of these agreements often depends on your specific circumstances and the state in which you live.

You probably signed an employment agreement among other documents on your first day of work and may not have looked at since then.  It may contain one or more of the following clauses:

Confidentiality or Non-Disclosure:  You agreed not to disclosure to anyone, possibly for a specified time period, confidential information that you learned on the job.  These are also called confidential disclosure, proprietary information, or secrecy agreements/clauses.

Non-Compete:  You agreed not to work for a competitor in a similar position for a specified time frame.

Non-Solicitation:  You agreed not to solicit your employer’s customers or fellow employees for a specified time frame.

Ownership of Intellectual Property:  You agreed that the intellectual property that you developed during your employment belongs to your employer, not you.

Before you go on an interview, review the document and ask your lawyer if the laws have changed or if any court cases have changed the interpretation of any of the clauses.

If you are interviewing with an ethical company, telling them that you are restricted in what you can say should not hurt your candidacy.  After all, if you respect your current employer, you will respect them if you become an employee.

Accepting a New Position Similar to Your Current Job

Your current employer may be able to restrict your ability to join a rival in a similar position by claiming that it will impossible to avoid using confidential information in the new opportunity.  Again, it depends on your circumstances.  Your lawyer can advise you. 

Walking out the Door with Confidential Information

You generally cannot leave your existing firm, either involuntarily or for a new position, with confidential or proprietary information.  This is hard because if you want examples of your work and most of it is confidential, what do you do?  You have to search through your work and find the examples that are acceptable to use, or create dummy documents that show the type and amount of effort that you did, but contain fake information.  Not only will your current employer be unhappy with your actions, usually your new employer will not want the information so you are creating a bad impression from the beginning of your employment there. When in doubt, leave it behind.

Bottom Line

In general you need to be aware of the legal issues, think about how you can answer questions about your work without providing any proprietary information, and answer honestly that you do not think you can discuss that issue.  People jump from one competitor to another all the time—you just have to be careful, honest, and ethical.  Employers will want to hire you because of your skills, experience, general industry and product knowledge, not because of specific confidential information.  With some planning and positioning of your positive attributes, you should be well on your way to a new job.

About the author…

Parmelee Eastman is president of EastSight Consulting which helps provide more effective utilization of external information in internal decision-making processes. EastSight Consulting clients range from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Prior to founding EastSight, Parmelee was the vice president of the global technology and communications practice at Fuld & Company and employed for 16 years at Digital Equipment Corporation. Parmelee holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. She can be reached at peastman@eastsightconsulting.com.
More about this author…

The post 5 Landmines to Avoid when Interviewing at Competitors appeared first on Job-Hunt.

But LinkedIn is also a great research resource.

Use LinkedIn to find:

• People in targeted organizations or with special expertise
• Potential employers
• Information that you can use in your job hunt

The search feature allows you to search for people, companies, and answers, as well as jobs, events, and groups.

Your LinkedIn Network Connections

LinkedIn defines your network as your direct links (first level), their direct links (second level), and the links’ links (third level). You’ll see the linkage designation next to the person’s name:

 (or similar icon) Direct Link: You know someone at company XYZ.

 Their Direct Links:  Your connection(s) know someone at company XYZ.

 Their Links’ Links:  Your connections’ connections know someone at company XYZ.

Finding the Right People

Obviously you can search for an old friend or business acquaintance by name, but you can also search for possible contacts using the advanced search features.

Click on the Advanced button to the right of the Search button, and enter characteristics such as geography, title, industry, company, school, and keywords to find individuals meeting certain criteria.

For example, I searched on “Aviation” and received 110,980 records. When I limited the search to within 50 miles of my zip code, LinkedIn produced 1,906 potential contacts. Adding job title “pilot” to the search cut the results down to 61.

Like most social media sites, LinkedIn is multi-tiered with significant value available free, but with other features accessible to paying subscribers. With a free account, called personal on LinkedIn, you can see only 100 search results.

You can focus your search using the “Sort” and “View” options. LinkedIn allows you to search by:

• Relevance: based on your network and the keywords that you entered (default setting).
• Relationship: Results are listed by First degree, then Second degree relationships. Third degree and out of network entries are mixed after First and Second.
• Relationship and recommendations: Adds the number of recommendations to the relationship criteria.
• Keyword: Sorted solely on the keywords that you entered

Each entry shows a picture, name and shared connections (for your network contacts), job title, and location.

The expanded view adds current and past experiences.

If the person is out of your network, you can see only limited information. If you cannot see all the information in a profile, take the basic information from the LinkedIn entry and try a Google search.

Google will often find additional information on the person from previous searches in its database.

Finding Information About Companies

LinkedIn includes a short summary of each company which is very useful for small, private organizations. I recently completed a project on a firm with less than one hundred employees.

Of all the secondary sources that I checked, LinkedIn had the headcount number closest to the actual which we learned from an employee doing primary research.

