Wetfeet.com has Research on Prospective Employers

Calling itself the information source for job seekers, the WetFeet website has the polished look of a sophisticated commercial site that has something to sell. And it does. WetFeet first went online trying to get the web-surfing job seeker to buy its Insider Guides to major businesses. These are, according to information on the website, the inside scoop on individual companies, like Coca-Cola, Bank of America, Yahoo!, and Charles Schwab.

Along the way, they started an online company, Gallery -- a free forum for companies to describe their place of business.

The Gallery is a question and answer forum. WetFeet asks each company the same thirteen questions and the companies answer. Some questions are:

• "What does your firm do?"
• "Who are your competitors and how is your firm different?"
• "How long do most people stay with the firm?"
• "Are there challenges and downsides to your company?"
• "What are the key opportunities for experienced hires?"

Athough many of the companies profiled are not in the Bay Area, the Gallery offers valuable insight into different industries. I would probably never move to Seattle to join Amazon.com or commute to Silicon Valley for a position with Yahoo!, but I found reading about their interview procedures, the biggest mistake a candidate can make during an interview, or how long employees stay, to be extremely revealing... really fascinating.

There is definitely a difference between the free online Gallery and the paid-for Insider's Guides. The company answers the Gallery questions. The research for the Insider Guides are billed as an insider's perspective "written with 100% editorial independence and objectivity." The 25 to 30 page guides are about $30 each. There are sample excerpts for each company, so you have an idea of what you are paying for.

For example, at Coca-Cola, the Insider Guide excerpt says that the atmosphere is very corporate and very conservative. "You see a lot of white shirts here, not many colored shirts. There will never be casual Fridays," comments one insider. "It's not our culture."

Technically, WetFeet.com works just fine and is very professional looking, but the home page is slightly confusing. Some of the information throughout the site seems to be geared towards recent college grads and a number of the companies aren't local. For those reasons, I'd give WetFeet.com three out of five mouse clicks.