Hit the Books

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 553.

Part 2

v Active vocabulary

o Study the following vocabulary items and collocations:

To maintain low profiles

To be tricky

To target specific players

A compendium

A roundup

Company growth rates

Target companies

To review company recruiting materials

To give insights into the questions

To be mid-sized

A name-brand company

To down-size

To join a small start-up

To hit it right on

A higher-level position

Growth opportunities

Fast advancement

v Cultural notes

SEC - Securities and Exchange Commission.

Placement office - an office which provides up-to-date information on career areas and individual career counseling and planning.

Managed care - comprehensive health care provided by a health maintenance organizations.

o Read the text. Do the comprehension check below:

Since many of the nation's best companies maintain low profiles, finding information about them can be tricky. But with a little effort, you can uncover everything you need to know. Mr. Plunkett recommends reviewing "Ward's Business Directory" for an overview of U.S. industries, then turning to CD-ROM products to target specific players.

"Two good CD-ROM resources are the General Business File, which is a compendium of local business and trade journal articles from around the country, and Investext, a roundup of analyst reports," he says. Both are produced by Information Access Co. of Foster City, Calif., and are available at major libraries.

Other worthwhile sources on publicly traded companies include stock guides published by Standard & Poor's and Moody's, which offer overviews of company growth rates for the past 10 years. And once you have a list of target companies, review the full text of all SEC documents (again, available at most libraries). To refine your list, call company investor relations' offices to request their annual report. Also contact local brokerage firms to ask for material they're willing to share.

Eric Kaufman says that through an electronic search of trade journal articles, as well as by reviewing company recruiting materials and placement office reports, he identified his current employer - American Power Conversion in West Kingston, R.I. - as a great place to work.

"I saw that they're growing fast in an exciting industry, but what really impressed me was the average age of their employees: 26," says Kaufman, who earned a mechanical engineering degree last year at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Also impressive were the comments reported back to campus about the firm.

"Students who have second interviews on-site are asked to file a report about it at the placement office," he explains. "The reports give you insights into the questions the company asks, tests they require and the qualities they seek. They were very helpful."