11 Things To Research Before An Interview
Believe it or not, some candidates will start an interview (usually a phone interview) without knowing anything about the company, except for its name (some don’t even know that much).
It happens more than you would think.
Oftentimes because the candidate has blindly sent out applications and scheduled phone interviews with every recruiter that has contacted them, without doing any further research on each of the companies, other than what’s obviously written on the job postings.
It’s an amateur approach to the job search process. And experienced interviewers will see it from a mile away.
These candidates are immediately rejected when they can’t provide an answer to one of these questions from the interviewer:
- What do you know about our company so far?
- From your research, can you tell me about our company in your own words?
- If you were talking to a customer, how would you describe the product that we sell?
Research is time-consuming. Especially when you have a dozen interviews happening around the same time, it’s hard to do research on every company.
But it’s essential. Not only to pass the interview, but also to confirm that this is a company that you want to work for in the first place.
For public companies, you can find most of this information on the Investor Relations page of their website. For example, here is the Investor Relations page for Apple.
For startups, you’ll have to do a little more digging. Crunchbase is a good resource for funding information. LinkedIn is best for the backgrounds of company leaders. The startup’s website will be best for learning about their product (hint: create a customer account and go through the product demo).
I recommend copy and pasting the following template into a Google Doc and filling it out for each company before the phone interview. Here’s the template:
- Value proposition: what does the company do (in one sentence)?
- Mission statement: what does the company believe in?
- Products and services: how does the company make money?
- Client base: who buys their products or services?
- Industry: what section of the economy does the company operate in?
- Competitors: what other companies are in the same industry?
- Important people: who are the founders and other executives?
- Employees: how many employees work at the company?
- Date of founding: when was the company originally founded?
- Recent news: funding, acquisitions, product launches, etc.
- Interviewer: what’s the position and background of the person interviewing you?
Again, don’t be afraid to print this out and bring it with you in a professional folder to the interview. Or, you can write down this information by hand in your notebook.
Ideally, you’ll have these answers memorized. But just in case you forget, remember to have your research open in front of you during phone interviews.
During an on-site interview, don’t be embarrassed to pull this sheet of paper out of your folder or flip to the appropriate page in your notebook to review your notes. It’s better than not knowing the answer and it shows that you’re prepared.