5 Easy Ways To Research A Potential Employer Before The Job Interview

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An essential component of interview preparation is research. By researching the company, you won't be caught unaware; you'll better understand the company, its business model, and its culture, as well as what questions to ask during your interview.

Here a 5 Easy Ways To Research A Potential Employer Before The Job Interview!

1. VISIT THE COMPANY'S WEB SITE. Corporate sites usually contain a trove of information about the company's products and services, and frequently feature profiles of the executive leadership team. Larger companies also often share investor relations information, press releases, and corporate announcements.
    
2. READ THE NEWS. Type the company's name into a news aggregator such as Google News or Bing News. If there's important news to be found, there's a pretty good chance you'll see it here.
    
3. LOOK AT LINKEDIN. If the company provides you with a list of the interviewers prior to your meeting, take a look at their profiles on LinkedIn. You're often able to learn about your interviewers' roles, projects, career progression, and more.
    
4. CHECK OUT THEIR REVIEWS. Glassdoor is like the Yelp! of employment. But instead of dining reviews, people dish on their interview and employment experiences. The feedback is anonymous, and in many cases, it tends to be the unhappy employees who share their feedback, so evaluate reviews with a grain of salt. You should be able to identify aggregate views of the corporate culture.
    
5. REACH OUT TO SOMEBODY WHO'S WORKED THERE. Just as an employer is going to perform a reference check on you to make sure you're a good match, there's no reason you can't do the same to them. If you'd like to find out somebody's experience as an employee, ask them. By working your personal network, you should be able to identify an individual who will provide you the good, the bad, and the ugly.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Three Weekly Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy Job Hunting Tips – October 12, 2015

Lemon Squeezy

Here are three simple job hunting tips for you to begin your week!

1. Do some research to know what kind of fashion statement to make at your interview. Generally speaking you can't go wrong with a current but conservative suit. However, if the company you're interviewing with is particularly fashionable or edgy, that may not be the way to go. Cultural fit matters, and interviewers can be kind of judgy if you wear an outfit that's too far off the mark.
2. Ask for a business card of your interviewer. Got to have their name and address right to send a thank you note...
3. It's not considered good form to show up at an office unannounced asking to meet with the recruiter / hiring manager / anybody. Unless the company's advertisement suggests that this is how they'd like to be approached, don't visit without an appointment.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. He is a Human Resources professional and staffing expert with almost two decades of in-house corporate HR and staffing firm experience, and is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).

Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Four Ways to Let Your LinkedIn Contacts Know You're Looking for a Job Change

Answers to your Questions

Reader question from the mailbag:

Question: What is a good way to let people on LinkedIn know that you are actively looking despite the fact that you have a job?

Answer: Great question! LinkedIn has become kind of the public résumé database. How do you let the world know that you're open and receptive to recruiter inquiries? Let me put a twist on your question, though. Try to think about it this way: "How can I make sure recruiters find me on LinkedIn?" Here are a few ideas:

1. Update your LinkedIn profile to look like a résumé. I don't necessarily mean that you include an objective. However, think of your résumé as a marketing document - its primary goal is to sell you as a candidate. You can transfer a great portion of the data from your résumé to your LinkedIn profile. Fill in your jobs beyond just your job title - What responsibilities did you hold? How many people have you supervised? What quantifiable accomplishments have you accomplished? Don't be modest - include all of these (but be truthful). The more information your profile contains, the more recruiters will see it when they search for candidates.
2. Upgrade your LinkedIn subscription. LinkedIn offers Premium memberships. You're paying for increased visibility of your profile through better promotion as a featured applicant, you can see who's looked at your profile (so you can contact them back to express your interest in their company - a-ha!), and you'll get a few InMails, which enable you to reach people who aren't your direct contacts.
3. Become an Open Networker. This means you accept all invites. Accepting more invitations expands your network. An expanded network means you'll show up in more searches.
4. Be Proactive. Look at what companies of interest are posting scads of jobs. Identify the recruiter at the company. Send them a note to express your interest, along with your résumé.

Good luck!

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. He is a Human Resources professional and staffing expert with almost two decades of in-house corporate HR and staffing firm experience, and is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).

Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.