Another feature that is very useful in finding other firms in a selected industry is the ability to find related companies. When you search for a company, LinkedIn will suggest related industries; click on one and a list of companies is returned with headquarters location and number of employees

You can also search for people by searching for a company. Using a local bank, State Street Bank, as an example, LinkedIn returned the short profile and a list of people in my network that work at the bank. In this case, none of the individuals were direct links, but the connecting link and degree are included with each name so I could contact the direct link and ask for an introduction.

Scroll down and look at the section “Viewers of this profile also viewed…” Many of the people listed also work at State Street Bank. Click on those names and find more names.

While it is best to network through a contact at a prospective employer, if you do not know anyone in your targeted area, you may be able to find one through this process.

And if you are not familiar with the Jobs section and the premium account for job seekers, check them out.

More: The Ultimate Guide to Company Research for Your Job Search

Finding the Right Jobs

LinkedIn has a jobs section with a list of options to focus your search including key words, company, title, location, job function, date posted, industry, and experience. Salary information is available only to premium account holders.

In addition, if you are seeking a clearly defined job with a common title such as Claims Investigator, you will receive better matches than if you have more possible descriptions. I entered Business Research and received a wide variety of jobs that contained either “business” or “research.”

:Like Google and many other search engines, put double quotation marks around your search term and LinkedIn will limit results to those entries containing the words side-by-side in a phrase.

Bottom Line

Go beyond the Jobs section and use LinkedIn to find new contacts at targeted organizations, smaller companies that could be potential employers, and information that might be useful in your job hunt. With free accounts, access to potential contacts is limited to 100 entries per people search so use the advanced search features to focus on the people you really want to reach.

The advanced features allow you to set criteria such as location, job title, industry, etc. to narrow the results. The larger your direct network, the more likely those 100 entries are to be contacts of your contacts which means LinkedIn will reveal additional information on them. So combining networking and research on LinkedIn benefits you in both areas.

• Find smaller firms in your targeted industry by checking out LinkedIn’s industry listings.
• LinkedIn has an in creditable data base of professionals.

Add these tools to your job hunting tool box to find new contacts for networking and one of them may be the key to your next position. For more details on how to search, scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the Help Center, and click on search on the list of topics on the left.

More About LinkedIn for Job Search

• The Ultimate Guide to Company Research for Your Job Search
• Company Research Using LinkedIn Company Pages
• Advanced LinkedIn Strategies for Company Research
• Tapping Into LinkedIn’s Data
• LinkedIn for Job Search

About the author…

Parmelee Eastman is president of EastSight Consulting which helps provide more effective utilization of external information in internal decision-making processes. EastSight Consulting clients range from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Prior to founding EastSight, Parmelee was the vice president of the global technology and communications practice at Fuld & Company and employed for 16 years at Digital Equipment Corporation. Parmelee holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. She can be reached at peastman@eastsightconsulting.com.
More about this author…

The post Beyond Networking – Using LinkedIn for Company Research appeared first on Job-Hunt.

Without the knowledge provided by company research, you risk looking lazy and/or clueless – not characteristics sought by any employer.

At the least, this research should enable you to provide an intelligent answer to the scary job interview question, “What do you know about us?”

Know Before You Go (or Apply) – Be Prepared to Be Impressive!

Researching before you go means that you will be well prepared to understand the company’s issues and atmosphere.

You will also be able to engage in a more meaningful dialogue, and demonstrate your level of interest to the interviewer.

Advantages of Taking the Time to Research:

Even with only 20 minutes of effort, you can do useful research.

1. Your best offense –

The knowledge gained from research will provide a solid foundation for each networking meeting or interview, demonstrating your level of interest and allowing you more time to explore key issues.

[More: Be Impressive and Better Informed Through Your Company Research.]

2. Your best defense –

The knowledge gained from research will also hopefully help you avoid taking a short-term job. People often grab the first job offer they receive, particularly in a tough economy. That instinct, which seems like self-preservation, may lead you to accept a job that is not a good fit for you or which may be at an employer which is not a good fit. In either case, you are either miserable in your job, or you find yourself job hunting again too soon.

[More: 50 Google Searches to Avoid a Layoff or Bad Employer.]

Bottom Line

Both of these advantages will more than make up for the time invested. They may, in fact, result in a shorter job search than if you just jumped into your job search, without sufficient information or direction.

About the author…

Parmelee Eastman is president of EastSight Consulting which helps provide more effective utilization of external information in internal decision-making processes. EastSight Consulting clients range from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Prior to founding EastSight, Parmelee was the vice president of the global technology and communications practice at Fuld & Company and employed for 16 years at Digital Equipment Corporation. Parmelee holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. She can be reached at peastman@eastsightconsulting.com.
More about this author…

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In the USA, these public companies are required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to publish quarterly and annual financial reports. Those statements include the income statement, segment and/or geographic breakdown, balance sheet, cash flow, and notes on accounting practices.

[Related: Researching Private Companies and Nonprofit entities.]

What Can You Learn?

Analyzing the recent financial picture helps you understand why the firm might hire you and what the goals and environment of the firm might be. While the past financial performance does not guarantee the future, the insight does help predict it.

