Besides enabling you to “flatter” the interviewer, there are at least six central reasons to research a company before you step into the interview:
- To find out whether or not it’s a place you want to work
- To discover what skills the job or the company most values
- To ferret out as much as you can about the company culture and mission in order to align some of your competencies to fit the company’s style and goals
- To impress the employer when he or she asks: “Tell me, what do you know about our company, and why would you like to work here?”
- So you can make intelligent queries when the employer asks you: “So, do you have any questions about our company?”
- To give you an advantage because your competitors for this job are not researching the company to the degree that you’re going to.
You can locate facts and opinions about companies in a number of ways:
- From company Web sites
- Through other research on the Internet
- From proprietary, or “for-fee,” databases
- From one-stop job centers around the country
- In public libraries, from their books, periodicals, and computer databases
- From the interviewer, during the interview itself!
Research will lower your anxiety level because you know with whom you’re dealing.
