One key to a positive interview experience involves doing your homework on a potential employer. The goal is to find as much information about the company to give you a better understanding and appreciation for their business. Here are three major resources for locating information.
Public Libraries
Many community libraries offer a wealth of information about publicly held companies. Securities Exchange Commission reports can offer insight on industry trends and business earnings. Many libraries also subscribe to a service that indexes recent articles published in popular periodicals and trade journals. The latest volumes of these materials are often kept under lock and key when not in use. Ask the reference librarian for more details.
Internet
The Internet is a great place to research companies. Use the major search engines to find out if the company has a homepage. This is usually a good place to start. While searching for the company’s homepage make sure you check out the company’s competitors. Competitor homepages can often give you a good idea of how the company you are interviewing with competes in the marketplace.
If you are able to find a homepage for a related industry association or trade journal you may be able to learn more about industry trends, pay scales, and upcoming industry conventions and seminars.
Last, the Internet offers a wealth of employment listings. On any given day this web site publishes an average of 20,000 employment classifieds per day. These classified ads are the same ads that appeared in one of 650 newspapers across the country. The fact that the advertiser has paid to have these ads listed should offer a greater degree of confidence that the employer is sincere about their hiring intentions.
Career Planning Centers
Most colleges and universities maintain a library of corporate reports and other and specialized career information not typically found in public libraries. If you are not a student contact your local college or university career-planning center to find out their policies for use of the center’s material. In many cases the centers make their services available to the public.