Do you thoroughly research the company before an interview?
You spend one-third of your life at work, make sure you land at the right place!
Past few years, I have taken hundreds of interviews at various levels starting from a junior developer, solution architect, program manager and so on. To my surprise, I have found that most candidates are ignorant about the company they are applying for. They don’t even invest in the basic search about the company. A year back, I was working in a software services company in India which is a part of a large manufacturing and industrial conglomerate from Japan. During the interview, when I would ask candidates about the company or what excites them to join, I would get some funny responses!
“Umm, you guys make air conditioners and those home appliances, right?”
“You folks are a big manufacturing company from Japan, but I don’t know anything beyond the brand name”
These answers were more common with entry-level or junior developers. However, I did encounter some senior candidates with similar answers. And I always wondered why people are so nonchalant about the company which will help in the next steps of their career?
It is important to know the company, culture, brand and type of work
One researcher estimates that we spend one-third of our life at work! According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace, 85% of employees are not engaged in the workplace. And most of these employees who are bored or don’t feel connected with the workplace change jobs. But would that solve the problem? If the next place feels equally disconnected and boring?
Your productivity increases multifold when you feel connected and emotionally involved in the vision and mission of the company!
When we invest a major part of our life at work, is it not crucial to know if we feel connected with it? Here are some more reasons why you should research the company before appearing for an interview:
- Explore the kind of services the company provides or the product it builds to see if it excites you. Find out more about their customers, geographic footprint, and interesting work done — this gives a good understanding of the opportunities you will have if you join them.
- Check out the technology stack, partnerships, case studies, blogs to get a good understanding of the technology culture of the company
- In the publicly listed blogs and articles, check for the titles of authors. If you mostly see senior leader titles like SVP, VP, Director, Head etc. and very few blogs from developers, architects etc. then you easily get the idea about the hierarchical structure of the organization where titles matter more than your talent for thought leadership.
- Observe the social media updates on LinkedIn or Twitter and try to find stories of team success, individuals along with their photos. Again, if you see the leaders’ faces more than people's, you can guess the culture!
- Check social media feeds for posts on diversity, inclusion, equal opportunity and other socially relevant topics. This throws light on true intentions; if the topic of ‘diversity and inclusion is really given any importance or if it is just lip service.
- Find more about the CEO, company leadership team, board of directors and their thought leadership in the industry. Moreover, a diverse leadership team gives an inkling of the diversity of opinion in the culture.
- Finally, you can engage in a meaningful dialogue with the interviewer and ask detailed questions about the company’s growth plans, focus areas or cultural aspects. It demonstrates your keen interest and ability to go the extra mile to understand the company better. On the other hand, You need to see your fitment in their culture and check for the alignment of your passion with their vision.
There are many ways to research a company
Apart from the company website and social media feed, there are many other ways to find more details about the company:
- Glassdoor serves as an important resource and many candidates usually check glassdoor reviews first even before accessing the company website! It does serve as a good resource about culture, type of projects, compensation etc. However, take it with a pinch of salt, reviews can be biased sometimes.
- Latest mentions in the news about a product or service launch, leadership changes, mergers and acquisitions or any other related updates.
- Annual reports and investor relationship artifacts can also serve as a great resource about a company’s vision, investment areas and financials. It may be tedious to go through detailed annual reports — in that case, check for annual report summary presentations. Those are usually crisp and provide great information. However, this applies only to publicly listed companies.
- Check out the existing employees on LinkedIn. Going through their profiles, skills, achievements may give you a certain idea about the type of people the company looks for.
Passion, connection, relevance, culture and alignment have an instrumental contribution to job satisfaction. Well, money matters more than these factors in many cases. Whatever may be your reason to change the job, invest some time in this research. It will not only help you to have a meaningful discussion during the interview but also find a place that can nurture your passion!