Why Are They Hiring?

Is the job you want a replacement person for an essential job? A revenue-generating sales position (which might be very pressured)? How likely is the company to be able to provide you with advancement possibilities and pay raises, or even stay in business? The company’s profitability picture can give you insight into what may be happening and why.

What’s the Trend?

Let’s look at the company’s annual report, audited financial information required of all U.S. “C” corporations by the SEC, often available on company websites or at libraries.

The income statement shows the revenue received by the company for the most recent year, the prior one to four years, and the previous eight (or more) quarters. What is the trend in revenue? Essentially flat, steadily rising, erratic, or down? And what does the Management Discussion reveal about the reasons for changes in revenue?

While the firm is barred from projecting the future in its financial reports, you can gain a sense of the stability of revenue from the five year trend.

Larger entities separate revenue and profit by business segment and possibly by geography (generally too high level to be useful). You can see how important your area of interest is to the firm overall.

Choosing Your Part of the Company

Hewlett Packard’s 2014 (year ended Oct 31, 2014) annual report showed the results for its six segments. Which divisions would you like to join? And which would you avoid?

On Oct 6, 2014, HP announced that the company is splitting into two Fortune 50 businesses. Hewlett-Packard Inc. which includes the Personal Systems and Printing segments, and Hewlett-Packard Enterprises will have the Enterprise Group, Enterprise Services, Software, and HPFS.

HP Inc. is being positioned as a mature business — indeed the PC industry has seen sales shrink recently. By the way, HP has laid off 36,000 employees and has targeted 10,000 more jobs in order to re-direct funds into sales and R&D.

Which business would you prefer to join?

Is the Company Profitable?

Profits or net income for the company are what’s left after taxes and special charges are deducted from total or gross income. Are profits non-existent, flat, steadily rising, erratic, or down? Why? If the company has a poor record of profitability, why is it hiring?

Special or one-time charges or additions for plant closings, increases or decreases from reserves, or revenue from the sale of divisions can distort the trends. However, ask yourself if the charges are unlikely to re-occur or are they symptoms of executive failings.

Assets, Liabilities, and Cash (a.k.a. “Salary Continuation”)

The company balance sheet contains the company’s assets, liabilities and debts, and equity (“equity” is the value of the stock in the public stock market).

• How much cash and assets such as accounts receivable that will turn into cash quickly does it hold in comparison to its short-term liabilities? (This number is called “liquidity.”)
• What are amounts of debt and equity or shareholder value? If the debt is high or the equity low, how stable is this firm? In general, short-term (less than one year) assets should match short-term liabilities and long-term assets should match long-term liabilities. If the company built a manufacturing facility with short-term loans from a bank, watch out!

Cash flow statements show the sources of cash such as profits, loans, equity investments, and how the cash is spent on items including inventory increases, debt reductions, or stock re-purchases. Accounting rules require that revenue be recognized or included when the products or services are delivered. For example, a company cannot include both years of a two-year contract when the contract is first awarded. Each year must be reported separately. And financing such as loans are not included in the income statement, but the interest paid is included as a negative.

Cash flow statements focus on cash in and cash out regardless of the reporting under accounting rules. Look at the cash flow statement to see how the organization obtains enough money to pay its obligations. Negative cash flows do not always indicate a problem. For instance, fast-growing entities often consume more cash than they generate internally, and use outside financing to pay their bills.

Financial analysts use ratios to compare companies in the same industry.

• The “current ratio” shows the amount of liquid assets to short-term debt.
• “Debt to equity” ratio indicates how risky the company’s financing structure is.

Calculating the firm’s ratios and comparing them to industry averages can indicate variations that should be investigated. Again, differences do not necessarily indicate a problem. The firm’s financial strategy or history may have resulted in non-standard ratios. Reading the notes to the financial statements can clarify some of the rules and reasons for classifications of items.

A Word of Caution

No single financial figure or ratio stands alone. Insight into the financial health of the company comes from analyzing the pieces together to discover the true standing of the company. And the financials fit into a larger picture of the company and its future direction.

About the author…

Parmelee Eastman is president of EastSight Consulting which helps provide more effective utilization of external information in internal decision-making processes. EastSight Consulting clients range from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Prior to founding EastSight, Parmelee was the vice president of the global technology and communications practice at Fuld & Company and employed for 16 years at Digital Equipment Corporation. Parmelee holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. She can be reached at peastman@eastsightconsulting.com.
More about this author…

The post Analyzing the Company Financial Reports appeared first on Job-Hunt.

You have to figure out how the company fits into its industry, and analyze the characteristics of the industry. After all, who would have wanted to join the best-run buggy whip company in the dawning era of the automobile?

The Boy Scouts Are Right – “Be Prepared!”

The more you know about the company (the products, services, and organization), its industry, and its competitors, the more you will stand out from the crowd of other job seekers who aren’t as well informed. Use this information to customize your resume and your cover letter and to make a good impression during the interview process.

Who are these sources?

