Career and Job Search Help Blog

How do you find jobs in the hidden job market?  First, you must identify possible employers. 

Scott's Business Directories Online is a great resource for information on privately-held and publicly traded Canadian companies. The majority of the companies in the database are manufacturers and wholesalers, though they are constantly expanding their non-industrial base.

• You can search by geographic area, demographics of the companies (size, number of employees, etc.).
• You can make lists of companies by their product, business type, brand name, export country, classification (NAICS).
• You can find the names of the people who actually have the power to hire you – general managers, sales, human resources managers, etc. To do this, choose Executives / Executive Functions in Demographics,

Scott's Business Directories Online is available on our website. You need your TPL library card and your PIN to use this directory from home, school or office.

Search tips:

Start your search by picking a category such as city.  Then add more categories one at a time to reduce your results to a useful and more specific results list. 

• Select the category by clicking on it and select term(s) e.g. you may want to limit it to a specific business type or limit it to companies with more than 500 employees. After your add each limiter, click on Search. Then continue to design your search by using the categories on the left until you are satisfied.
• If you get too few search results, click on "search criteria used" to see what limiters you have set. You can'tweak your search here by clicking on the garbage can'to get rid of that limiter.
• Use the CTRL key to select several options from a category.

Create a pick list – select only companies you are interested in.

• You can remove or delete a record from the pick list by un-checking the checkbox beside the company name.
• To view your pick list, use View Manager.

Download or print your search results or your Pick List using Output Manager.

• You can print or save your results as PDFs. Do not select Data Download – TPL does not subscribe to this version of Scott’s Online.
• Use Summary View Design in User Preferences to decide which information to include in the report.
• You can choose between Single Profile or Book Style page layout. Book Style is best for a larger number of records.
• When printing, be sure to change the paper size to legal (8 1/2 x 14) using Print, Preferences on the computer.
• If you save the PDF on our temporary drive (P) you can email the report to yourself. Or save the PDF with your USB drive with the E drive.  

Save or retrieve your report in ScottsInfo using Search Manager. They save it for 30 days but that is dependent on disk space.

Once you have created a list of companies, you can contact them for an information interview or send a cover letter and resume or check the company websites for careers.

For more company directories, check out our Recommended Websites in the TPL website, Business, Finance and Economics category.