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.

3 Critical Details You May Be Forgetting To Include In Your Resume

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A resume is a marketing brochure, and like any brochure it exists to sell a product. Namely, you.

While brevity is key to the successful resume (most shouldn't exceed 1 or 2 pages), it's absolutely essential that you also clearly demonstrate your potential value to an employer in a succinct manner. A fuller picture of who you are can help you snag an interview.

Here are 3 Critical Details You May Be Forgetting To Include In Your Resume!

1. ACCOMPLISHMENTS. You'd be surprised how many people's resumes are little more than a transcript of their job description, just a detailed description of day-to-day duties with no mention of their wins. Don't be modest – highlight the initiatives you've led, the process improvements you've developed, the sales you've generated, and the money you've saved! Clearly articulated – and preferably, quantifiable – accomplishments demonstrate that you won't just take up space, you'll elevate the potential employer's overall performance.

2. CONTEXT. Responsibilities and accomplishments listed on a resume can carry greater impact if they provide a bit of details into the circumstances. And you'd be surprised how much important detail you can fit on one or two lines if they're tightly written. Take a look at the following examples and decide for yourself – which ones are just bullets, and which ones provide critical insights that really sell the job seeker?

• Generated $300K in region-wide sales. (OR)
• Generated $300K in region-wide sales as #1 sales representative in company, growing business through aggressive lead generation and new account development.

• Installed Windows 10 onto all of the company's desktop computers. (OR)
• Installed Windows 10 onto all of the company's desktop computers, leading project from initial planning through final sign-off.

• Achieved high levels of customer satisfaction on service calls. (OR)
• Achieved high levels of customer satisfaction on service calls, consistently earning 4 and 5 ratings (out of 5) on surveys through focus on culture of customer service and accountability.

•Oversaw 350-person layoff during business downturn. (OR)
•Oversaw 350-person layoff during business downturn. Led executive team in workforce analysis to identify efficiencies, retain key talent, and drive compliance with regulations.

3. PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT. If you're a manager at any level, an important skill is the ability to develop your staff. Do you have people you've promoted to leadership roles? How did you get them there? Did you engage your employees in career planning? An employer is going to want to know how you help your team improve and grow, since organizations need the continuity and competitiveness that a supply of leadership provides. Detail your people-oriented wins.

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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.

3 Important Ways Recruiters Use LinkedIn

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Did you know LinkedIn is a major recruiting tool?

There are more than 467 million user accounts in LinkedIn, all of which are professionally oriented; in other words, one in every 17 people on planet earth has a LinkedIn account, making the system fertile ground for recruiters to find potential candidates for open jobs.

If you'd like to get noticed on LinkedIn, it's important to know how these same recruiters use the system to search for talent.

Here are 3 Important Ways Recruiters Use LinkedIn!

1. THEY SEARCH THROUGH EVERY PROFILE TO FIND PEOPLE TO FILL THEIR OPEN JOBS. While nonpaying (i.e., free account) LinkedIn users have limited ability to see and contact individuals outside their first-level connections, companies pay dearly (around $9,000 annually, per user) to obtain universal access to almost the full population of members. Also, some companies use LinkedIn as their only recruitment platform; if you don't have a profile, you'll miss out on potential job opportunities.
    

2. THEY BUILD PROFILE SEARCHES BASED UPON A VARIETY OF KEYWORDS. Have you ever wondered why LinkedIn encourages you to fill in all the fields on your profile? It's because recruiters fill out a combination of fields and Boolean searches with their criteria to identify qualified candidates. Keywords in your headline, summary, job description, education, skills, and other fields can all be searched and found. If you're serious about being considered for career opportunities, you should also be serious about building a profile sprinkled liberally with keywords and job skills.
    

3. THEY DECIDE WHETHER TO LOOK AT YOUR PROFILE BASED UPON YOUR HEADLINE AND PICTURE. After running a profile search in LinkedIn, recruiters will be presented with a list of candidates; featured most prominently for each individual are their headline and picture. A snappy, descriptive headline and a professional, three-quarters profile photo will make a great impression and invite a deeper look. Fail to impress, and you may get passed over.

Rodney Apple, Managing Partner at SCM Talent Group, and Katie Kurz, Marketing & Recruiting Ambassador at SCM Talent Group, contributed to this article. If you're interested in learning more about how you can optimize your LinkedIn profile for your career search, you can view our webinar on this topic here: https://youtu.be/zpfTYpupqUE

NOTE: In case you were wondering, I am in no way affiliated with LinkedIn other than as a paying user, and for my subscription I pay rack rate. But I've been using the system since its early days and while there are things about it I don't love, I firmly believe in its power as both a job search and recruitment tool.

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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.