Career Advice: How to become
familiar with at least ten
organizations / researchers
that you admire
The purpose of this step is to become as professionally familiar as possible
with companies/organizations/industries/researchers that you would love to
work for someday. Here’s how:
1
Create a list. Start by basing the list on entities that align with your
interests, values, desired lifestyle, and where you would like to, or
would consider, living. If you’re not sure of what your interests and
values are, use the tip in #1 below to start or - contact us! We have lots
of tips & tools to help.
● If you already know some organizations or researchers that you
admire, count them! Look at this list. What characteristics that
you admire do these entities have in common? Perhaps these
characteristics are important to you and can be used to find
entities with similar values that you aren’t aware of yet...
Updated on 10/19/2015
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● You can also list entities that you’ve heard of (even from friends,
family, and others you know) and would like to find out more
about.
● Find others on LinkedIn, ResearchGate, Buzzfile and web
searches with keywords/phrases that identify characteristics of
organizations you feel would be a good fit (ie. name of industry,
product, geographic region, topic of investigation etc…).
● Contact the Chamber of Commerce in areas where you would
like to live. These organizations will have lists of companies who
do business in that area.
● Check with professional organizations. For example, the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers has its own job
board.
● Look at job postings. They often include not only the
organization name but also their vision and goals. Plus! This
helps you get an idea of who is hiring and what kind of skills and
experience they’re looking for.
2
Research the specific companies/organizations/researchers that you
list.
● Use their web pages, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and ResearchGate to
find out more about them.
3
Follow them on LinkedIn (and ResearchGate if you’re interested in
Graduate School/the Academic Career Path - ie becoming a professor).
Updated on 10/19/2015
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● This will help you keep current on what’s important to them.
4
Request informational interviews.
● Keep an eye out for connections to individuals who work for any
of your companies/industries/researchers of interest. This could
be friends, family, friends of family, professional connections,
acquaintances…
● You can even search for NAU alumni on LinkedIn who work there
using this amazing LinkedIn Alumni-finding tool.
5
Maintain your list. As you find out more about these entities and your
interests evolve, keep your list updated with the entities that you
could see yourself working with someday. This includes possibly
eliminating some along the way…
Following the above steps will help you form a list of people and places you
might want to work with someday. This, combined with practicing other
professional skills, will give you the best chance at being prepared to stand
out from the other candidates when the right job comes along.
Updated on 10/19/2015
nau.edu/CEFNS/StartNow/TenOrgsThatInspireYou
Printer Friendly Version