Understand the Job Market & Employers – Graduate Student Programs and Services

Why This Matters

Knowing about industries and markets and researching employers helps you apply for the right jobs and stand out as a strong candidate. Understanding employers’ needs helps you tailor your job search, writing, and conversations to how they align with your own.

Quick Start

Use knowledge gained in self-exploration to create ideal employer preferences that will guide your company research and applications. These may include:
- Company size and industry
- Culture and values
- Opportunities for growth aligned with your goals
- Work environment preferences (team structure, management style)
- Geographic location and work flexibility
Decide how you will best conduct, organize, and maintain your employer research
- Target List Methods

Next Steps

Conduct industry and employer research using reputable sources such as:

Company Websites

Use company websites to learn about services, products, mission statements, and structure.

Pro Tip 🪄: Look for “Newsroom” or “Investor Relations” for latest updates.

Pro Tip 🪄: For public companies, access SEC filings to understand financial health and strategy. You can also participate in public earnings calls.

Review Sites

Review sites such as Glassdoor or Indeed

Remember these sites tend to capture the extremes of employee experiences (very good and very bad) so pay attention to dates and locations and consider it part of the data collection process when informing your opinion on a company

Professional Organizations

What associations or societies serve professionals in this industry?
Where do they for conferences, networking, resource groups, credentialing and/or development?
What are the industry publications and newsletters you can count on (and subscribe to!) for reliable information on news and trends?

General Research Tools

Duke University Libraries can give you access to many tools and publications behind a paywall (i.e. Crunchbase, PitchBook, Owler, and BuiltIn). Pro Tip 🪄: Ask a librarian for help!

IBISWorld and Statista have reports on industry size, growth projections, major players, and challenges.

Consulting firms published insights and articles on various industries (i.e. Deloitte, McKinsey)

Practice & Improve with Resources

Goal	Resource	Action
Conduct in-depth company research	Duke University Libraries	Engage with a librarian and/or use your student access to investigate financial, investment, and other company data
Leverage AI effectively in your search	Career GPT by Jeremy Schifeling	Complete one or all of the free courses available through Pratt – call out which course, module, timing, etc.
Stay alert of industry news & trends	Yale Library	Follow steps to set up RSS feeds to automate updates on your industries and companies of interest
See where students and alumni have gotten internships & jobs	12Twenty	Login using your Duke email and search the database for insights on your areas of interest