CareerAlley

“We didn’t actually overspend our budget. The allocation simply fell short of our expenditure.” – Keith Davis

So why would you want a job with a Fortune 500 company? Well for one, they are among the largest companies in the world (depending on how you define “largest”). And secondly, larger companies tend to be less likely to go bankrupt (although I’m not sure of that anymore). But certainly there are more opportunities to be had, including career advances. In this case, the measurement is U.S.-based corporations with the largest revenue in the past year. Revenue is used based on publicly available data and, therefore, generally excludes privately held companies. But just because a company makes it to the Fortune 500 does not necessarily mean that they are among the most profitable (or even profitable at all).

So the point here is – do your homework. Make a list of the companies you would like to work for and then make sure those companies are viable, trustworthy, leaders in their industry and likely to last.

Today’s list picks up where we left off last time. The companies range from chemicals, to oil, technology and financial services. There are over  400 job opportunities across the companies covered below.

• United Technologies – 37 on the list, United Technologies is known for a number of name brand products (such as Otis Elevator and Carrier Air Conditioning). Their career site has a welcome section in the middle with a short video. The top of the page has links for undergrads, MBA, Diversity and more. The right hand side of the page has a search box, followed by Your Job Cart (if you register on the site), hot jobs and featured jobs. There were 320 job opportunities when I check the site.

• Dow Chemical – Dow is #38 on the list and is a well known name. Their product list is diverse, from agriculture to wire and cable. Their careers page leads with flexible work/life arrangements which is a great way to start. The left hand side of the page is filled with relevant links like recruiting events, why choose Dow, career news, view jobs and more. Click view and apply for jobs, pick your region on the next page and you are off. There were 39 job opportunities in North America and 29 in Europe when I checked the site.

• MetLife – The insurance company’s career site has an impressive list of diversity recognition awards (9 over the last few years) and the company is ranked 39 on the list. The main career page has company information, areas of interest, career search as well as special programs for students. Clicking on Career Search leads to a Getting Started page where your choices are searching for job openings or specialized jobs (you need to look at both). There are obs listed on the “specialized” page as well as the general job openings page. You can register on the site, post your resume and set up job agents.

• Goldman Sachs Group – Ranked 40 on this year’s list, Goldman did not fair as poorly as most of the other financial services companies. In fact, Goldman is already back to spectacular profits. And, no one can deny that Goldman Sachs is a survivor (and maybe a contributor) of the current financial mess. Their main career page is pretty impressive. Several tabs at the top for Careers, the Firm, Begin and Search, click Begin to (you guessed it) begin. More tabs on this page, with Key Dates, Unique Positions, Apply Now, Recruiting Events and Summer Intern Toolkit, plan to spend a fair amount of time surfing this site.

• Sunoco – Back to Oil and Gas, Sunoco is ranked 41 this year. Their careers site has a lot of “white space” with a number of links at the bottom of the page for carer opportunities, refinery positions and more. Click career opportunities and then either Job Search or List All Jobs. There were 4 job opportunities when I checked the site.

Good luck in your search.