Doing your homework and job hunting can seem like insurmountable tasks. Fortunately, there's a wealth of information out there for the conscientious jobseeker, and we've collected it all for you right here:

Hoovers UK
One of the web's most renowned sources for company information, www.hoovers.com provides company descriptions, financial figures, relevant links to news stories, share prices, details of competitors, short biographies of directors, contact details - all for free, at least for now. Business subscribers gain access to more in-depth profiles of directors and competitors, detailed financial information, advanced search facilities and are given permission to reproduce Hoover's content.

Hemscott
Hemscott's prime business is the selling of data and information services to businesses, but the company's website www.hemscott.com also offers free information - mainly of a financial bent - on companies. You'll also find a wealth of financial news, analysis, columns and market information.

The Financial Times/FT.com
The Financial Times is the bible of the business world and its website - which contains most of the newspaper content plus a lot more besides - has established itself as one of the premier online sources of financial/market news and analysis. Top-notch, independent and authoritative editorial is the order of the day - if it happened in the business world and ain't in the FT, it's probably not worth knowing. Try this site for free company annual reports.

Business.com
A business-specific portal, search engine and directory, business.com claims to reach over four million 'business professionals' every month. You'll find company news, financial data, product information and more. The site is American, so details on some British companies can be scarce, as can information on the British branches of multinationals.

Company Annual Reports Online
As you may have already guessed, CAROL offers online access to annual company reports. American, European and Asian companies are all featured. Not absolutely comprehensive, but if you're after a listed company's financial details, chances are you'll find the information here.

Corporate Watch
So-called corporate social responsibility - whether sound environmental policies or good employee relations - is important to an increasing number of jobseekers. The website of Corporate Watch, a research and publishing group, contains detailed profiles of a number of controversial large corporations. You'll also find a detailed guide to researching the social and environmental policies of companies.

Companies House
All British companies are obliged to register with and provide details to Companies House, a government agency. Through its Companies House Direct, CD-ROM Directory and Companies House Monitoring services, the agency provides paying subscribers with detailed information on companies, including company reports and director biographies. The website offers some (scant) company information for free, but you'll be charged for company accounts and the like.

Kompass
Kompass has been producing company information for over 50 years. It provides all sorts of information across different media in over 70 countries, but British jobseekers are most likely to be interested in Kompass UK's free internet search facility, which provides basic contact information, and its four volume Kompass Register, which contains details on a large number of British companies. It will set you back a hefty £1,145 to buy, but there's a good chance you'll find copies in your local reference library.

McKinsey Quarterly
The management consultancy's business journal, published quarterly since the '60s, focuses mainly on strategic business and market issues, rather than specific companies. But it's worth going to the journal's website and running a search on the company in which you're interested - they may well be featured in some of the journal's reports.

Books
A number of larger organisations have found themselves the subjects of books, whether anti-corporate polemics, 'inside track' studies or management theory tracts. Reading them will mean investing time but if you're going for a job with, say, Goldman Sachs, bringing up Lisa Endlich's Goldman Sachs: The Culture Of Success at interview is going to look fairly impressive.

Trade magazines
Trade magazines cover the detailed ground that the newspapers don't have room for. If you don't know which magazine covers the industry or company you're interested in, take a look at the list of magazines in Magazineboy.com. Many of the larger magazines have websites with comprehensive and searchable archives. Otherwise, it may be worth contacting the magazine to find out if the company you are researching has featured prominently in any past issue. Some libraries may contain back issues of some magazines.

Newspapers
Most large and medium-sized companies find themselves covered in the papers at one point. The easiest way to scour the newspapers is to get online: all British broadsheets now have websites containing searchable archives of most, if not all, recent content, and sometimes a lot more. Alternatively, the larger public libraries tend to have copies of old newspapers, though spending hours scouring them is a task suited only to the very patient.

The company itself
Don't overlook a company as a source of information about itself. You can find a number of ways in. Larger organisations are likely to have comprehensive websites, containing everything from financial information to details of recent projects, though all with the requisite PR gloss, of course. Alternatively, if you're adept at reading between the lines, any blurb produced by the company for external consumption may give you an idea of how the company likes to position and present itself. Even better is to get the inside track through a company employee, who may be able to tell you things you won't be able to find out anywhere else: company culture and management style, for instance. Take it all with a pinch of salt though. Your informer may be influenced by prejudices or a personal agenda.

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