Sources that have knowledge of industry-wide issues or who are not tied to a specific player are commonly referred to as third party sources. These sources include industry trade associations, specialized consulting firms, industry publications, government agencies, information providers, and security analysts. They cover multiple, if not all, players in an industry. They provide basic facts such as industry size, growth rate, names of participating firms, and industry studies.

You will find these sources through their web sites, on lists from Job-Hunt.org, at libraries, or at job-hunting resource centers. Trade associations, information providers, industry publications, and consulting firms frequently have web sites with public and members-only sections. The public sections often have information supporting the organization’s public relations or marketing goals.

• Industry Associations To find industry associations, use a search engine or go to a public, business, research, college, or university library to see if you can find Gale Research’s publication, Encyclopedia of Associations, whose 135,000 listings include 22,200 US associations with national scope and 115,000 smaller organizations.Using a search engine, for example, I entered “candy,” “industry,” and “association” (without the quotes) and found the American Association of Candy Technologists , a US-focused site for candy industry employees. This site lists local chapters with contacts and an archive of articles with the first page accessible at no charge. If you see an interesting article, buy it or call the writer or the association’s public relations person (found on the “Contact Us,” or similar, page). They might be willing to give you some details over the phone.

• Specialized Consulting FirmsBack to search engines. Find industry consulting firms by using industry specific multiple search terms. Entering “biotech,” “consulting,” and “firms” (again, without the quotes) produced pages of results. Two, selected randomly, offered free information on their web sites. Campbell Alliance and Maxion Group had links to articles from industry publications. Consulting firms are unlikely to return your calls so stick to published material.

• Industry PublicationsIndustry publications are valuable sources of information. The majority have web sites which contain some free information and allow searches of all content. An article reprint is relatively inexpensive if it covers a topic of great interest to you. But it’s free if you can find the publication at a local library that has a subscription or, sometimes, on the publication’s Website.While your town’s public library may have a donated subscription on an industry of local interest, you are more likely to find the publication at a specialized public or business school library. Anybody can walk in off the street to view publications in Boston’s business library branch Kirsten. Or check to see if you can access publications at a local college or university.

  Online, search for relevant publications on Google, or your favorite search engine.

• Benefit from Your Tax DollarsGovernment information is free or inexpensive. After all, you’ve already paid for it with your tax dollars. It tends to be an aggregate and not company specific, and it is often available with a considerable lag time so it may not be very relevant in today’s fast changing world.If you are interested in the relatively robust health industries, the National Institutes of Health (www.nih.gov) contains information about its research and activities, all articles about NIH funded research which are found under the PubMed heading, and references to publicly available tools and data bases from other sources since as universities

  Information on 14 million companies listed in the ReferenceUSA (an InfoUSA company) can be accessed through my local library. Check your local library for resources, both online and hardcopy.

• Information ProvidersInformation providers sell news feeds and research to clients on a subscription or single report basis. Some offer information free for marketing purposes. For example, at www.reuters.com, you can access basic information about publicly held companies and some research reports free. Free basic company info is also available at www.hoovers.com. While Hoovers’ information is not as detailed as Reuters’ entries, Hoovers includes privately held firms while Reuters contains only information on publicly-held companies.

• Security AnalystsSecurity analysts often do industry studies as well as individual company reports. If you cannot obtain them through a relationship with a brokerage house, check to see if you can access these reports through your local library. For example, Value Line Investment Survey publications are available through my local library.

Bottom Line

You may find that some of these sources are better than others for your industry or your job function. Or you are staying in the same field and already have a solid background. Either way, you need to understand your target company in the context of its industry dynamics to know its long term potential.

About the author…

Parmelee Eastman is president of EastSight Consulting which helps provide more effective utilization of external information in internal decision-making processes. EastSight Consulting clients range from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Prior to founding EastSight, Parmelee was the vice president of the global technology and communications practice at Fuld & Company and employed for 16 years at Digital Equipment Corporation. Parmelee holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. She can be reached at peastman@eastsightconsulting.com.
More about this author…

The post Learning from Industry Observers appeared first on Job-Hunt.

Now you need to research the company before writing the cover letter or picking up the phone.

The quickest route to information these days is just a few clicks away; the organization’s web site. Even dog walkers have web sites these days so your targets, even if privately owned, should definitely have developed a web site for marketing and customer support purposes.

Finding the Website

The website name may not be obvious. The shorter web site names were taken long ago, and many other names were reserved for possible sale. Jones & Associates may be jonesassociates.com, jones-associates.com, just jones.com, or some other variation.

Go to Google or another search engine and type in the company name. The search engine will return a list of citations with the most likely web site first.

[Related: Ground Rules for Google Search.]

If the right organization is not listed, use a phone company yellow pages web site to find the legal name or the DBA (Doing Business As) for the firm.

Or your target may be a subsidiary of another company and therefore has placed limited information on its web site. The relationship is usually mentioned, but not always — and frequently in small print. The parent company’s web site may not have enough detail on your area of interest.

Many large organizations support multiple web sites targeting different audiences. The main web site is generally for marketing and often recruitment. Other web sites may exist specifically for recruitment, customer interaction/transactions or country-specific activities.

