Company Research

Know your industry
Before you start researching companies, it would be a good idea to first familiarize yourself with the industry.

Basic information
Basic information about the company can be found through Hoovers or Standard & Poor's.

Search Engines
Search engines can provide a wealth of information, including the company's website, stories, reports, etc. Just enter the name of the company into the search engine (e.g. www.google.com) and hit "search." If you are looking for a list of companies in your industry, a variation of keywords will often produce the best results. E.g. you can use a keyword like "list of pharmaceutical companies" or "pharmaceutical companies" and see what come up. Now try changing the keywords to see if different and better results come up. You can also use local search results. Google Local Search, for example, can help you find any company in your geographic area.

Associations
Almost every industry would have some form of organized association. Some associations may even provide links to member companies.

Watch for the news
Newspapers, specially business publications, feature a lot of stories and reports. A lot of the material is archived, allowing you to search through stories, reports, and key numbers.

Finance sites
Sites providing investment services and financial resources often provide detailed company and industry reports prepared by their analysts. You can also enter the company's symbol (or look up for it) in Yahoo!Finance.

Watch for press releases, reports, and published resources
Sites catering to press releases, PR Newswire for example, can be a great resource for finding industry-specific information. IndustryWeek, YahooNewsDirectory, Reuters, and Google's Business Directory are also great sites.

Public Companies
Information about public companies is generally very easily accessible. All companies are required to file information with EDGAR. EDGAR provides a searchable site. The New York Public Library also provides some excellent resources for researching companies.

America's Career Infonet - Employer Locator is often a good place to start. The service allows you to look for companies based on industry, occupation, location, or keyword. CorporateInformation.com is also an excellent site allowing you to search through over 350,000 company profiles.

Private Companies
Information about private companies is generally much harder to find and often takes more work.  Information about private companies can be found through state records at http://www.nass.org/sos/sos.html. The Better Business Bureau may also have some information abut the company you intend to research. Information about non profits can be found at GuideStar. Your local chamber of commerce can also provide a list of companies in your area.

Directories
Your local library is always the best resource to look for directories. Yahoo's business directory is also a good resource. Yahoo also has an industry-specific company directories listing. University of Washington's company directories and Wilkipedia also provide resources for company research.

Company website
An excellent source of company information could be the company's own website (e.g. companyname.com). Most company websites will provide a vast range of information, including financials, career centers, etc.

The phone book
Employers can be found through yellow pages. Visit our phone book section for related online resources.

PAID RESOURCES

http://www.zapdata.com

http://www.dnb.com/us/

http://www.harrisinfo.com/Harrisinfo/home.aspx

http://www.infousa.com/

http://www.wetfeet.com

http://www.vault.com

Hoovers
Hoovers is a great resource. Basic information might be free but there is a charge for more detailed reports.
http://www.hoovers.com/free/

Don't forget your local librarian. Your local librarian may be able to point you to wonderful directories and company-specific resources that might be just a shelf away.

Also see local job search resources

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Do visit the following sections:

Job Search
Networking

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