More on Finding the Right Companies in a Targeted Job Search: LinkedIn as an Essential Tool

In my books and blogs I have encouraged doing a targeted job search.This involves both targeting your "best fit" companies and the specific jobs within those companies which are consistent with your career goals. Targeting assures that you will avoid the trap of taking jobs that happen to come along whether they are a good fit or not. It also places you in the best position to compete for jobs because you are usually facing less competition in job seeking, and you are sure to be approaching employers who are looking for employees who have the strong skills they need, are highly interested in using them, and who fit the culture and other aspects of the organization. This is a win-win situation for both employer and job applicant.

A prior blog covered an excellent U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) business finder tool to use in finding employers, However, LinkedIn offers some good alternatives as well. Go to LinkedIn and try typing in the job of interest in the search box. Then when the jobs come up, filter by location. You can filter further by company and/or other filters. That should give you information not only of related jobs available, but also a list of companies that employ people in the job of choice in the location you choose. You can also try using that in combination with the DOL business finder tool to select companies that you find in LinkedIn that also appear in lists that you filter differently with business finder than you can with LinkedIn.

Another option using LinkedIn can be found in this article, which is also referenced in Chapter 12 of my book, RELAUNCH! Stagnation, Change, and Renewal in Mid-Career and Beyond. In the article, look in the lower left corner of page 22 under "Bonus: Building Target Employer List."