Consumer product entities frequently separate corporate from product information and consumer interaction activities such as sweepstakes. For example, www.pepsico.com contains the corporate information for food and beverage conglomerate PepsiCo while www.pepsi.com, www.fritolay.com, www.tropicana.com, etc. focus on specific PepsiCo product lines.

Another common situation occurs when an acquisition with a strong brand name is gradually transitioned to the parent’s web site. Ticona, formerly a joint venture of Celanese and Hoechst, developed a strong brand name. Celanese subsequently bought out Hoechst. Ticona maintained its own web site for a while, but now typing www.ticona.com will send you to the Celanese website with a section that indicates that Ticona is now Celanese.

Delve into What the Company Does and Where the Opportunities Could Be

Once you find the web site that you want, click on “About Us” or “Company” for an introduction to the organization’s business, history and size. This section may also include a mission/vision statement, locations, or community affairs.

The majority of web sites, even for small, private, or non-profit organizations, have extensive sections on products, services, or activities.

A careful reading of this section will reveal not only the specific products, but often the target markets, customer testimonials, and channel partners/distributors.

Note especially any statements about products or divisions with prospects for growth or plans to re-vitalize a business. These are indications of potential resource allocations (jobs!) to those areas.

Words such as “re-structure” or “re-size” are red flags for additional layoffs.

Unfortunately, layoffs are now viewed as normal business practice at many organizations so an announcement of layoffs should not discourage you for investigating further. Firms may lay off employees in one business unit or department while hiring staff in another location or with a different skill set.

Figure out, if you can from the announcements, which businesses or functions had layoffs.

Find More than Jobs in the Career Section

The career heading often includes a section on values or culture and benefits as well as open jobs. Even if you are looking for an unpublished job, read the descriptions to understand what characteristics/experience is generally sought by the company.

Does the company need certain skills, or change agents?

Is it hiring to support new expansion into new markets?

Note any hint of the working conditions. There’s a world of difference between companies touting “a family friendly workplace” vs. “seeking high energy person with two years of experience for fast-paced environment.”

Background on the Executives

Public, and some private firms, will list the top executives and board members with biographical information.

How well does your experience/education match theirs? Do the majority have engineering degrees, advanced degrees, attended local colleges or name universities?

Having a different background is not necessarily a stumbling block to fitting it at the company, but you may need to position what your different background brings to the company.

Signs of Layoffs in the Future

Public companies will include financial information under the heading, “Investors.”

Obviously you want to check to see if revenue is growing vs. shrinking and if the company is profitable or not…

Some private and non-profit organizations will reveal some information about their finances.

Does the company list venture funders?

Venture capital funding used to mean that a fledging entity could go back for future rounds. Now, VC firms are much less likely to support a firm through the difficult times.

Does the firm describe the previous year as “difficult, the economy “challenging,” and the president faced with “hard decisions?” Or has the firm already cutback and reorganized so the company is “positioned well for the current environment” or “at the planned trough level?

Bottom Line

You can learn a lot about a potential employer by examining the Website. And, you’ll be better prepared for the cover letter and the interview, too, when the time comes.

About the author…

Parmelee Eastman is president of EastSight Consulting which helps provide more effective utilization of external information in internal decision-making processes. EastSight Consulting clients range from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Prior to founding EastSight, Parmelee was the vice president of the global technology and communications practice at Fuld & Company and employed for 16 years at Digital Equipment Corporation. Parmelee holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. She can be reached at peastman@eastsightconsulting.com.
More about this author…

The post Exploring the Employer’s Website appeared first on Job-Hunt.

Change that thinking to a balance between –

“Who would hire me?”    ** AND **
“Where would I have the best chance to succeed and want to work?”

Think of your networking activities as a research project to find the best fit between you and an employer. This article will focus on how to use primary research or obtain information from conversations with knowledgeable individuals to answer the fit question and prepare for job interviews.

Why would a contact spend time with you?

Most people understand the value of keeping in touch with contacts and will invest some time in speaking with job seekers.
Be positive about the contact’s ability to help you without resorting to flattery. If you have been told that Joe or Mary is an expert on the industry or company, say so. They may laugh, but they will speak with you more readily.

Smile While You Dial

Be sure that you come across positively when you speak on the phone. You will sound more positive if you smile while speaking on the phone. Other people have found dressing in business attire even when no one can see you makes a difference in how you come across. A third option is to stand while conversing. Try one or all three of these suggestions to see if your phone conversations become more effective.

Be nice to everyone. Many executives have administrative assistants who believe that they are serving their bosses best when weeding out callers. Most people have a natural instinct to be nice when treated nicely. Ask nicely to leave a voicemail or a message explaining your request and it will probably get through.

When you reach the contact, ask when a convenient time to meet is. Most information is non-verbal so meeting in person is best if the contact agrees. However, if a time for telephone is offered, take it and if the contact says that he/she has a few minutes right now, launch into your prepared questions.

