Ask Your Recruitment Consultant
Your Robert Walters recruitment consultant will have met your potential employer and can provide you with the relevant job information before you attend your interview. They should be able to tell you why the organisation is recruiting, what the recruitment process will be like and describe the personalities of the interviewers.
For more career advice please contact:
Nic Sephton-Poultney, Country Manager
Check The Employers Website
This should be your first stop. Pay particular attention to information about products and services, the About Us section and anything related to the job youre applying for. Check the recruitment section companies often provide a brief description of the type of people theyre looking for.
Take some notes so that you can review them before you go in to your interview.
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News And Recent Events About The Employer
When you go into a job interview, itâs always a good idea to be knowledgeable about the companyâs latest news and updates.
Most companies have a page on their website dedicated to press releases and events. This is a great source for you to find out information regarding the companyâs latest news and updates.
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Who Leads The Organization Who Works For It
Most company websites have one or more pages dedicated to their leadership team, their staff, and/or their board of directors. You don’t have to memorize the names and titles of all of these people, but it’s good to get a general sense of who the key players are, and what they do. A good place to start would be:
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Read up on the head of the business – the CEO, Executive Director, or President. What’s their background? What can you learn about the direction they’re taking the organization?
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If there are bios of the leadership team and/or board of directors, scan them to see if anything relevant stands out – for example, if someone is a fellow alum of your alma mater, or volunteers with an organization you’re involved in.
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Learn as much as you can about the person who runs the department you’re hoping to join .
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Get a sense of the size of the organization , as well as the size of the team or department you’d be working in. LinkedIn is a good place to find this information.
The Skills And Experience The Company Values
First and foremost, you should know what the company looks for in a qualified candidate. This enables you to position yourself as the best candidate for the position.
To discover the skills and experience the employer values, read between the lines of their job postings. You can also find out information on the employerâs career page to get an idea of the type of employees their desire. In addition, reach out to current employees who work there and ask them about what their employer values most in the workplace.
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The Complete Guide To Researching A Company
Researching potential employers is vital to an effective job search. This research comes in handy at three pivotal times during a job search: first when youre deciding what kind of employer youd like to work for, then when you are ready to apply, and finally when youre interviewing and your knowledge of the company is put to the test.
How To Research A Company Youre Interviewing With
When youre invited in for an interview with a company, youre evaluating the company just as much as theyre evaluating you. This is your opportunity to ask questions about the company culture and see if the position aligns well with your personal and career goals.
Not only that, a recruiter or hiring manager expects you to do your research on the company. Doing the research shows your interest in the company, passion for the role and your commitment to your own success. It also shows that you understand the companys culture and outlook and that you believe you are a good fit for both.
Because your interview time will be limited, its important to learn as much as you can about the company before your interview. Researching the company ahead of time will give you a good general idea of the companys mission, values and culture. You can then use your precious interview time to ask specific follow-up questions to what youve already learned.
The feelings mutual:60% of hiring managers use social media to research candidates before an interview. Smart recruiters will definitely try to learn a bit more about you before your interview, so you shouldnt feel strange about learning everything you possibly can about the company youre interviewing with.
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Use Directories Which Will Help You Find Those Companies
You can search Hoover’s Online by company name or keyword. Superpages allows you to search by business name, category or location. Vault is a website that offers job seekers an in-depth look inside some of the hottest industries. They also provide career advice, along with company and industry profiles.
If you’re interested in big business, you can browse the Fortune 500 top companies list. Then take a look at the snapshot for company details, revenues and contact information. Fortune provides similar lists for the 100 Fastest Growing Companies and the 100 Best Companies to Work For.
Ways To Find Out What You Need To Know Before The Big Day
You may have heard the advice that its important to have some questions for the hiring manager when youre interviewing for a job. Its true that interviewers will expect you to be curious and interested in their organization, and they’ll expect to show that by asking questions, but its also true that you should come to the interview with a good baseline of knowledge about the company.
Hopefully, youll learn a lot about the company during the interviewlike whether the organization and the company culture are a good fit for you, for example. But during the interview is not the time to learn basic information about the company. You should know all that before you set foot in corporate HQ.
The good news is that its easier than ever before to learn about an employer before the job interview. Take some time, in advance, to learn as much as you can online. Then, tap into your real-world network to see who you know who can help give you an interview edge over the other candidates. Do your research, and youll make a much better impression on the hiring manager. Here are tips for researching companies before the interview.
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Four: Include The News
See whats going on not only with the company youre interviewing with, but in the industry as well. Search popular news and business sites like Fox Business and CNBC to determine if there are any hot stories or major trends that you should know about.
Information you specifically want to gain by exploring the news about the business and the industry includes:
- Financial news about the company
- Economic outlooks for the industry
- Labor market news and outlooks
- Competitor information and activities
The more knowledge about the business, industry, and competition that you arm yourself with, the better poised you are to show the interviewer what kind of employee or leader you can be within the organization.
How To Research A Company For An Interview
Preparing for an interview is a lengthy process with many steps that a candidate must follow. One of these steps is the research you have to do on the company you will be interviewing for in the future. Here, lets know How To Research A Company For An Interview?
Such research is essential to help you prepare yourself for your interview better and perform well. And you can use this data to prepare better for your interview and answer or ask questions with confidence.
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What To Look For
In addition to educating yourself on what the company does, what industry theyre in and how your role would serve their customers and/or employees, researching a company is a great way to understand more about their corporate culture.
Look for what the company says about their:
- Mission: This is why they do what they do.
- Values: These are their guiding principles.
- Company culture: Companies that heavily invest in their peoples development and work-life integration proudly share their initiatives.
- Recent accomplishments: Look for recent awards, accolades and press coverage to get a sense of the latest news.
