Benjamin Brackmann- Audit Staff

Once you receive a job offer, you must decide if you truly want the job. Lucky for you, most organizations will allow a few days for you make a final decision. If you haven’t already done your homework on the organization to which you are applying, now is the time to do so. The Bureau of Labor statistics suggests that researching background information on an organization, such as age, size, financial condition and location can give you a good idea if it is somewhere you would want to work. A public company’s annual report to the stockholders tells about its corporate philosophy, history, products or services, goals, and financial status. Annual reports can usually be found at a public or school library, but if you can’t find it there you might try these some of these tools: Dun & Bradstreet’s Million Dollar Directory;Standard and Poor’s Register of Corporations;Mergent’s Industrial Review;(formerly Moody’s Industrial Manual);Thomas Register of American Manufacturers; or Ward’s Business Directory.”Reviewing articles about the company in magazines and newspapers is another good place to start. You can usually tell a great deal about its successes, failures, and plans for the future. The library also may have government publications that present projections of growth for the industry in which the organization is classified. Finally, career centers at colleges and universities often have more in-depth information on employers that is not available in libraries.” -Bureau of Labor statistics. So, before you jump the gun and accept a job offer, make sure you utilize every service available to ensure you know exactly what type of company you will be working for.