Be Prepared

Be prepared when you call a networking contact with a clear purpose for the conversation; what you hope to learn from the contact, and a set of questions. Start with specific questions based on your previous research. Follow up with open ended queries to insure that new aspects of the industry or company that you are researching are brought to your attention.

A specific question would be “What is the corporate culture like at industry leader XYZ?”

An open-ended query would be “What else should I know about this industry or this company that we have not discussed yet?”

Make the Conversation Flow

Stand out from the crowd by offering some information that you have gathered beforehand to make the conversation more valuable for the contact.

If you are not sure that you understood something that the contact said, ask for clarification, or repeat it in your own words.

If a contact says that the information you requested is confidential, move on to your next question.

Respect the contact’s time constraints. Once you get into a conversation, people will often overlook the time, but if the contact has a meeting or report due, you may be cut off before getting all the information that you want.

A Gracious Good-By

At the end of the conversation, thank the contact for his/her time and ask three questions:

1. If the contact has not offered additional contacts, ask for some.
2. Ask if you can call back with a quick question, or keep in touch periodically (but not too often or you will wear out your welcome).
3. Ask if there is any way that you can help the contact.

Follow up with a thank you note and any information that you have found that might be of interest to the contact. You’ll stand out in the crowd.

About the author…

Parmelee Eastman is president of EastSight Consulting which helps provide more effective utilization of external information in internal decision-making processes. EastSight Consulting clients range from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Prior to founding EastSight, Parmelee was the vice president of the global technology and communications practice at Fuld & Company and employed for 16 years at Digital Equipment Corporation. Parmelee holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. She can be reached at peastman@eastsightconsulting.com.
More about this author…

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Trade shows are set up for potential buyers, but can be great for you because:

• Massive amounts of product/service and company information are available all in one place.
• Company employees staffing the booths expect to answer questions from and hold discussions with strangers.
• If you are interested in a specific industry, you can quickly assess that industry through multiple conversations and find a wide variety of organizations involved in that field.

How to Find Trade Shows

Trade shows are easy to find—organizers seek as much publicity as possible so try several different ways:

• Look on industry association web sites.
• Visit company web sites to see where they are exhibiting and/or speaking.
• Do an online search using key terms (see below for examples).
• Get on the mailing list for an event organizing firm in an industry that interests you.

If you find an interesting event too late to attend, check out the exhibitor list online. Many conferences link their exhibitor lists to those organizations’ web sites so it is a great collection of industry participants.

Trade Shows Vary Considerably So Find the Ones that Can Help You

The phrase “trade show” is used to refer to one time special events with multiple organizations exhibiting their products and/or services. Trade shows range from large, expensive B2B conferences with exhibit halls to consumer-oriented fairs.

Although many conferences require at least a full day commitment, some allow exhibit hall pass purchasers to add a single educational session, so it may be worthwhile to check the schedule for interesting topics or speakers. Most presenters stay after the talk for a few minutes to chat with attendees and exchange business cards so you may be able to make a valuable connection.

How to Reduce Your Expenses

There are options for lowering the costs of attending these events. First, most trade shows charge students a lower rate—ask to see if you qualify. Some use volunteers to help with logistics so a call to the organization may get you a free pass in return for a time commitment.

And, of course, attending a local even, with minimal travel and no hotel costs, will also help reduce your investment — assuming that a useful event is held near you.

Looking for an Event in a Growth Area — Green Energy or Pets?

Some conferences have exhibit only passes which are less expensive (or free) and allow you to visit the booths of suppliers. Exhibit passes can sometimes be expensive, but this environment is set up for conversation and the booth staff expect to hold numerous conversations with new contacts.

There are options for lowering the costs of attending these events. First, most trade shows charge students a lower rate—ask to see if you qualify. Some use volunteers to help with logistics so a call to the organization may get you a free pass in return for a time commitment.

Events Green Energy

Search on “green energy,” and expo pops up the Dec 7-11, 2014 Renewable Energy World Conference & Expo North America, co-located in Orlando, Florida with the Power Generation Week conference for a total of 22,000 attendees.

While this is a major national conference with a $645 fee to attend one conference plus fees for the golf tournament and networking breakfast, it could be worthwhile. Like many conference/trade shows, it is an annual event so you can make a note to check on the event for 2015.

An even less expensive example is Intersolar, a conference company in the solar industry which presents a national North American conference, to be held in 2015 in San Francisco, July 14-16 for the Exhibition and July 13-15 for the Conference.

This conference is co-located with Semicon West and actually has free events; exhibitors have 30 minutes to present their insight into current trends and new products on the Innovation and Application stage. The 2014 conference also had a Job and Career Forum.

If you register for the exhibits when registration opens in March or in April, the ticket is free, but goes up every month to reach $150 for on-site registration. The event is expected to have 550 exhibitors and 18,000 attendees.

In addition, the company hosts an one-day East Coast event called Intersolar Summit USA East which will take place May 7, 2015 in Brooklyn, NY. About 200 people are expected to attend.

