Research Prospective Employers in 3 Quick Steps

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How often do you research prospective employers? If you’re serious about landing a great job, you should find out as much as you can about a company before you go in for an interview. It’s probable that avoiding this type of research has caused many well-qualified job candidates to forfeit amazing positions. By conducting employer research, you can ensure that this never happens to you.

All Research Methods are Not Created Equal

If the average job seeker were to show you how he or she conducts employer research, you’d behold a passive process. More than likely the candidate would spend 10 minutes or so searching the Internet for facts about the company in question. The job seeker would come back from the search knowing a little bit about the company’s history, and perhaps having an idea of what the organization stands for. This depth of knowledge is usually not sufficient for a serious job seeker.

All research methods are not created equal; some are superior to others. Leave the casual Google searches to those who aren’t serious about finding a job! The 3 steps mentioned below will help you become quite knowledgeable about any company, which makes all the difference in a job interview.

Research Prospective Employers in 3 Quick Steps

1. Follow the company on social media – These days, it is the rare organization that is not on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Take advantage of the era you live in by following your prospective employers on social media. This will give you up-to-the-minute information that could be extremely helpful in a job interview.

2. Read the company’s press releases – Want to impress an interviewer? If so, be knowledgeable about his or her company’s history. You can get some of this information from an organization’s website, but you’ll learn best by reading press releases. In her article 5 Ways to Research a Future Employer, Alexia Bullard advises job seekers to “search through sites that have press releases…compare (an employer’s) past to how they are currently doing, read about some upcoming projects they are working on, and you will have some invaluable details about the progress the company has made during recent years.”

3. Don’t be casual about gathering general information – There are some basic things you should know about an employer well before you go in for an interview. Hannah Morgan, contributor to money.usnews.com, says that you need to have knowledge of “products and services offered, how long the company has been in business, basic financial information, where the company has locations and what divisions, (and) departments and subsidiaries the company has.” The best place to find general information is on the company’s website.

Researching an employer is one of the most important yet often-neglected actions one can take before a job interview. Taking a little time to research a company might just make the difference between your missing out on the job you want most, or landing it.