Now that you’ve been invited for an interview, you want to do everything possible to secure the job. One of the first things to do is to understand as much as you can about the company to be able to succeed in the interview and to help you better align your skills and the conversation to what the company needs from its employees.
To help you know what to research and make the best first impression, read on.
Step one: Company Website
Every business has a website and you can find everything about the company’s mission and vision and its products and services on the website. Identify the benefits of the company and its services, what makes them stand out from the rest of the market? Next, you can visit the About Us or Company Profile section of the website, where you can find out about the culture of the company and their values. This can be a great way to assess what type of corporate environment you may be walking into and to see if you will likely fit in with the team and identify with their selected values. A final great area of a website to look into is the careers section, where you can revisit the active role and hiring roles, to get an understanding of the wider team and how your role on offer fits into the business.
Step Two: Social Media
All companies now harness the power of social media to promote their business. By following and researching companies on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social platforms, you can get a real picture of the day-to-day life of the company. Most of the time, you will get information about the latest opportunities and updates within the company, and an insight into some of the behind-the-scenes work that isn’t available on their website. This work can pay off in an interview too, for example, you could then say in the interview, “I saw on Facebook you recently had a company charity event. Can you tell me what else the company does to facilitate team-building and/or charitable giving in the community?
Step Three: Competitor Research
A great way to impress your company is to develop commercial awareness before getting the role on offer. Understanding your competitors usually comes with time and can be a real advantage in helping you get offered the role in an interview. Try to understand how competitive the market is, who the main companies are, and how the industry is evolving or changing.
Step Four: Research your Hiring Manager
Now that everyone has a LinkedIn profile as a professional social media account, you can connect with and understand your hiring manager’s professional career in advance. This information will be useful in helping you to build a good relationship with the hiring manager before the interview. You can find out information such as How long have they been with the company? What’s their educational background? What previous jobs have they worked to get to the point they’re at?
Step Five: Company Reviews
A final step is to try and understand what customers and employees think about the business and its products and services. Customers’ reviews can be found on their websites or Google - they are great as they are honest reviews and you can weigh up what the end-user thinks of the products and services. Speaking with current or ex-employees can also be a very useful exercise, as they will give you an insight into the company that you will not get in an interview stage. It will be honest advice and a safe space where you can ask questions about the company and culture that you may not want to ask right away at the interview.
Final Step: Checklist
Now that you’ve spent some time researching the company, use this bullet point checklist to make sure you can answer these questions about a company before the interview:
Who is the team? Do you know who founded the company?
When was the company created?
Where is the company based? Do they have offices you may have to travel to?
What is the company’s target audience?
What are their USPs?
What are the core company values/mission statement?
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