Preparation is key when it comes to job interviews and the same applies to hiring managers looking for the perfect candidate. You can be sure they’ll do your research on you but are you doing the same?
Besides just trying to impress employers, doing your research on the company helps you determine whether the company is the right place for you professionally and personally at all.
Below are 6 things you need to find out about the company before your job interview:
1. The company’s mission and values
One of the easiest and most important things to start off with is learning about the company’s mission and values. It’s also pretty easy to do. You can begin by visiting the company website and combing through their About section.
For a more media-rich experience, Hiredly encourages employers to fill out their company profiles with clear descriptions of what they do and include photos and videos. This is so job seekers like you can have a clearer picture of their culture.
Once you have a better idea of a company’s values, see if they align with yours and decide whether they fit your personal goals and way of working.
2. The company’s clients, products and services
Knowing what the company offers is crucial to understanding what the role requires from you. Most employers will have this information available on the front page of their websites.
Besides their website and company profiles, you can also check out their social media accounts or e-commerce websites they sell their products or services on.
Understanding how the company markets themselves, as well as the tone they use when communicating their products and services, is a good look into what they’re all about.
3. Recent company news
To make sure you come across as a well-informed candidate, take a step further by looking up any recent news or activities the company has been involved in.
Companies will usually have a section on their websites especially for press releases.
A clever way to make sure you’re always up-to-date with the company is signing for their newsletters. That way you have the most recent and important news delivered straight to your inbox from the company themselves!
4. Who the interviewers and key people at the company are
Interviews are at most about 1 hour long and that’s not a lot of time to establish an immediate connection for some people. Skip puzzling introductions and do a quick background check on the key players of the company, especially the interviewers you will be speaking with.
These key players (such as C-level executives, managers, and directors) are pretty easy to search on LinkedIn. Find out their area of expertise and aspects of their work that make them tick.
As for your interviewers, it can be as simple as searching them via their work email. If upon receiving your job interview invitation, you aren’t informed who the interviewers will be, just send them a polite reply asking who you’ll be speaking to.
A quick search of them on LinkedIn will help you narrow down if there are any common interests you share and can bring up to break the ice. If nothing else, knowing who you will be speaking with prior to the interview can also ease any nervousness.
5. Testimonials from real employees
Remember that when you’re researching employers, it isn’t just to find ways to impress them – you’re also looking for potential red flags. To determine whether the company is a great place to work, try your best to sniff out what the actual employees have to say about them.
You can look up online reviews on websites such as Glassdoor or check for mutual connections on LinkedIn for an honest opinion.
Strike up a conversation and see what their experiences are like. Be on the lookout for key details pertaining to what you’re looking for in a workplace, such as work-life balance, opportunities for learning and growth or great colleague relationships.
6. The industry and the company’s competition
Learning about the employer’s competitors is a good way to sense the position of the company in the industry. Compare the employer to their competitors to see what they have in common, what the employer’s strengths and weaknesses are, as well as what they’re doing to set themselves apart from the competition.
Are they doing better against the competition or are they trying to catch up? Use the information you find to gauge if the company is heading towards success and even better, figure out what you can offer to help them get there.
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