Part II – Research, How to be Thorough
It is time to begin the preparation. Let’s dive into it. Here is the breakdown to effectively research for an upcoming interview.
Job Description
- Read the job description and understand it.
- 2 important sections within the job description
- Responsibilities
- Skills / Qualifications
- 2 important sections within the job description
This may sound self explanatory however you would be surprised at the alarming number of students that do not review the job description.Task: Write down 3-5 ways that your resume relates to different aspects of the job description. Here are some questions to keep in mind.
- Why am I a good fit for this position?
- What skills overlap (between my resume and qualifications)?
- How does my past experience relate to the current responsibilities?
- Do I have specific examples to explain my current experiences to the job description?
Example: If it is a sales role, look for ways that your resume describes some or all of the following:
- Closing deals
- Prospecting for new clients
- Account management
- Customer service
- Creating new processes for profit
- Building a sales pipeline
Next: Go to the company website and digest the following:
- ‘About Us’ or ‘Careers’ section
- Understand company culture, required skills, company history, benefits, volunteer opportunities, etc
- ‘Press releases’ or ‘Latest news’
- Latest products, management changes, recent public launches
- Also check their stock price (if they have one)
- Figure out their competitors and how they differentiate themselves
Finally: Read reviews and personnel background
- Glassdoor or Quora
- Read reviews about the company to see if you can get additional insight into his hiring, management style, best practices, new training, and onboarding process
- Try to learn about company culture or possible interview questions
- LinkedIn
- If you know the names of the people in your interview, do research on their background.
- Check the number of years that they have been at the current company and the number of years at their past jobs.
- Ask them during the interview, why did they decide to leave Company X and join the current Company Y?
- If you do not know the names, research either people in the same company or similar roles in different companies
- By doing this, it will help to gain a better perspective in regards to the skills and qualifications that companies are looking to hire.
- If you know the names of the people in your interview, do research on their background.
Conclusion: By taking these steps, you will get insight into the company culture, responsibilities for the job as well as skills needed to perform the job. You will be prepared for 80% of the content / research related questions in the behavorial interview. I hope that you found this helpful.