A friend of mine currently looking for a job messaged me yesterday that she has complied a list of companies that she is interested in working for, but she is lost about how to research the companies to assess if they are a good fit for her ambitions and values. I faced this conundrum while finding my first full-time job too, and I am sure many of you 2020 graduates are in the same boat right now, so I hope the tips in this post will help.
But before I share my tips, let me emphasize how important it is to research a company before you work for them. Most people think research demonstrates their interest in the firm and impresses the interviewers, which is well and good. But researching a company also gives you critical insights with regard to a company’s growth patterns, people turnover, everyday values and culture, expansion strategies and more which, if you start working at the firm, will directly impact you.
Therefore, always try to find as much information as possible on a firm before applying for a job there, and especially prior to accepting a job offer.
To be as thorough as possible, I recommend three steps to research a potential employer.
Big picture view
Start with a simple google search. Visit the company website and LinkedIn page. This should give you a helicopter view of the size of the company operations, number of people employed, and office locations.
Read their latest annual report, if available under Investor Relations. The annual report should provide you plenty of information on the firm’s strategic goals and expansion areas in the coming years, growth and performance of various service lines and geographies, people turnover, and priorities with regard to gender and racial diversity.
You can also find events organized or sponsored by the firm as well as any thought leadership contributions at industry conferences, market working groups, panel interviews, published blogs and more. Type: “name of the firm+event+location of the firm+any other relevant info” and search. You can try this in YouTube too to find any video material that involves the company.
If this company is listed, you can check the stock market where this company is listed as well as read commentary on value trends and projections at Financial Times.
Zooming In
You would find that the big picture view is almost always perfect. To get into the nitty gritty details, especially if you are planning to dig deeper into a specific team or position within a company, it is important to extend your research beyond surface level.
I recommend starting with Glassdoor. It enables you to read reviews on work culture and interview processes from both current and past employees, review salaries for different positions at different locations, and even benchmark job offers and quality of work experience against industry standards and / or competitors.
Most salary information and employer reviews on Glassdoor are anonymous. So to get an even closer look, take to the LinkedIn people search.
Type in the company name in the search bar and then click on People to find profiles of current employees. You can also type name of a team or area of expertise to refine your search results. Browse through profiles that interest you based on location, position you are interested in, skills and more. This should provide you details into the types of sub-teams, qualifications and interests of employees, promotion windows, diversity of the workforce, etcetera.
If you use the all filters option, you can also find people at this company who may have gone to the same school or studied the same program as yourself. Finding a common point makes it easier to approach someone should you choose to do that for expanding your network inside this company.
Keeping tabs
If a company interests you or you think will interest you in the future, you should create a minimal effort system to stay in the know. Setting up a google alert on the firm is an easy way to do that. Read here how you can easily set up an alert for news on the company you are interested in.
If you connected with any employees on LinkedIn, bravo, keep in contact with them. More often then not my LinkedIn connections have organically moved to in-person coffees and led to insightful conversations if not a job. But if you do not feel comfortable sending a connection invite, you can always follow profiles that interest you.
Following is slightly different; they will be notified you are following them and you will see all the updates they post but you will not be their connection. You will still have the opportunity to intelligently engage with their updates and demonstrate your interest though! So use that to your advantage to learn more about the company and its employees, as well as get noticed by them for your thoughtful engagement.
If these tips are useful or if you have any further questions, feel free to let me know in the comments and have a great week ahead! My best wishes on your job hunt.
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