l ISD Library

Job Search
Careers Research can fall into several categories and the aim of this guide is to pinpoint some of the top
tools and key resource areas. You may wish to consult some of our industry specific research guides
such as Energy, Property or Pharmaceuticals and the following general guides should also prove
useful: Guide to Company Information, Guide to Market Research, Guide to Researching Business
People

Library Careers Collection

There is a collection of careers titles in Taunton Library separate from the main book stock. These can be
borrowed in the usual way and include books on: top employers, how to write winning resumes (CVs),
interviewing techniques, assessment tests, and guides to jobs in various industries. These are listed in
the Library catalogue and are clearly labelled “Careers Collection”. The Library catalogue is on Portal:
Portal>Library>Top Search Tools

Contacts
The Careers Service offer comprehensive and detailed help on their Portal pages and have specialists in
finance, industry and consulting who you can contact.

1 Career Choices & Personal Competencies 5 Networking & Researching People

Library Catalogue for careers books Executive Grapevine
BestofBiz for career advice, personal Capital IQ
development, and professional skills. Student Clubs
Careers Services industry specialists
Student Clubs for industries and sectors 6 Researching Industries & Markets.
Following Library Research Guides:
Energy, Pharmaceutical,
2 Researching Job Roles/Functions & Skill Sets Venture Capital & Private Equity,
Vault (online) Real Estate,
Wetfeet guides (print) Telecoms,
Travel and Tourism
3 Salary & Benefits
IDS Guides 7 Researching Companies
Various websites See Guide to Company Research for full list
Top recommendations:
4 Finding Vacancies Factiva
Careers Services Hoovers
Bloomberg (Not just finance jobs) Capital IQ
Newspapers Vault
Industry publications and websites (see Fame, Amadeus & Osiris
Industry Section)
8 Applying,Testing and Interviewing
Careers Service Portal Pages
Careers Books in the Library

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1 Career Choices & Personal Competencies

Developing your career strategy is the first stage in the career planning process. Knowing your strengths
and weaknesses is vital to the process of identifying those roles and positions that you will be both happy
and successful in.

Careers Services
The Careers Services page on Portal offers detailed help with links to self assessment tools:
Portal>Career Services>Career Planning Process>Career Strategy

Library Catalogue
We have a comprehensive collection of books on careers topics.
The catalogue is available from the School’s web site or via Portal.
Go to: Portal>Library>Top Search Tools

Titles by Wetfeet and Vault are held and others may be purchased on request.
Examples of books held in the Careers collection include:

What Colour is my Parachute

By Richard Bolles
Careers Collection, Shelfmark NR

Career change handbook: how to find out what you're good at and what you enjoy - then get someone to
pay you for it.
By Graham Green
Careers Collection Shelfmark NR

BestofBiz for careers skills.

A business and management website that contains articles, management current awareness and guides
to best practice. Go to: Portal>Library>A-Z list of Databases>BestofBizGold

As well as research guides on topics such as: Private Equity, Insurance and Property this website is
useful for workplace and personal development skills such as:

Personal Development: Are You in the Right Job?

Personal Development: Making an Impact at Interviews
Personal Development: Creating a Career Plan
Personal Effectiveness: Taking Charge of Your Career

2 Researching Job Roles/Functions & Skill Sets

Researching the different types of work people do within organisations and sectors you can start to
understand what kind of jobs would best meet your objectives.

Careers Services
Portal Careers Services>Researching Resources>Researching Roles>Researching Job Functions
Use the careers pages on Portal where you can find suggestions on how to find out about what a job
entails and further suggestions on how to carry out informal research such as through the Alumni
network and student clubs.

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Vault - Key Resource Profile
Portal>Library >A-Z List of Databases>Vault
Vault is a specialised job search product and a key careers resource. It offers guidance on all aspects of
job search: networking, interviewing and CV (resume) writing and also provides industry reviews and
occupational profiles with guides to the top employers within and industry and finally specific company
profiles. To take GE as an example:

Vault Company Data

Go to the home page and pick Company
On this page browse the A-Z list or enter the name.

You can get a company Gold Snapshot

which tells you about the history and personality
of the company.

You can also link to Employer Surveys which are

personal views (not verified or endorsed by Vault)

Also here you will fund the Message Board where

you can raise questions such as asking for an
explanation of a company’s pay scales

Vault Industry data

Go to the Industry Employer Guides

These include sector studies: Top Internet Industry
Employers, Top Insurance Employers, Top Energy Employers.

There are a limited number of Employer Profiles on

the big consultancy and finance companies listed
individually.
Or link to the downloads on the home page where you
can access the meatier Vault Career Guides to Biotech,
Consulting etc. (NB some are in print in the Library)

Vault Career Topics

You can find the links from the Homepage. It includes links to short articles on MBA Internships and
cover letter. Or go the Download section for their detailed guides on: Schmoozing, Guide to the Case
Interview, Guide to starting your own Business etc.

