So you’ve had that call offering you an interview for your dream job. Great! Want to make sure your interview is a success? Now you need to revisit the initial research you completed for the covering letter and complete a more in-depth study.
The research objectives
Remember, the objectives of the research; you need to demonstrate you are enthusiastic about the role and company, knowledgeable about both the company and industry and resourceful by finding all this out on your own steam. You’ll get your opportunity to shine when you ask your prepared questions.
You need to know the role in detail – what it entails, where it fits in and interacts with other roles within the company. You need to know the industry in detail. You need to know the company in detail – their products, services, who the directors are, where their offices are, their operations, their growth and the challenges they face in the marketplace and you need to know who the competitors are and have an idea how they operate.
The sheer scale of the research you need to do to make your interview a success may sound quite a task, it really isn’t – a few hours reading and noting down valuable information is all that’s needed, on the lowest level. Knowing the facts, figures and how the company fits into the industry will help you impress the interviewer and get you one step closer to your dream job in London.
The companies website
Look at the company website – what are their aims, mission statement, who are the directors (this information can be found online at companies house, if you can’t find it elsewhere), what are their products/services, where are they based and where do they operate? Be mindful, as you research, that in your covering letter, you are looking for ways to demonstrate you understand the industry and to link your own experience . Chances are, there will be other information available online – check out any social networking profiles – this will give you an idea of their digital marketing and tone of communication – particularly useful for marketing, digital or communication roles but recommended for other job types too. Are there any journal or newspaper articles concerning the company? Dig around and collate any information which would be useful in the covering letter.
The top websites for company research
Go to Google News and enter the company name into search. This should return results of articles from well established websites. Use glassdoor.co.uk to find the inside track on the organisation.
A great tip for finding out the company’s leading competitors is to go to Hoovers (you can sign up for a free trial), type in your search, go to company profile. There are 3 options bars, choose ‘competition.’ Here you will find details of the leading competition. You can also search for competitors on LexisNexis, if you have access (your company or university may be connected to the research database) you could also use LexisNexis to find out other vital information – such as annual reports. If both of those methods prove unfruitful, try goggling leading “competitors” for {company}. You can use this technique to find out other information too for example “annual report”, “directors”. Another great way to find great information is by going to Onesource (for a free trial).
To find more out about the industry visit trade websites. For example for advertising go to adweek.com Another great source of information on your industry is by joining the corresponding groups on LinkedIn. Furthermore, there are many blogs pertaining to the industry which you can refer to.
Understand your industry in depth
Read newspapers and industry journals to find out the key issues which the company and industry face. The best way to find out the challenges the industry face is by asking people who work in the industry – twitter and LinkedIn are great for gaining ‘inside information’ within your desired industry. In the case of Twitter, it’s as simple as finding out who the key players are in your industry and following them. Their tweets may reveal fantastic insights into the industry. When using linked in, when you register, you can choose certain industries to be linked to. Then, simply join the myriad of groups pertaining to the industry and you’ll find out the ins and outs in a flash. You could also ask the members specific questions but be careful, chances are your prospective boss will be on there too.
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