Big Event for Pets

If you are interested in the growth industry of pets, one event is the Petfood Conference to be held April 27-30, 2015 in Kansas City, Missouri. The full pass to the conference talks, exhibit area, networking events, and daytime food is $1,295 while the exhibit only pass is $395.

Maximize the Value of Your Attendance with Advance Preparation

To maximize the value of attending a trade show:

• Check out the companies exhibiting before you go.
• Print out the floor plan and map out your visits by priority and location.
• Take a bag for literature (and your business/networking cards) and a notebook or small recorder for noting key information.

Trade shows can be overwhelming and hard on the feet. Determine the dress code for the event and dress at that level or one step up, but be sure your shoes are comfortable.

While the employees staffing the booth may not be potential bosses, you want to create a good impression so you can ask them for referrals to hiring managers within the company.

Try to tour the floor while most attendees are in sessions. The booth staff will have more time to speak with you. After all, their priority is potential customers, not job seekers.

Start each conversation by saying that you are interested in the company and/or the industry so they know that you have done some research. Ask what is new with the product line or company to help establish rapport before you ask any questions with negative connotations such as “I understand the company was unprofitable last year. How is the company doing this year?” or “Your market share dropped recently. What’s going on now?”

As always, thank them, exchange business cards, and ask if you can follow up with more questions or a referral. Your head will be stuffed with new information and your pockets with new contacts!

Follow Up Quickly After the Show

If you found organizations that interest you, contact the booth staff that you met and ask for referrals to the appropriate hiring managers. Or utilize your networking skills to contact employees at the firm. Either way, use the knowledge you acquired at the trade show to demonstrate your interest in the company.

Good luck!

About the author…

Parmelee Eastman is president of EastSight Consulting which helps provide more effective utilization of external information in internal decision-making processes. EastSight Consulting clients range from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Prior to founding EastSight, Parmelee was the vice president of the global technology and communications practice at Fuld & Company and employed for 16 years at Digital Equipment Corporation. Parmelee holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. She can be reached at peastman@eastsightconsulting.com.
More about this author…

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Finding this information will range from easy to impossible.

Some private organizations publish financial information on their websites in the interests of being transparent. Some provide pieces that you will have to put together.

Do enough research to answer the question, “Is this firm a good place to work from a financial viewpoint?” But do not spend too much time re-creating a private company’s financial statements.

Researching the Large Private US Companies

Don’t assume that all private companies are small neighborhood stores and restaurants which won’t be interested in hiring someone like you.

Pivate companies come in many sizes and do as wide a variety of things as public companies.

Many private companies have hundreds of thousands of employees scattered across the US and the world.

The US has some very large private for-profit firms such as:

• Cargill, which produces and distributes many food and agricultural products
• Koch Industries, which is in a variety of industries from refining oil to making paper (Georgia-Pacific is a division of Koch)
• Dell Computer
• Albertsons, the chain of grocery stores
• Bechtel, the construction company
• PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), the accounting and tax company
• Mars, the candy maker
• Ernst & Young, another accounting and tax company
• Cox Enterprises which ows Cox Communications (cable) and Cox Media Group (newspapers, TV, and radio)
• Fidelity Investments, the mutual fund company
• McKinsey & Company, the consultaing company

Google the Forbes’ list America’s Largest Private Companies to see the top companies with estimates of the revenue and profits of these firms. You still need to investigate the viability of the group in which you are interested.

Researching Smaller Private Companies

Another scenario is an opportunity at a small local company, maybe family-owned, that does not release financial information.

One possible source of information is a credit report. A D&B credit report usually includes the location(s), number of employees, revenue for the previous year, and a credit rating and suggested dollar limit. D&B reports were developed for suppliers to assess the likelihood of payment if they sold to the company.

The downside of credit reports is that the information on private firms is self-reported and could be inaccurate. Plus it contains a limited number of data items.

You can use the financial data that you find to compare the company to its peers by using industry ratios. These are compiled for many industries and are easily found on the web or in a library.

The ratios show the average percentage for each expense in the industry. For example, in the wood products manufacturing industry, the cost of goods sold consumes 58.54% of the revenue with profit before taxes equal 7.4% of revenue. Even the largest grocery stores, in contrast, have a cost of goods sold of 70.6% with a smaller profit before taxes of 1.9%.

A variation in ratios does not mean that your target company is an unattractive organization as a potential employee. The key is finding out why the variations. Family-owned businesses sometimes show tiny profits to avoid paying taxes, but the fundamental business is solid.

Bottom Line

A company’s financial situation is only one aspect of a prospective employer’s attractiveness, but it is a key one. Understanding the financials will help you put a potential job in the bigger picture, impress the hiring manager, and make you more likely to avoid layoffs in the future.

About the author…

Parmelee Eastman is president of EastSight Consulting which helps provide more effective utilization of external information in internal decision-making processes. EastSight Consulting clients range from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Prior to founding EastSight, Parmelee was the vice president of the global technology and communications practice at Fuld & Company and employed for 16 years at Digital Equipment Corporation. Parmelee holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. She can be reached at peastman@eastsightconsulting.com.
More about this author…

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Thinking and researching like a Stakeholder will keep you from focusing narrowly on getting the job.

