Using Library Resources for Career Research

These are company, nonprofit and government research resources, which allow you to take a deep dive into the organization you're interested in working for. Is it really a good fit? Or maybe you have an interview coming up. If so, it will benefit you to appear knowledgeable about the company. Learn about employees, the organization's financial health, about potential strengths and weaknesses and so much more! 

For access to all databases, navigate to the Library site. Under the “Research Assistance” column, select “Databases” and either search or browse.

GuideStar Pro provides information on more than 2.5 million nonprofit organizations. You can access organizations’ financial data, including their revenue and expenses, as well as contact information.

 Select the organization you want to research. You can see the total revenue, gross receipts and total assets from the search results page, but once you select the organization, you’ll see:

• Mission
• Programs and results
  • What does the organization aim to solve?
  • Where is it located? Where does the work happen?  
  • How does it measure success?
  • What is its goals, strategies, capabilities and progress?
  • How does it listen?
• Financials
• Operations
  • Who works there?
  • Highest paid employees
  • Board of Directors

Hoovers is a robust company directory. It contains proprietary information on more than 65 million public and private companies in addition to executive biographies and industry information. There is a ton of information, but below are some highlights for interview and/or networking prep.

For interview prep, search for and select a company.

Using the navigation panel on the left, scroll through:

• Company summary
  • Business description
  • Links to news
  • List of associated industries (note, the industry links do not provide much additional detail)          
• Site Contacts, All Contacts and Contact Decision Matrix – these are really useful tools for interviewing and networking!
  • Site Contacts lists all employees at the public headquarters
  • All Contacts lists all employees
  • Contact Decision Matrix lists all employees by division
  • Use these features to:
    • Get contact info for someone with whom you want to have an informational interview
    • Before your interview: learn more about the positions of the people who are going to interview you
    • After your interview: confirm names of employers with whom you interviewed so you can write a thank you note and/or follow up
• News – links to recent news articles about the company. Useful for quickly scrolling to see what issues the company is facing
• Triggers – read through or set up alerts for a company
• Closest Industry Peers - Displays closest neighbors and peers from the physical address of the company being researched. Great for identifying potential opportunities and competitors based on location.
• Technologies in Use – prep for your interview by learning about the technologies the company is using. What skills should you highlight?
• Financial Health – review the key indicators of financial health
• Geographic Segments – where does the company do business?
• Business Segments – what are the different products and segments the company is involved with?
• Ratio Comparisons – a useful benchmarking tool and helpful for comparing where the company is in terms of industry peers. Can be helpful in uncovering potential issues and pain points you can speak to in your interview 

Mergent Intellect is also a powerful company database, that provides information on thousands of companies and organizations, so you can gain a holistic understanding of a company or individual you’re interviewing with.

Using the navigation panel along the top, scroll through:

• Company Details:
  • Surrounding companies— Displays closest neighbors and peers from the physical address of the company being researched. Great for identifying potential opportunities and competitors based on location.
• Executive Details – sort by employees, officers, and directors
• You can also scroll down on the landing page to do more research:
  • Advance Search – plug in the parameters of your ideal company (location, industry, size, etc.) and see which companies you should target  

Leadership Connect is one of the best resources for finding contact information for members of the United States government. It includes contact info for legislative staffers, caucus members, congressional offices, and members of Congress; legal professionals in both the public and private sector, with listings and profiles from law firms, lobbying firms, federal courts, and state courts; and federal government employees. It also includes organization charts of federal departments and agencies.

Use the search bar to look up people, roles, organizations and legislation in congress, the federal government, state and local government, media, law & lobbying firms, companies, nonprofits, and courts:

• People  - use any combination of the below filters:  
  • Title Location
  • Job focus
  • Education
  • Gender
  • Date of employment 
• Organizations - use any combination of the below filters: 
  • Organization group
  • Sector
  • Organization name
  • Office location 
• Government- use any combination of the below filters: 
  • ​​​​​​​ Appointment type
  • Pay scale
  • Party affiliation
• Congress  - use any combination of the below filters:  
  • Member committee
  • Member office
  • Member party
  • Member state
  • Member caucus
• Career History  - use any combination of the below filters:
  • Past organization
  • Past job title 

Pitchbook tracks the private and public equity markets. It provides data on the venture capital, private equity and M&A landscape, including information about funds, limited partners, service providers, founders, investors and buyers. Since these markets often invest in emerging tech, PitchBook can be helpful for learning more about the emerging tech industry and various start-ups.

The first time you visit the link to PitchBook, below, you will be prompted to set a password and set your preferences. Once that is completed, you’ll be on the PitchBook landing page, from which you can search for any company by entering the name in the search box:

If PitchBook has information about the company you’re interested, you can select to view the full profile, where you’ll find the following information:

• Timeline
  • When did it receive funding and from who?
• General Information
• Industries, Verticals & Keywords
• Contact Information
• Financials Similar Companies
• Comparisons
• Signals
• Team
• Board Members
• Deal History
• Investors
• Service Providers
• Lead Partners on Deals
• Affiliates
• News

Developed by the CleanTech Group, i3 Connect provides data on the clean technology industry, including investments, IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, business relationships, and other financing activities. You can target companies to work for by analyzing which are getting investments and financing.

To access the database, click on the link, below, and follow the instructions in linked guide. Once you sign in, you’ll see the news feed, which you can filter by industry, region and investments:

You can also go to data in the top-level navigation bar and search through:

• Companies (over 35,000)
• investors (over 20,000)
• deals (over 40,000 representing over $1,000,000,000,000)

Search by:

• keywords
• industry,
• taxonomy
• investment stage
• region.