Do you have an interview scheduled? Planning to come to the Fall Career Fair on September 16? Going to a networking event? Don't be surprised when you meet an employer if the first words out of his mouth are "What do you know about our company?" Remember this about that question: it is not an invitation for you to ask "What do you do?" The question is intended to find out if you're on the ball and have done your research.
You are so lucky because so much information is available on the Internet. Take advantage of your luck and start searching.
Using your favorite search engine, go to the organization's website and read all you can. Pay particular attention to the company's products or services (including latest endeavors), growth for the past five years, future plans, mission statement, names of managers, locations, corporate headquarters, who the competition is, and their history. With the above information in hand, you should have a good overview of the organization.
If you are interviewing, don't stop there. You want all the information you can gather. Ask everyone you know including instructors, classmates, friends, neighbors, relatives, the folks at Career Services,(you get the idea) if they know anyone who works for the organization of interest to you. If so, find out if they can refer you to that person so you can ask some questions and get an insider's perspective of the company. You may even want to visit the library, and ask the research librarian if they can provide any other information.
If you follow these guidelines, you should be ready to answer that question "What do you know about our company?" Relief. . .now you can move on to "Tell me about yourself". We'll talk about that in our next posting. ~ jan
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