When we, at One Day One Job, scour the Internet for the best entry-level career opportunities for new college graduates, we use a variety of techniques to find fresh jobs to write about every day. We’ve already told you How to Use Google to Find a Job, now we are revealing our second secret to online job search.

Everybody loves lists (that’s why this article is in list format). Many magazines use annual lists to broaden their readership. People who wouldn’t normally read a magazine will grab an issue to see who made the list this year. Look at U.S. News and World Report – it’s far better known for its annual college rankings than its actual mission of delivering the news. These lists don’t provide the in-depth information that you find in most magazine articles, but they do provide a broad overview of a subject and a plethora of ideas for job seekers.

We’ve made our own list of 9 Magazine Lists That Will Help You Find a Job. The key to using these lists is to move away from searching for specific jobs and to start looking for companies that you would like to work for. If you can find a business that you think you can be passionate about, not only will you have a much better chance of landing the job, but you’re also much more likely to succeed personally and professionally once in the job. These lists organize information on many companies into bite size nuggets so that you can skim over them and pick out the gems. Then you can use our Google job search tips to find specific job openings and broaden your research.

1. The Inc. 5000 (formerly 500) Fastest Growing Private Companies – This list profiles a ton of cool companies. It separates them by industry and gives a short blurb that includes revenue, 3-year growth rate, number of employees, and a description of what the company does. A few companies get featured with a multi-page article that usually focuses on the company’s leadership. This list is especially helpful because it’s so long. 500 companies can offer a lot of ideas, 5,000 is just insane.

2. Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For – This is an obvious choice. You’ve probably heard of it before. They rank companies on a number of factors based on the results of employee surveys and culture audits.

3. Time’s Best Inventions of the Year – What do inventions have to do with jobs? A lot. This list will give you some idea of where our economy is moving and what kind of jobs will be abundant in the future. Many of these companies and their inventions will likely fail, but that’s the price of being innovative. If you’ve got a high tolerance for risk, this list should really appeal to you. Take a look at the list from 2001 for a reference point, there were certainly some winners, some losers, and some the jury is still out on.

4. CNN Money’s Next Net 25 Startups – These are the up and comers. Last year was about Social Media, Mashups, and VOIP. This year Social Media remains strong, but Mobile and Advertising are also seeing a lot of new startups that will likely be hiring with their seed money.

5. HR Magazine’s 50 Best Small and Medium Companies to Work For – This list comes from the Great Places to Work Institute – the same people who compile Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For. “Employees’ survey responses (44,258 this year) count for two-thirds of each company’s total score. The remaining third of the score comes from the Great Place to Work® Institute’s evaluation of companies in five areas: credibility, respect, fairness, pride and camaraderie.” For this list small companies are defined as having 50-250 U.S. employees, and medium companies as having 251-999 U.S. employees.

6. Business Week’s Most Innovative Companies – Although most of these companies have well established names and track records, they are prime places to work if you want to develop skills that will be relevant to a career in the future. Boston Consulting Group teamed up with Business Week to put this list together.

7. Entrepreneur Magazine’s Hot 500 Fastest Growing Businesses – This list is somewhat similar to the Inc. 500(0). To get listed a company must have over $1 million in sales and positive 4-year job growth – so these companies should definitely be hiring. This is another big list with smaller companies, so it should give you a lot of job search ideas that you’ve never considered before.

8. Forbes Magazine’s 400 Best Big Companies and 200 Best Small Companies – Forbes is known for their lists. In fact, the #1 Google search results for “lists” is Forbes’ Lists Page. These lists are comprised of the top performing companies financially. Profits matter. You don’t want to be working for a company that is losing money, because you likely won’t be working for them very long.

9. Forbes Magazine’s 400 Richest People – Want to be on this list one day? Get working. See how the best and the brightest started their careers and built (or inherited) their way to billions.

We have linked to the most recent iteration of each of these magazine lists, but be sure to search Google for past versions of the lists. Just because a company was on the list last year, but isn’t this year doesn’t mean they’re going down the tubes. Magazine lists often only give you a superficial look at a company – that’s why you need to do your research after you compile your own list of prospects. Whether you mark up the magazine with a pen, write down names of companies that intrigue you on a note pad, or visit the company websites and bookmark them, be sure to keep track of your ideas so that you don’t overlook any great opportunities.

One last thing to remember – often these lists are posted online, so it’s not necessary to go out and buy the magazine; however, the magazine is often easier to flip through and sometimes contains more information, so decide for yourself whether it’s worth the investment.

Are there any magazine lists that you would recommend? How have you gone about finding job prospects from magazine lists? Share your tips in the comments section.

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2 responses to “9 Magazine Lists That Will Help You Find a Job”

1. How To Find the Summer Internship or Job of your Dreams | Bryan Connor says:

   April 6, 2009 at 9:05 pm

   […] lists – One Day One Job also has a great list of lists in magazines of the most innovative and fastest growing companies in America. Use this as a list of dream […]

   Reply
2. Nicole Willis says:

   September 16, 2009 at 6:52 am

   These magazine articles are a great starting point for college grads or soon-to-bes like myself. I have a medium-sized sticky note filled with local Orlando companies I plan on applying to as my graduation date (Dec. 19) steadily approaches. I am definitely going to print out #7, Entrepreneur Magazine’s article, and do some research on those companies that strike my fancy. I also plan on applying to all of my favorite magazines that I occasionally pick up in the grocery line at Publix: Psychology Today, Entertainment Weekly, and Glamour. Thanks, Willy!

   Nicole

   Reply