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Using business databases to prepare for job interviews Management Librarians: Jane Hill and Helen Rhodes

In the course of this workshop we are going to look at some useful tools to help you find company and industry information useful in your search for a job. We will begin by identifying companies of interest - sorting by industry and geographic location. We will also use a range of databases to find helpful background information for job applications and interviews. We will be working with four databases:

We will demonstrate: Scenario 1 - Locating international biofuel companies using Hoovers industry search. Scenario 2 - Finding construction firms in East Asia using Hoovers List Builder. Scenario 3 - Searching for company profiles & industry profiles on Marketline Scenario 4 - Finding country & lifestyle reports with Passport. Scenario 5 - Finding press coverage of companies using Nexis. To find any of the databases covered in this session find the ‘Resources for your Subject’ link on the Library website, choose ‘management’ and follow the links listed under ‘Further Management Resources’.

Contact details for the Management Librarians:

Jane Hill and Helen Rhodes

Location: Library level 5, room 5.04

Phone: 01225 385029

Email: lismanlibs@bath.ac.uk

Webpage: http://www.bath.ac.uk/library/subjects/management/financial.html

- 31,000 detailed company profiles, SWOT analyses and industry reports

- 8,800 company profiles and 18,000 industry reports

- International news and information on

46 million companies

- 88 million companies from more than 220 countries

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Scenario 1: Searching for international biofuel companies using Hoovers The Hoovers database (from Dunn and Bradstreet) is a user-friendly source of information on 88 million companies from more than 220 countries. Use Hoovers for industry snapshots, a list of all companies in a sector and company overviews including personalities and news. Imagine you are interested in working in the biofuels industry. We will use Hoovers to search for companies within this industry worldwide. This opens an industry description page with a summary of the industry, the top companies, and recent news. It is a good starting point for your research. Note that our subscription is the education version so some links e.g. ‘Executive Insight’ will not work. 2/ Scroll down to view a list of top companies and click on to view the full list in order of sales. 3/ To view the companies on a map, click on the red pin next to ‘change view’. 4/ To switch back, click on the table icon next to the pin. 5/ To find more information on any company, simply click on the company name in the list. (Note that you can re-rank the list by number of employees, profit margin or location.)

1/ Select the ‘industries’ tab and type ‘biofuel’ and then click on ‘biofuel manufacturing’.

7/ The most useful report sections are ‘About this company’, ‘News and Social’ and ‘People and Contacts’. Under ‘Company Index choose ‘Company Description’ Here you will find a concise report of operations and strategy.

For a full report on the company with all details included,

6/ Click on Exxon Mobil in the list of Top Companies to open the full details on this company.

8/ Next choose ‘News and Social’ to open a page giving ‘latest news’,‘event timeline, ‘management changes’ and ‘top business tweets’. Note that the tweets are about the company, not necessarily originating from the company.

and then choose ‘full company report’

see ‘my tools’, and ‘download data’.

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Scenario 2: Another way to search Hoovers is by using the Build a List option. We will use this function to find construction firms in East Asia.

2/ Select the ‘company location’ filter, choose ‘world region’ from the drop-down menu and then type ‘East Asia’ and select the option shown.

1/ On the main menu choose ‘Build a List’.

3/ Next choose the ‘industry’ filter. Note that the ‘industry focus’ is set to ‘primary’. This means it is the main focus of the company. If you want to widen your search to those where construction is a secondary activity, click on ‘include primary and secondary’. 4/ Type ‘construction’ and select the option which appears for ‘construction sector’.

5/ One way to narrow down your results is to choose ‘company size’ and opt to filter out small companies by choosing the number of employees e.g. at least 1000.

6/ Click on to see a list of matching companies.

7/ The results are shown in a pie chart. Click on the country of choice to view a list of companies to investigate further.

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Scenario 3 – Searching for companies, industries and lifestyles – use Marketline & Passport You have been offered an interview with Kraft Foods (USA) for a position as a marketing manager (savoury snacks and confectionery) and want to find background information on the company and the industry. If the company is very large like Kraft you may find an objective company profile on 1/ Search for Kraft on Marketline 3/ Click on the link to Kraft Foods Group under the ‘companies’ heading to open the report summary in HTML format. If you would like to print the report, choose to open the full report as a pdf. The report includes revenue analysis, a list of major products and services and a list of major competitors. The SWOT analysis is worth looking at for information on business threats and opportunities.

