Any number of career or recruitment websites will tell prospective employees to “prepare” for their upcoming interviews. But what does prepare really mean? Well, put simply: do your research! A little investigation into your interviewer and their company will go a long way to help you successfully prepare for your job interview.
Your interviewer
Start by finding out any information you can find on your interviewer (and we’re not talking names of their children or their address!). Check LinkedIn to see if you can find where they went to college, what their growth within the company has been like, or if they’ve written any recent articles. Finding any common ground to relate to or connect on (“Oh! I just read your piece in XYZ Magazine, I enjoyed your commentary on….”) will do wonders in setting you apart from the competition.
A simple search query on google (news tab) like this will get you started: "Interviewers full name" AND "Company Name" AND "Country based in"
Past and current employees
Use employment resources like LinkedIn to see if you have any connections or mutual friends with past or present employees of the company. If you do, reach out to them and see if you can get any useful insider tips.
Culture, mission, and values.
Familiarize yourself with what the company does, as well as its mission statement to find out the organization’s values, motivators, and objectives. If your interviewer doesn’t explicitly ask you what you know about the company (most will), work what you’ve learned into your interview answers to demonstrate your knowledge and alignment with the company’s goals and objectives.
In the news
Most companies have a webpage dedicated to recent blogs, articles, or press releases. If not, a quick internet search should turn up any recent news on the company. Have they recently gone public? Held a conference or event that generated media coverage? Was there a turnover in company management within the last few months? You don’t want to miss the opportunity to impress your interviewer with knowledge of recent events related to their organization.
A simple search query on google (news tab) like this will get you started: "Company Name" AND "Country based in"