When last I visited with the Career Talk Guys, I got the basics on where and how to identify potential suitors, er, employers that I might want to work for in order to start the courtship process that will ultimately lead to employment. So, armed with that information, I waded into the stream of online information earlier this week.
The torrent nearly knocked me down.
The beautiful thing about the Internet is that it makes so much information so easily available. The frightening thing about the Internet is that it makes so much information so easily available.
Before the rise of distributed networked databases and the like, getting information on businesses and industries meant heading to the library - probably not your local one, either, but rather the main library downtown or the one at the local university - and spending hours flipping through volumes of reference books.
Now it takes mere minutes to obtain an embarrassment of riches, for the library has come to us. Just as sites like BusinessWorkForce.com put thousands of job listings right at our fingertips, so the online business information databases provided by public libraries contain information on millions of businesses.
14 million, to be specific. That's the number of records in the ReferenceUSA database, to which many public libraries subscribe. Of course, none of us will want to look up all 14 million, but even after applying filters, we're likely to still get hundreds of records.
Since what I want to do here is determine some industries where I might be able to successfully apply my skills and talents as a writer and editor, what I will have to do to make my task manageable is the same thing we all should be doing when perusing the job listings: examine the information available and choose a representative sample that look like they might match what I want. (You do at least try to make sure the job openings you apply to actually match your talents and strengths, right?)
More on that representative sample in my next article - I hope. There's lots of stuff out there to draw that sample from.
By Sandy Smith
Sandy Smith is a veteran freelance writer, editor and public relations professional who lives in Philadelphia. Besides blogging for BusinessWorkForce.com, he has written for numerous publications and websites, would be happy to do your resume, and is himself actively seeking career opportunities on Nexxt. Check out his LinkedIn profile and read his other posts on BusinessWorkForceBlog.com.
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