4/ Close the report and select on the top menu ready to do an industry search. In addition to the company profile, it would be useful to improve your knowledge of food and drink retail in the USA as background research for an interview. Use Marketline to view an industry profile.

1/ Hover mouse on on the main menu and select Consumer Packaged Goods.

2/ Using the options on the right, select Food under the Industries heading, then select North America under Geographies and then select United States. 3/. Under the ‘industries’ heading three reports are shown. Click on ‘view all’ to see a complete list of reports. You can scroll through the list or use the narrowing options on the right to read reports such as “United States - Confectionery”, or “United States - Savoury Snacks”. These reports give detailed analysis of the market overview, market outlook and leading companies. Activity: Use Marketline find a company profile and an industry report relating to either biofuel or construction industry. E.g. Exxon Mobile (USA), BP PLC (UK), China State Construction (China), Daiwa House Industry (Japan).

2/ A list of results is given beginning with ‘industries’, then ‘companies’, ‘case studies’, ‘company news’, ‘financial deals’ and ‘countries’.

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Scenario 4: You are considering apply for jobs in other countries to widen your career opportunities. Use Passport to access unique information about life in various countries of the world. The Passport database has both country reports and lifestyle reports giving detailed accounts of life abroad. First let’s find a Business Environment report:

Now we’ll repeat this process but select the Consumer lifestyles report instead:

1/ Select ‘countries and consumers’

from the top menu and then

‘Consumer Trends and Lifestyles’

2/ Under ‘Analysis Finder’ select ‘Consumer Lifestyles’ and under ‘Select a Geography’ choose the region or country of interest e.g. Asia Pacific, then Malaysia. Click on ‘Go’ to bring up the report.

3/ Use the ‘Table of Contents’ on the left to scroll down to sections of the lifestyle report e.g. leisure and transport in Malaysia.

1/ Select ‘countries and consumers’ from the top menu and then ‘business environment’

2/ Under ‘Analysis Finder’ select ‘country briefing’ and under ‘Select a Geography’ choose the region or country of interest e.g. Asia Pacific, then Malaysia. Click on ‘Go’ to bring up the report.

Scroll through the report to see the sections on the labour market, skills of local graduates and the tax environment.

Tip: See ‘more related items’ on the left for other useful reports e.g. Malaysia in 2030: The Future Demographic and Malaysia: Country Profile

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Scenario 5 – find press coverage of companies and key personalities – use Knowing the latest news on the company of your choice is a good way to show that you have done your homework thoroughly. Use Nexis to find recent stories of Kraft Foods Inc. in the business news to show awareness of press coverage.

Exercise Try searching for news on a company of your choice. Some suggestions for your search are:

1. Find product development stories on Apple Inc in the last 6 months using ‘major world publications’. 2. Find information on a well-known car manufacturer and safety issues in the last 2 years. 3. Search the week’s press (UK only) for information on Tesco.

I:\library\Level 5\Management Librarians\Teaching, publicity and promo\Student Inductions and Info skills\postgrads\2014-15\inductions\PGskills\using databases to prep

for jobs 2014_15.doc

1/ In Nexis News search for Kraft Foods & select ‘Company Name’ from the drop down box. 2/ Click on

and then put Kraft in the new box that appears and select ‘in the headline’ from the drop down box. 3/ Choose to exclude ‘non-business articles’. 4/ Use ‘specify date’ option to choose the previous 6 months and then click on

5/ This broad search will return lots of articles. To narrow down the results choose ‘Subject’ from the left hand menu e.g. look at ‘product recalls’ (around 50 results) to find reports on the product recall of Singles Cheese due to an ingredient having been incorrectly stored!

Tip 1: Nexis is a huge database and often you will find too many results to display. Once you are familiar with the subject and indexing terms, you can add these to your search for more precise searching. For example, to add

branding to the original search simply choose to and enter your new search as shown below

Tip 2: Restrict the ‘sources’ to ‘major world publications’ or ‘UK newspapers’ to narrow down the search results if applicable.