Wetfeet guides (print)

Check the Library catalogue. Includes such titles as: Careers in Management Consulting
Limited content is available on the public website: http://www.wetfeet.com/

Prospects UK (some International)

UK’s Official Graduate Careers Website
http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/Explore_types_of_jobs/p!elmjX
Useful sections which describe what a certain job roles entail. The business categories are rather broad
and finance is not at the level of detail that a specialist might need. Offers RSS feeds for jobs in your
selected category.

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3 Salary & Benefits
There are a number of services which offer pay data. Some data will be available for free but for more
comprehensive data you may have to pay. Some examples of pay sources have been listed below but if
you find other useful sources please let us know: email: libresearch@london.edu

IDS Executive Compensation Review UK

This provides a monthly briefing on the salaries and benefits of managerial staff. Some interesting
examples include:

January 2007 311 – Salary Survey Review of: Top Executives

February 2007 312 – Salary Survey Review of: Non-executive directors, top executives
in smaller companies, personnel specialists, charity sector
March 2007 Research File 76 - Pay and progression for graduates 2007
April 2007 317 – Salary Survey Review of: Property Professionals, Pension Specialists
May 2007 315 – Salary survey review of European Executives
July 2007 317 – Salary Survey Review of: Executives, Finance Specialists

Held in print only in the serials section of the Library.

IDS Pay Benchmark – Three issues per year UK

Identifies pay and conditions packages applying to employees carrying our different types of jobs. It
includes blue and white collar jobs but excludes certain professional groups such as lawyers. It sets out
the pay, hours, holidays, shift allowances in named companies and organizations. ie a Marketing Officer
at Rolls Royce. It also includes industry and Public sector agreements. Three issues per year.
Held in print only in the serials section of the Library.

PayWizard
http://www.paywizard.co.uk/ UK & GLOBAL
Check your salary in London or for other countries/cities around the world - look for the country links at
the bottom of the page. Free web resource

Reed UK
http://www.reed.co.uk/CareerTools/SalaryCalculator.aspx
Enter the industry and postcode and Reed’s salary calculator offers a summary of average salaries
across the website. Free web resource

SalaryExpert.com Global
http://www.salaryexpert.com/
Has some free data from the Economics Research institute (www.erieri.co.uk)
Can search for job title and country or major metropolitan area. Free web resource

CareerJournal.com UK
http://www.careerjournal.com/salaryhiring/
Part of the Wall Street Journal site. It has salary data and hiring trends for various industries.
You can search for salaries by job title. Free web resource

Finance Salary Surveys UK

http://www.totallyfinancial.com/content/home/career_centre/ss_home
The website Totally Financial links to salary surveys from 10 different organisations:
Badenoch & Clark, Holden Jones, Brightwater, Michael Page, Hays, Witan Jardine, Robert Walters,
Joslin Rowe, ECHM

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4 Finding Vacancies
The internet provides a huge number of possibilities to browse for jobs and a number of sites offer
alerting services. The Library receives a selection of international quality daily newspapers which you can
browse and many advertise their jobs online.

Newspaper Job Sites:

A few examples are given below:

Daily Telegraph
http://jobs.telegraph.co.uk/?CMP=KNC-umknc01_jo_78_ggl_JoG&HBX_PK=telegraph+jobs&HBX_OU=50

FT Jobs UK & GLOBAL

http://recruitment.ft.com/texis/jobsearch
From the Financial Times.

Guardian Jobs UK
http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/?CMP=KNC-Google&HBX_PK=guardian+jobs&HBX_OU=50
Good for public sector, education, media, graduate and permanent IT positions.

Times and Sunday Times UK

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/career_and_jobs/
With links to the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work for and the Top 100 Graduate Employers.

Le Monde France
http://www.talents.fr/web/sequence/0,2-3504,1-0,0.html

Wall Street Journal USA

http://www.careerjournal.com/
Good website for all aspects of career planning and applying for jobs. It includes a current job search
function.

El Pais Spain
http://empleo.elpais.com/

Times of India India

http://www.timesjobs.com/timesJobWebApp/tj/HomeIndex.jsp

Finance:
EfinancialCareers International
http://www.efinancialcareers.co.uk/
Covers accounting, finance and IT in Finance. Can post your CV, run a search for jobs or get RSS feeds
on the job market and pay news.

Careers in Finance USA

http://www.careers-in-finance.com/
Run by jobsinthemoney this site describes briefly jobs in different industries and list a few top companies.
You can search by firm, area of business (accounting, banking, corporate finance, wealth management)
or post your CV or advertise a job - for a fee.

Totally Financial USA (UK and Australia)

http://www.totallyfinancial.com/content/home/advertise
Offers email alerts, job search advice and salary surveys.