- Company history: This can give you additional insight into their culture. Are the founders still active within the company? Has the company recently been acquired or made a significant acquisition? These things can all help you predict the stability of the future of the company.
Check Out Their Competitors
As well as researching the company youre interviewing for, its also a good idea to look into the industry it sits within, and the organisations key competitors.
Carrying out competitor research will help to get you up to speed on current trends within the industry, to better understand the niche that the company fills, and what makes its product or service unique.
Once you have a good grasp of this, youll be able to use it to your advantage to help yourself stand out from the crowd in your graduate job interview.
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How To Bring Your Research Into An Interview
Researching the company is important, but you want to ensure all your research is going to make an impact by knowing how to best bring in your research to your answers.
You want to bring in your research when it’s relevant, don’t begin an interview by stating everything you know about the company, instead add in the facts you know when you’re asked questions such as:
- What do you know about our company?
- Why do you want to work for us?
- What do you think are our biggest challenges this year?
- Why does this industry interest you?
You can also bring in your research by asking the interviewer questions, such as “I understand you’re currently working on x project, how is this going and will my role play a part in this?” or “I know you’ve recently gained X client, what kind of work will you be doing for them?”.
Visit our blog for more top interview questions to ask the employer and how to answer the ‘do you have any questions for me?’ interview question.
One: Visit The Company Website
The best place to begin your research and information gathering is the business website. Visit the companys About Us page where you can learn about the business, its products and/or services, origins, key company leaders, and mission statement.
Theres more to this step though. Dont forget to look around for information relevant to Job Seekers. Some businesses will have a dedicated page for this, while others bury the lead to some degree. Many have created a portal to their human resources department through the website. This portal generally includes names and, quite often, email addresses to the people who are most actively involved in the hiring process for the organization.
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How To Research A Company For A Job Interview
Basic rules for your company research online
- When conducting company research on a subsidiary of a larger company start with the parent company or holding corporation. You can then drill down into the subsidiary information.
- Nationally known companies are easier to research company info on than local firms. Check whether the company is part of a bigger, national organization and start your research there.
- Use a variety of research sources, when preparing for a job interview, to get the most valid information. Remember to consider the source of the company information.
- A web search will give you data from a variety of sources, it is up to you to recognize reputable and valid information.
- Information from the company website is usually the most reliable but if you have gone to other sites or social media sources try and validate the information you get by cross referencing with another source
How to find job interview information on the internet is covered for you in detail here.
Learn about preparing for a job interview using these 5 top research resources.
What if I can’t find company information and research online?
Before conducting your interview preparation, make sure you have the full and proper company name. Sometimes a company is commonly referred to by a different name to the registered name.
Check whether it is a subsidiary of a larger corporation and if so focus on the parent company.
Run An Internet Search
A quick online search will produce a list of press releases, articles that mention the company, interviews with executives, and much more. If you are interested in a specific company and have some lead time before the interview, you may consider creating a news alert for the company name, as well as the names of key executives. When new materials that meet your search criteria are published, you will automatically get an email with the link.
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Company Research To Get In The Door
You dont have to settle for a reactive job search. With a bit of research, you can identify a target list of companies and network your way in .
These are just a few ways that company research can help YOU get that all-important INTERVIEW.
- Identifies contacts within the company. You may find people that you know or can be introduced to perhaps a fellow alum or a friend of a friend. From there, you can try reaching out to arrange an informational interview or respectfully ask for career advice. If theres a current opening , your new internal contact can forward your resume directly to the hiring decision maker and bypass all of those online applications. You are much more likely to get called in for an interview this way.
- Educates you on the companys needs. Your research on the target companies will help you get a better sense of the company culture, current hiring needs, the qualities valued in employees, and much more. This information will help you customize your cover letter and resume and increase your odds of getting the companys attention.
At this stage of the game, youre looking for basic information about the business in order to go about GETTING the interview.
Who Are Their Customers
The answer to this will vary depending on the type of business it is. If it’s an agency, who are their clients? If it’s a company selling a product, who are they selling it to? If it’s an organization offering a service, who do they serve? As an outsider, your knowledge of this will likely be somewhat surface-level, but most companies have some information addressing their customer base on their websites. For example, most nonprofits will list the specific populations serve, and most agencies have full client lists displayed prominently . If it’s not stated explicitly, hunt for some contextual clues. What are the problems they’re trying to solve? What are the demographics of the people in their pictures? On social media, who are their fans?
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Whats The Company History
Read the corporate history, noting mergers, product changes, or even mission changes over the years. Find out how many employees the company started with and currently has. Learn if theres one location or multiple , and where the main headquarters are. These details may not come up during the interview, but they can provide context for the rest of your research.
Researching A Company Before Interviewing Is Worth It
Researching a company before the interview can help you demonstrate how youre a good fit while also showing that you are truly interested in the job.
As a bonus, youll have a better feel for what kind of company you are interviewing with and if it matches up with what you want.
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Read The Companys Website And Learn About Whats Important To Them
Many company sites have an About Us page that describes the organizations history, founders, location, size, values and purpose. If the company has a Recent News page, make sure to read their latest press releases and announcements to learn about important events, such as recent mergers or major hires. You can use this information to better understand the companys mission, goals and achievements and see what contributions you can make.
You should also familiarize yourself with the companys products or services to prepare you for questions regarding your knowledge of what the company provides. Be sure to understand the value each product or service brings to further demonstrate your investment in the companys goals.
Research The Companys Leadership
When a company captures your interest, you should get to know who is leading the way. Research the employees who hold respected positions within the company by reading the About Us page and employee bios on the companys website. Seek out the social media profiles of executives and department directorsWhat are their posts like? Are they proud to represent the brand or work in this industry? Some company leaders may have been interviewed or written books and articles that give you insight into their thinking.
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