Professional and Trade Associations
These associations offer another avenue for getting information about where to find the type of work you want to do. These associations

	Help you identify areas where growth is occurring
	Provide the names of firms that employ people in a specific type of work
	Identify the best information sources for developments within a field
	Provide more information on leads in small firms than directories
	Publish newsletters or journals that provide information on companies needing to increase staff in the near future

Some publications that list trade and professional associations include the following:

	Encyclopedia of Associations. Lists more than 22,000 professional, trade, and other nonprofit organizations in the United States. (Gale Research)
	Career Guide to Professional Associations. Describes more than 2,500 professional associations. The information is more specifically oriented to the job seeker than is the Encyclopedia of Associations, but this guide has not been updated since 1980, and some of the information may not be current. (Garret Park Press)

Newspapers
Newspapers contain want ads and lots of other useful employment information. Articles about new or expanding companies can be valuable leads for new job possibilities.
If relocating is a possibility, look at newspapers from other areas. They can serve as a source of job leads as well as give you some idea of the job market. The major out-of-town newspapers are sold in most large cities and are also available in many public libraries.
Some newspapers—such as the New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, and The Financial Times—are national in scope. The National Business Employment Weekly, published by The Wall Street Journal, contains information of interest to professional job seekers.

Networking
Networking is an excellent way of gathering information about a particular field. It is one of the best ways to discover smaller companies, which often are not listed in directories.

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