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Occupational Outlook Handbook--Economists The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes information on economics as a career Training, Other Qualifications, and Advancement Sources of Additional Information
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Introduction
You're almost done with school and the thought of more schooling doesn't appeal
to you. You need to find a job, but where do you start? You could go to the local library to check out
a mega-stack of how-to books, you could register at the University Career Center and spend countless hours
getting lost in telephone-book-sized reference volumes...or you could connect to the Internet and have
instant access to the all those resources and more with the simple click of a mouse. Are you logging on
yet?
Research is one of those tasks for which the Internet was born. It's a researcher's dream: a worldwide
library at your fingertips that you can access anytime, day or night, without ever leaving the comforts
of your home. Time and again you can turn up exactly what you were searching for - from career fields,
companies, and the requirements of specific jobs, to information about geographical areas you'd like to
move to.
If you're an economics major looking for a career in economics, a sensible step would be to visit any major search engine such as Yahoo or AltaVista and type in "economics careers." Easy enough. You'll find hundreds of useful links and off you go. But before you start clicking your way into a blissful, higher state of being, there's a general process to the job hunt to consider. First, you'll want to know what careers are available to economics majors (it's a good idea to have a target before you start shooting). Once you've narrowed down the specific job or jobs you want you're ready to start researching companies that offer these types of positions. After you've identified a strong list of potential companies to be your next employer, research key contacts within that organization. Finally, you'll want to craft a resume to send that gets results. Did you know the Internet could help you do all that? Well it can, and here are some of the finest Web resources to check out as you get cracking on your hi-tech search for your new career. |
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Researching associations will save you a lot of time and energy since they exist to harness resources for their special interest.
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/joe/ - Here's a good
example of a university department links page provided jointly by the American Economic Association and
the Economics Department of the University of Texas at Austin with special links for Careers in Economics.
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AEA/ - The American Economic
Association Web site sponsored by Vanderbilt University.
http://stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos055.htm - A great
economics resource page from the Occupational Outlook Handbook provided by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.
http://tigger.stcloudstate.edu/ |
Finding
Careers in Economics
What types of careers are available to economics majors? What exactly do economics graduates do? What businesses hire students of economics? Hopefully this is not the first time you've asked these questions, but even if it is, the Internet is the place to go to find answers. As mentioned to earlier, it is easy to log on to the Information Super-Highway only to find you don't have a map to where you're going. This next bit of advice is going to save you lots of time and energy: research associations! Associations are groups of individuals who organize in order to pool resources within a particular niche, academic field or profession. These special-interest groups help their cause and constituents through networking and planning for the growth and stability of their field. You will save yourself much time and effort by visiting these associations who've already done your work for you. University departments often list links of related associations and career resources on their Internet sites. Surf your university's Web site to see if your economic department has a page with links for economics careers and associations. If you want quick action, simply follow the links provided and you will find plenty of information on careers in economics. |
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100hot - If you're looking for
information about a big company, this site ranks the 100 top Fortune 500 corporate sites.
Yahoo! - An impressive list. Choose
"Directories" to get links to over 400 directories.
Dun & Bradstreet - Dun & Bradstreet offers information
about companies - millions of them. If you want a detailed report, it will cost you.
Starting Point-Business - Starting Point has a great
collection of commercial directories at this site.
Yahoo! Professional Organizations
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Researching
Companies
Once you have the name of an organization or company that looks interesting or is hiring, you'll want to do preliminary research to find out as much about it as you possibly can. Specifically, you should make a comparison sheet to research annual sales, size, trade name, immediate parent, ultimate parent, operational structure, ownership structure, Web address, or physical location. Why should you be researching an organization? Here are at least two good reasons: (1) to let the interviewer know that you were interested enough in the job to learn something about them before coming in for the interview. (2) to protect yourself from making a horrible mistake - taking a job that you'll soon have to quit, because of something that you didn't know or bother to find out before you started there. Visiting company Web sites is one of the best ways to do your research and develop a more comprehensive view of what an organization does. Most companies list employment opportunities or have an entire employment section. In addition, there are many Web sites that provide search-and-click functionality for finding overviews, financial reports, and profiles about companies. Visit the following sites to zero-in on your list of companies: CompaniesOnline - On this site you can search for information on over 100,000 public and private companies. You can register for free and then find out the annual sales, employee size, trade name, immediate parent, ultimate parent, contact name, contact title, e-mail, location type, ownership structure, Web and e-mail addresses and much more for a particular company, if they have it. SalesLeads USA - If you want a report about smaller companies, this site lists 100 million households and 10 million businesses. Click on "American Yellow Pages," complete the registration form and then find a business that interests you on the search form. They give you a map with the business location and for $5.00 you can immediately get a profile of the company or organization including key executives, number of employees, estimated annual sales, credit rating code, other lines of business and fax numbers. Hoover's Online - A respected name in the directory world. On this site, they have company profiles, financial reports, and company capsules (brief overview, Web sites and links) available to subscribers. Job hunters get a free trial subscription. American City Business Journals - Under the title of "Back Issues, Search for..." this site will simultaneously search all its archives (of 39 weekly business journals for various U.S. cities) for any mention of a company or organization you are interested in. Mansfield U. - Business/Economics Reference. To get you started, Mansfield University's Library has a wonderful collection of business and economics references - like having a whole library at your fingertips. [Back to Top] |
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The following Web sites provide you with tools to find individuals within organizations
- individuals who you might not otherwise have access to.
