But you can approach the hidden market in other ways. None of them is easy, and all require that you expend effort and energy.
Researching Jobs
You may not yet know if you are in the right field, industry or part of the country. You may be thinking about changing careers, and want to know more about various career options. You want to find out as much as you can about what is available in your geographical area; you may want to investigate opportunities in other areas. What are the sources you can utilize during your research to locate the names, addresses, telephone numbers and other information on possible employers? The following sources have provided excellent "market research" information for many other job-seekers. They will be useful now, when you are researching the entire market; they will prove useful when you begin to narrow down your search, to determine the "niche" or segment to which you will market yourself; and they will be useful as sources of background information when you are positioning your "product" in the market segment, and are preparing for interviews with specific employers.
Organizational Sources of Information
O College and City Libraries. Ask for the collections on employment opportunities. Included will be books on job-hunting, directories of all kinds, information sources (including clipping files) on local and national businesses. A key resource, which shouldn't be overlooked, are the knowledgeable librarians who know how to locate the information you need and who are usually willing to help.
Chambers of Commerce. These were mentioned earlier as a possible source of help through their job-search seminars and presentations. The various chambers also have full information on local businesses, including their general size, their addresses, the names of local corporate offices and owners. And often, chamber officials know about specific local hiring needs and opportunities.
Better Business Bureaus. This may not seem like a good source. But if you locate a company in which you are interested, or are being considered for a position with a company about which you know little, contact the Better Business Bureau of the area where the organization is located. It will provide you with the results of any investigations it has made. The reports are cautiously written to avoid possible lawsuits, but they provide food for thought, and may prevent you from making a disastrous mistake. Truthfully though, this source will be more useful to you in latter stages of your job search than in the beginning.
Fortune, Forbes and Business Week 500. Once a year, Fortune, Forbes and Business Week complete independent nationwide surveys of all major corporations doing business in the United States. They also are now conducting the same kinds of surveys on international businesses. Each firm is ranked by size, primarily on the basis of the past year's business performance. Included are the firms' asset bases, profits, increase or decrease in business compared with the preceding year, the major officers and their incomes plus other information that might be of interest to investors. This information is more up to date than the information contained in most of the standard reference directories, but is not as detailed. (See directories later in this chapter.)
Value Line Investment Survey. Value Line provides current up-to-the-minute information on the securities of specific companies. Primarily produced as a source of detailed "insider type" investment information, it still provides good background information on companies looking for turnaround specialists, growth specialists or other types of management help. Your stockbroker will have copies that you might be able to look at, and libraries with large business collections frequently subscribe to the service.
Trade and Industry Associations. Begin with the associations you already belong to and those for your industry. Get copies of their publications (or read them in the public library). Open positions are often announced in the help- wanted ads in the back of the journal. Or you can sometimes get leads on openings by looking in the promotions columns to see if a job might be open because someone was promoted out of it.
State, Local and Federal Job Information Centers. State capitals and major cities have state and federal job information centers where openings for government jobs are posted. Since many high-level positions require that you take a civil service examination, you can obtain information at the centers about taking the tests. Positions in local government are also posted, although some of the higher level positions are political in nature, and dependent upon an individual's political skills, activities and networking. Federal Job Information Centers (FJIC), operated by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), are located in many major U.S. cities. They provide regional job vacancy information and will answer questions about application procedures.
Annual Reports. Some libraries keep these on file as do stockbrokers and financial planning groups. You can also write to companies in which you are interested and ask for copies.
