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Career Research

Developing a cover letter or prepping for an interview? Be informed - do your research!

Job hunting can often be more difficult and time consuming than we think. The resources identified on this guide can assist you with the job (and internship) process - identify industry trends, locate a call sheet, or generate a list of potential employers! This guide is intended to supplement the services afforded by WVU's Career Service Center and the College of Business & Economics' Center for Career Development.

Position Summaries, Pay, & Job Outlook

Occupational Outlook Handbook
from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the standard source for basic occupational information. The OOH can help you find career information on duties, education and training, pay, and outlook for hundreds of occupations.
O*NET OnLine
is the nation's primary source of occupational information. Valid data are essential to understanding the rapidly changing nature of work and how it impacts the workforce and U.S. economy.
Occupational Employment Statistics
provides employment and wage estimates for individual states and metropolitan areas.
Compensation Reports - National Association of Colleges & Employers
(NACE) is the leading source of information on the employment of the college educated, and forecasts hiring and trends in the job market; tracks starting salaries, recruiting and hiring practices, and student attitudes and outcomes; and identifies best practices and benchmarks.

Industry Information & Trends

As you prepare for the job search and interview process, it is helpful to understand the larger (marco) trends of a given industry. Industry reports (from databases including IBISWorld and Mergent Intellect's First Research) provide such data as performance indicators, product and service segmentation, key buying and selling industries (i.e. supply chain), business challenges, and the like.

The North American Industry Classification System is the standard (numeric code) used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy. Look up your industry's code using the link below.

2017 NAICS Code Lookup

Mergent Intellect This link opens in a new window
Companies (private and public), industries, and key business ratios.
IBISWorld This link opens in a new window
Industry market research reports, economic, and demographic data to support business research; reports include statistics, industry structure, product & customer segmentation, performance analysis, major players, market share, and 5-year forecast analysis for 680+ industries.

Trade Publications

Trade publications :

- Cover current issues related to the field or specific trade

- Written for professionals in a specific field using some technical terms

- Often focus on practical applications of knowledge

You can access trade publications through databases, including Business Source Premiere and ABI/Inform, see links below.

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Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
Business research database, providing full text for 8,800 periodicals, including 1,100 peer-reviewed publications, plus company profiles. Subjects covered include marketing, management, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics. (Courtesy of WVInfoDepot)
ABI/Inform Complete This link opens in a new window
Includes thousands of full-text journals, dissertations, working papers, key business and economics periodicals such as the Economist, country-and industry-focused reports, and downloadable data, with international coverage that gives researchers a complete picture of companies and business trends around the world.

Create a List of Prospective Companies

Don't have a particular company in mind? Would you like to generate a list of all companies operating in a specific industry? And limit the list to companies located in a particular geographic area? Or companies of a particular size? Use the ADVANCED search in the Mergent Intellect database to combine a NAICS code with an additional limiter (location, size, type, etc.) OR the COMPANIES search in LexisNexis to generate targeted lists.

Mergent Intellect This link opens in a new window
Companies (private and public), industries, and key business ratios.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni™ features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis®—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790—with an intuitive interface that offers quick discovery across all content types, personalization features such as Alerts and saved searches and a collaborative workspace with shared folders and annotated documents.

Career Research

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Featured Career Resources

Career Research

Position Summaries, Pay, & Job Outlook

Industry Information & Trends

Trade Publications

Create a List of Prospective Companies