Email Address-Finding Tools
- Here are enough tools to help you find the e-mail address of just about anyone.
555-1212.com - This site says it will look up area codes, telephone
numbers, e-mail addresses, and Web sites for you.
American Society of Association Executives
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Making Contacts
Getting a foot in the door is one of the most difficult tasks for the job hunter. It's one thing if you already know someone at a desirable company or at least know someone who knows someone; it's another thing if you don't. It is an undisputed fact that networking is the best way to get an interview. However, there are situations where you don't have that advantage - perhaps the company you are researching is in another state or country. Do not despair, the Internet may be all the connection you need. There are ways to get personnel information such as telephone, fax or e-mail by searching the Web. Having this information will allow you to contact the manager who will be staffing the department or hiring for a listed employment opportunity. The Internet is your competitive advantage here. Contacting managers by phone can get tricky because they often screen calls to keep focused on their daily priorities. The way to by-pass that is by e-mailing your contact. Although managers do screen calls, they are much more likely to respond to e-mail since they can do so at their leisure. A simple e-mail message stating your interest in the company, with a short summary of your background, can be your ticket to getting an interview. Close your letter by asking permission to send a resume and you're in! |
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The following sites have hundreds of sample resumes and coverletters that will help you
fine tune your own.
Articles on Writing a Resume - Lists of and
links to dozens of articles on the Web about resume writing.
ProvenResumes.com
- Contains some very helpful directions about constructing an electronic resume.
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Linking to Online Resume Help
By this time you have identified the job you want, researched a list of companies you want to work for, and targeted the specific manager you need to contact to discuss how you will be an asset to their organization. One thing you're still unsure of - your resume! Never fear. The Internet has sites designed to help you develop a resume that gets results. Not only will the Internet guide you to sites strictly devoted to helping you craft an effective resume, it will help you get it to your contact instantly, via e-mail. The sites provided in the left-hand column will help you develop a results-oriented resume, from start to finish, for both print and electronic versions. One thing to keep in mind: if you mail your resume, you can make it look as nice as you wish; but if you want to send it by e-mail, as is often the case, it's going to look very bland in plain old ASCII e-mail font - stripped of all its lovely formatting and the "nice look" of the original. There are three things you can do to avoid this: (1) Put this sentence at the end of your resume: "An attractive and fully formatted hard copy version of this document is available upon request." (2) Format your resume with AOL 4.0, Netscape Communicator's Messenger or Microsoft Internet Explorer 4's Outlook Express. (3) Send an HTML file version of your resume and your contact will be open it in his/her Web browser. Newer versions of Microsoft Word allow you to save your word document as an HTML file. |
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The job sites and summaries in the next column are organized by category in order to help
your search. Each catagory represents a different set of parameters for the jobs being offered and, thus,
provides a greater diversity of search results.
Sites include:
Job Listings by U.S. Region |
Web Resources
Finally, link to these Web resources where hundreds of thousands of employment opportunities are listed. You can also post your resume on many of these sites and, supposedly, employers will come looking for you. Be advised: though it is true that job hunters flock to new technologies as an aid to job hunting, employers are much less motivated to search the web for prospective employees. There are countless thousands of posted resumes compared to the relatively few employers who are reading them. Don't waste too much time posting your resume on every site. Instead, contact the companies and individuals who can set up an interview. General Information Peterson's Careers and Jobs Channels Job Listings by U.S. Region http://www.wm.edu/csrv/career/stualum/jregion.html
Job Listings Worldwide The World Wide Web Employment Office The Monster Board Jobspace: The European Space for Jobs Jobsite Europages, The European Business Directory Job Listings from State Employment Service Offices America's Job Bank Job Listings from Newspaper Classified Ads or Agencies CareerPath.com JobBank USA MetaSEARCH - Newspapers American Journalism Review NewsLink National Ad Search CareerPost This site has job listings taken from the last two Sunday editions of The Washington Post in a display called JobView. HandiLinks to Agencies Job Safari America's Job Bank Whois Lookup HeadHunter.NET Weddle's Web Guide
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