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Bloomberg International
Cover careers in all areas, not just finance. Type in JOBS

General Vacancies Websites:

A few examples are listed here:

http://www.executivesontheweb.com/uk/ International (good for UK)

Offers detailed search and alerting services for executive jobs in the UK

http://www.monster.co.uk/ UK (some International)

Offers job search, newsfeeds and podcasts plus a range of other career tools.

http://www.simplyhired.com/ USA
Simply Hired is a US job search engine that searches over 5 million US job listings on job boards,
classifieds and corporate sites. Subscribers can receive an RSS feed or e-mail alert when a job that
meets their parameters occurs.

Recruitment Agencies
A roundup of online recruitment agencies taken from the NORA (National Online Recruitment Awards)
To find the full list of winners go to: http://www.alljobsuk.com/awards/awards2006/Norawinners.shtml

Best General Best Specialist Best Regional Best Online Best Online Best Employment
Jobsite Jobsite Jobsite Recruitment Recruitment Section Advice Website
Section by a by a Trade Publication
Consumer
Publication

Jobsite Jobserve YorkshireJobs Prospects - The Lawyer Learn Direct

Monster Jobsgopublic LondonJobs Graduate The Grocer Jobs.ac.uk
Reed eFinancialCareers s1jobs The Guardian The Engineer The Fuller CV
Totaljobs Jobs.ac.uk ManchesterOnline TheTelegraph Personnel Today Inside Careers
JobCentreplus Executivesontheweb Gumtree The Times Online New Scientist Monster
Jobsite Jobs4Medical The Scotsman Computer Weekly Career Consultants
Monster JustEngineers CV Services
Fish4jobs Prospects.ac.uk
Totaljobs
Reed

Executive Search and Interim Management:

Executive Grapevine International
This directory contains profiles of over 1,000 executive search firms operating in more than 67 countries
worldwide.
Current issue held in the Library in print at: 71 ABG/ACFB

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5 Networking & Researching People
All careers experts agree that networking is the most important element in career planning and searching
for a job and in reality it underpins the entire process.
For further coverage of this topic go to: Portal> Career Services> Career Planning Process>Network

There are numerous books in the Library on this topic – check the catalogue and some useful overviews
on BestofBiz Gold on Portal such as:

Building a Fantastic Contact List

How to Network and Market Yourself
Test the Waters: Learn How to Network

Website by Richard Bolles author of What Colour is Your Parachute

http://www.jobhuntersbible.com/contacts/index.php
Has a detailed section on contacts and networking – rather American in bias.
Book held in the library at: Careers NR

Capital IQ
A Database that requires prior registration.
Portal>Library> A-Z List of Databases>Capital IQ registration request
Has good coverage of board members and executives. The scope of information includes: contact
information, educational background, current and previous board affiliations, and speciality. It is possible
to run a search to filter executives that match a given criteria. ie graduates from a particular university
working in a specific job role in a certain region. You can also map the person’s web of professional
relationships up to two degrees of separation by clicking on the Relationship Tree link. It is also excellent
for detailed company financial data.

6 Researching Industries & Markets

This is a huge area and you should consult the library guide to market research.
Go to Portal>Library> Help and Advice>Research Resource Guides> Market Research
There are also a number of industry research guides to: Energy, Pharmaceutical, Venture Capital &
Private Equity, Real Estate, Telecoms, Travel and Tourism.

However you should also refer to the Researching Resources section in the Careers area of Portal and
also the industry, finance and consulting sections. Also don’t forget:

Vault gives a good brief overview of industry sectors.

Student Clubs can offer helpful personal insights.

Library – contact the information specialists: libresearch@london.edu for help with researching
an industry.

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7 Researching Companies
Once again this is a huge area and there is a detailed Library guide on this subject.
Go to: Portal>Library> Help and Advice>Research Resource Guides>Company Information

To pick out a few key databases:

Factiva
Good for comprehensive international news, professional and trade press coverage plus brief
company profiles

Hoovers
Good for company history and overviews

Fame (UK), Amadeus (Europe), Osiris, (International)

For company financials. Also includes smaller private companies in UK and Europe.
Good to filter companies that match your specific criteria and produce mailing lists.

Vault
If you are interested in the company as an employer and want to get an insider’s view.

8 Applying, Testing & Interviewing

Look at the Careers Services section in Portal under Skills Development for detailed advice, useful links
and detail of coaching offered.

Most of the Career focused websites offer guidance such as: Vault, Wetfeet, and CareerJournal.com.

There are numerous books in the Library on how to write winning CVs and about passing tests and
succeeding at interview. Examples include:

Ultimate CV: win senior managerial positions with an outstanding résumé

Library Careers Collection FBGB

How to pass selection tests

Library Careers Collection FBGG

Answering tough interview questions for dummies

Library Careers Collection FBGD

There are several types of interviews you will also need to be aware of, each of which requires a different
approach and preparation, including: competency-based interviews, assessment centres, case study
interviews, panel interviews and telephone interviews.
Go to: Portal Careers Services Section > Career Planning Process> Interview. Here you can find an
overview of these different interview methods. Also consult Vault which may tell you about the
interviewing techniques employed by certain firms as well as offering plenty of advice on these subjects.

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