The Write Solution

The Professional Association of Resume Writers had a great conversation on their elist about how to identify companies in a specific geographic areas – like San Francisco metro and in a specific industry — life medical device or biotech – recently.

The ideas for conducting targeted searches were so good, I consolidated all the posts and am share the information here.

Linkedin: Create an account, if you don’t already have one. Log in, look for link to “Companies” across the top menu bar. From there search companies by zip code, industry, company size, and whether or not there are posting job openings.

Public Library: (Yes, the library). Locate The Standard Industrial Classification Manual (SIC). Please note, the SIC codes could be now be referred to as by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

The government assigned a SIC code to each industry. Ask the reference librarian for (specific to your geographic location) the equivalent of “The Greater San Francisco County Directory of Business and Industry” broken out by SIC code number.

The book is huge, but contains company name, company president’s name, street address and phone numbers for every business in the county that does business within that SIC code. There are letter codes for the size, number of employees, numbers of branches.

There is also ReferenceUSA. The database has a wealth of information on US and Canadian businesses. Try college and public library to see if they subscribe to this. Searches include business name, industry, geographical location and the like.

And another source for business information is the local Economic Development Corporation. They could have different names in different areas, but are usually affiliated with state or county government. Google: Economic Development Corporation and your geographic area and you’ll locate information about local organizations. They sometimes publish a list of employers and their sectors. Dig around for similar publications in different areas. The usually list employers by type and include other helpful information.

Search Chambers of Commerce for business lists online or call and ask. Search the Job Bank site for the state. (Enter “city name” as a keyword and the state abbreviation in Job Search box and you can locate job in your city.) There’s also information available on the One-Stop Web site. Here’s the link to the main map. Click on your state and explore.

You can learn a lot about a company and an industry prior to turning in an application, prior to an interview. In this day and age, there’s no reason for being uninformed.

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