Q299: Job Strategies for Liberal Arts Students
Career research is an important part of finding a job. Unlike many other majors, liberal arts majors do not have a defined career track. Doing some background research on various jobs, industries or companies can help you decide on a career. This career guide will connect you to some of the resources available to you at IUB.
Career Research
The first step in finding a great job or internship is to research various careers. Researching careers will allow you to learn more about different career opportunities and help you choose a career that suits your skills and interest. To learn more about various careers use these resources:
Occupational Outlook Handbook
This resource is published by the U.S. Department of Labor. It provides descriptions of hundreds of jobs with the employment outlook for the next decade. This is a great resource to use to find out what careers will be in demand in the future. In addition to the online resource, we also have a copy of the handbook in print in the Career Reference section in the Information Commons. The call number is HF5381.A1 O15.
For more information on careers visit the Career Reference section of the libraries' web site.
Still have questions? Check out this video on choosing a career:
Career Preparation: Choosing A Career
Industry Research
The next step in finding a great job or internship is to research the industry. Learning more about the industry will help you find potential employers and help you prepare for a job interview.
Occupational Outlook Handbook
Vocational Biographies
Career Guide to Industries
***TIP*** To find industry information click on Industry Research at the top of the page and then select Industry Overviews.
Company Research
To find this background information on a company, you will should review the company's web site as well as library databases. The company's web site will often provide you with extensive information on the company's history and their products or services. The library has several databases that can provide you with information on competitors, company management, and any legal issues.
Company Website (For example: Eli Lilly and Company)
Many companies provide their company goals and missions, history, news releases, description of goods and services, corporate officers, locations of regional, national and international offices and divisions as well as subsidiaries on their web site.
Career Services Subscription Job List
Hoover's Online
This database provides information such as the company history, corporate overview, top competitors, subsidiaries and divisions, corporate officers, financial overview and web address. You can also search this database using through ABI/INFORM.
ABI/INFORM Global Suite
Provides access to more than 2,000 business and management periodicals and journals and newspapers. Some of the areas included are advertising, accounting, economics, human resources, finance, marketing, and technology. It also includes the full-text of the Wall Street Journal from 1984.
Use the search box below to begin your search in ABI/INFORM.
Enter your search terms:
Use the database to find articles about the company you are researching. You can also find news articles discussing current trends in various industries.
Mergent Online
Covers 15,000 public U.S. companies and their SEC filings and over 20,000 foreign companies. Includes current and historical annual reports on 10,000 U.S. public companies. Annual reports on all companies in our International Company Data database are also available. Company information includes history, mergers, officers, debt, income statement, balance sheet, and more.
Factiva
This is a great resource for finding financial information about companies. Use the Company Quick Search feature to find competitors, comparisons, SEC documents and the latest news by company name or ticker number. It provides access to full-text SEC filings, stock quotes, financial histories, market research reports, country reports, and the latest business news from over 6,000 academic, trade and popular publications. You can also do company and industry comparisons.
In addition, Factiva provides access to general news and business information, international newswires and pictures, TV and radio transcripts.
Thomson Research
Thomson provides access to full-text SEC filings and to scanned images of U.S. and international company annual reports submitted to U.S. and foreign exchanges. Contains basic company information, annual and quarterly financials, earnings information, fundamental ratios, officers and directors, institutional and insider ownership, and a complete list of company subsidiaries.
Additional Databases for Company & Industry Research
- Amadeus
Detailed financial, descriptive and ownership information, on 4.6 million European companies plus summaries of an additional 900,000 companies.
- Business Source Premier
Indexes more than 3300 scholarly business journals with much of the coverage full text and full image. This database provides full text (PDF) for more than 300 of the top scholarly journals dating as far back as 1922. Provides access to Company Profiles, 10-12 page reports on public companies from Datamonitor.
- Dun & Bradstreet's Million Dollar Database
Directory of 261,000 U.S. and Canadian leading public and private businesses. Search by various criteria, including SIC or NAICS codes, location, or executive names.
- MarketLine Business Information Center
Provides original industry and company reports based on published research and primary and secondary data sources.
- RDS Business Reference Suite
A collection of three databases provides access to professional, academic, and trade journals with a focus on statistics, market trends, and strategic business data.
- Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage
Search S & P's Register, Corporation Records, Industry Surveys, The Outlook and more to find company, executive, stocks, bonds, and industry information.
- Investext Plus
Database containing investment house reports on more than 11,000 publicly traded U.S. and international companies, and 53 industries; Information related to sales, market share, product positioning, and stock performance and earnings.
- Lexis-Nexis Academic
Choose "Business" in the top navigation bar for information related to company financial data, EDGAR filings, quarterly and annual reports, and industry and market trends and business news.
- Securities and Exchange Commission
Search the EDGAR database for access to SEC filings including, 10-K, 8-K, and prospectuses for mutual funds
Check out this video on the importance of company research and the type of information to find out about companies
Cost of Living (Researching your new hometown)
Additional Web Resources
Use the tags to find additional information on careers, internships and industries!
