Company Research
Where to Conduct Company Research before Interviews
If you're a college or trade-school student, or a recent alumni of either, check
with the career center at your school. Many maintain libraries of company research
resources. Also check at the campus library for same.
Public
libraries stock company research resources too, such as the Thomas
Register. If you don't know where to look, just ask a librarian for
help.
The Web is an excellent place to research a company for interviews. Many companies
know that you might be visiting their Web sites for exactly that reason; for
example, Intel and Microsoft are
very accommodating, as are many.
Even if Web sites don't provide company research information specifically for
interviewees, most provide information for customers or the media that might
also be useful for interviewees. To find a company's Web site, try typing the
following into your browser; replace [company_name] with that
of the company.
http://[company_name].com
or
http://www.[company_name].com
If that doesn't work, search on the company name at a major search engine or right
here at TechnicalJobSearch.com.
Study information on the site about the company. Also study the description
of the job for which you are to interview. Get the job description from the employment
section of the company's site or from the job ad you read, whichever is more
descriptive. Alternately, look on the site for contact information to ask the
human resources (HR) department for a copy.
Speaking of the HR department, one of the best places to research a company
is at the source; it won't hurt to contact the HR department to ask about company
literature that you may research for an upcoming interview. In fact, the HR department,
which likely has a say in whether or not you're to be hired, might be impressed
that you took the time to research the company.
See also best companies lists;
with luck, the company at which you're to interview will be profiled. If you
want the inside scoop from employees about pay, culture, interview
questions and such, see if the company is listed among the employee surveys
conducted by
Vault,
a top job bank. You
must be a registered member to read the surveys, but you may first see which
companies are listed.
Conduct further company research by looking for good or bad news about the company,
at sites that publish business or financial news; good sources include Forbes, The
Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Fortune, Business
Week, MSNBC,
and the business sections of online newspapers.
To try to save time, conduct a general search on the full company name at a
major search engine or right here at TechnicalJobSearch.com,
which will conveniently list links to any good- or bad-news articles it finds,
all in one place.
If you really want to get down to the nitty-gritty, scope out the company's annual
report from an investor's point of view. After all, if you wouldn't risk
investing your money in a financially-iffy company, would you want to risk
investing your blood, sweat and tears?
Company Research
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