How to Get Free Company Contact Information for Job Leads

You know the dilemma -- you're supposed to make personal contacts when you apply for the job, personalize the resume and cover letter for the hiring manager, follow up with phone calls, target companies for information gathering.

Sure, great advice, but where do you get the contacts?

There's a new online resource for sharing company contact data called Jigsaw. You can search for companies and specific contacts at those companies with names, titles, phone numbers, and email addresses.

And it's free. The catch? It's an online data SHARING site. So you have to give information to get information. In other words, you have to add companies or contacts to get points. Then you can trade in the points for contact information.

It's pretty easy to get points. You get 10 points for signing up (each contact costs 5 points). Then you can add companies or contacts for 5 points each. I added myself -- that was easy. Then I added my own company at Sitewise Solutions and a company I designed a website for, Iron Heart Protection Dogs. These additions are "pending approval" because I didn't sign up with a recognized company address. But the good news is that they still gave me the points even though the approval was pending.

So I went ahead and checked two companies I was interested in. One company didn't show up in their database. But the other did show up and had a long list of contacts. I checked out the one I was most interested in -- Interactive Media Supervisor -- and found a name, phone number, and email. There also was a date showing me how fresh the contact was. Well, worth the 5 points.

So dig out those business cards or company directories and you can accumulate points pretty quickly -- and help others looking for contacts. You can also add contacts automatically through a file or Outlook.

Also consider: LinkedIn can help you with networking through people you're connected to. You can get company and some contact information through ReferenceUSA.

Thank you to Dave Templeman of Career Crossroads Network and Riverpoint for this tip.