A stakeholder’s perspective will help you ask what problems could exist at this company so you don’t get forced into another job search sooner than you want to be.

As a prospective employee, the stakeholder perspective can provide you with new insights into potential employers that can be very helpful to you in your interviews and other interaction with the employer:

• Do you find issues that provide you with an opportunity, some problems you can help them identify and solve?
• Do you see other opportunities – some aspect of the business or operation that you could help them improve?
• Are there problems or other red flags that indicate this potential employer is better avoided?
• Does your research indicate that a competitor might be a better choice for you?

Stakeholders include not just shareholders, but also:

• Employees
• Customers
• Suppliers
• Regulators
• Competitors
• Banks, factoring companies, or other sources of funds

Researching a targeted employer from these different perspectives will provide you with a much better idea of how you could help the company if you join it, your fit with the company, problem areas which could eliminate the firm from your target list, and people who could refer you to hiring managers at the company.

1. Employees

This is the obvious stakeholder role, and you have probably already done some research from this perspective, starting with checking the potential employer’s web site for:

• Open positions and qualifications
• Products and services
• Target markets and marketing messages
• Executives and their backgrounds
• Financial situation
• News and announcements
• Culture or fit which may be an entry in the HR section, or the impression which you have garnered from the web site as a whole

When possible, your research will include speaking with current or former employees to learn more about the topics listed above.

Also learn as much as you can about the environment, potential hiring managers, and their working styles. Visiting the potential employer’s Website as well as using your favorite search engines are obvious sources of online information, but searching offline, talking to people, can be extremely helpful.

Hopefully, you have received a balanced view of the organization, its financial and industry position, but additional viewpoints can raise red flags about the company or provide you with more insight.

2. Customers

If possible and practical, you should buy or use the product/service to assess such issues as quality, ease-of-use, and value. Contact customer service to determine their responsiveness.

If you cannot buy/use the product, then speak with customers to find out how they feel about the organization’s products, services, and customer service. What is your/their impression and does it match what employees said about its products/services?

Buy, use, or research competing products/services to determine how the potential employer fits into the industry’s product spectrum: price-leader, value-based, quality-brand, etc.

Depending on the organization and its products or services, you may find online reviews and ratings at sites like Amazon.com, Yelp.com, and other similar sites. In addition, don’t forget to check local business organizations like the Better Business Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce for information and insight into competitors.

3. Suppliers

Suppliers of raw materials and other products used at the firm want to have a good relationship with their customers and, most importantly, they want to be paid. So problems, such as lawsuits, with suppliers could indicate financial problems. If you can determine who supplies the organization, see if you can discover how the organization is perceived by the supplier – positive or negative. Again, sometimes, the local Better Business Bureau or Chamber of Commerce may have useful information.

4. Regulators

Is the company in an industry with significant regulatory oversight? Regulators often know quite a bit about the firms that they monitor, including if the organizations have histories of violations. Are regulators are regularly finding problems and imposing fines?

A pattern of problems could be an opportunity for you to help clean it up, or a red flag that the firm has poor management or ethics. Check Google’s search for Federal Government, using queries like this: site:.gov “law suit” AND [employer name].

[Related: Ground Rules for Google Search.]

5. Competitors

If you are interested in an industry, you are probably speaking with representatives from more than one industry player. In addition to asking about the direction and prospects of the industry as a whole, be sure to ask about each company’s rivals during these conversations.

Avoid asking questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no. Ask general, open-ended questions such as “How does your firm compare with AB Company?” and listen very carefully to the answers since the firm will be promoting its own interests. But hearing that “AB is a tough competitor for us.” is actually encouraging if you are really interested in working for AB.

6. Banks, Factoring Companies, or Other Sources of Financing

Financial institutions will not answer questions from individuals about their customers so in this case, you think like a banker in examining the financial situation of the company. Many highly leveraged firms are being forced into liquidation or mergers by financial institutions when loan covenants are violated by organizations.

If the financial situation looks shaky or you hear rumors that the company cannot repay its loans, re-focus your job hunt elsewhere.

Bottom Line

With these different perspectives, you will have a greater understanding of the organization which will help you have better discussions during your interviews. And you will be able to position yourself more effectively as a problem-solver. You want to examine the big picture to be sure that a company is a good career move for you, and a place where your enthusiasm will translate into success.

Note: Be cautious about sharing all of your ideas during the interview process since you don’t know whose toes you may be stepping on – and they could belong to the person interviewing you. An interview is a good time to ask questions about how the organization, and the people you are interviewing with, view and manage change. Perhaps a competitor has a more flexible and comfortable culture.

About the author…

Parmelee Eastman is president of EastSight Consulting which helps provide more effective utilization of external information in internal decision-making processes. EastSight Consulting clients range from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Prior to founding EastSight, Parmelee was the vice president of the global technology and communications practice at Fuld & Company and employed for 16 years at Digital Equipment Corporation. Parmelee holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. She can be reached at peastman@eastsightconsulting.com.
More about this author…

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