Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Career Toolbox Series: Career Insider

By: Oleg Ignatenko
Part of the Career Toolbox Series


You are walking into an interview and you realize that you have no idea what that company does.  Has this ever happened to you?  Well, it shouldn't.  Especially not with the resources that are available today.  Fortunately, this week you are being presented with another chapter of the Career Toolbox Series: Career Insider.  Through the use of this site you will be able to find out the background information of the company, their high's and low's, their various rankings, featured reviews from associates and some helpful tips that might assist you in becoming a part of their organization.  Company information is not the only thing provided, Career Insider also offers career advice, guides, videos, blogs, discussions and other career related material that will help you develop a solid understanding and knowledge of information you need to succeed in the future. I will go over the top three areas that you should check out when visiting this site.

One of the best tools that Career Insider provides is their guides.  Career Guides are known as the premier resource for insider information.  Forbes Magazine calls them "Cliff notes for careers."  These guides provide information on resumes, interviews, employers, industries, and other career related topics.  By selecting one of these topics, you will have the ability to choose from a variety of different guides that focus on specific parts of that topic as well as have the ability to download it.  Popular industry guides include Vault Guide to Capitol Hill Careers, Career Launcher: Film, and Career Launcher: Fashion. Under Interview and Resume Guides, you can download Vault Guide to Advanced Finance and Quantitative Interviews and Vault Guide to the Case Interview. After reading any one of these guides, you will be one step closer to finding out which industry and company is right for you and how to get your dream job.


Another area that is extremely helpful is Company Research.  You will have the opportunity to view the most popular companies as well as research the companies by name, location or industry.  Depending on your career focus, you can also view the best companies to work for based on the type of industry you are looking for such as Accounting, Banking, Law, Consulting and other industries.  In each industry the firms are ranked by Vault and are usually listed in top 10 or top 25 order.  You will be able to view the rankings, the scores and the location for each of those firms in order.  Once you click on a company, you can also view their ranking in other various subjects such as Diversity, Prestige, Leadership, Benefits, etc.

The third area that you should definitely take a look at is Career Advice.  Here, you will find a variety of categories that can help you in your search for more career information.  Some of the categories include A day in the Life, Internships, Career Change, First Person, and Unemployment.  So, for example, take a look at the A Day in the Life category.  There are about 90 articles that you can click on and you will get a detailed description of what a specific person's daily activities on the job.  These descriptions will go by a time schedule and you will feel as if you are shadowing a person at their job.  Obviously, not every day will consist of communicating with the same clients or conducting meetings on the same exact topic but there will definitely be similarities and you will get a better perspective on how that employee or manager handles their daily activities and tasks.

So there it is, a little preview into the world of Career Insider by Vault.com.  To access your free Career Insider account, login to HireACane and on the Home page on the right side of the page you will see a heading called Additional Resources.  Under Additional Resources, click Vault Career Online Library: Career Insider and then create your personal account. There are many more tools and areas besides the ones that I discussed that are also very valuable and worth taking a look at.  It is almost like having your own personal career center on your computer.  Use it as often as you can to get the scoop on career advice and it will undoubtedly help you succeed in your future career endeavors.

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