Research Potential Employers

David Schepp interviewed me last week for his Journal News column, Job Seekers Know Thy Interviewer. This is one of my favorite subjects because knowing the companies you are targeting is one of the surest ways to ensure success in your search.

As I discussed the other day, understanding your target employers allows you to focus your resume and get results. But as David's column shows, it also allows you to impress interviewers with your knowledge of the company.

And I'll go one step further - it allows you to rule out companies that are just not right for you. Job search should not be about getting a job so much as about finding the right job. We've all had jobs we wish we hadn't taken and I don't know about you, but if I look back, I can see that I should have known before I took the job. There were clear warning signs, but I chose to ignore them because I was focused on getting the job.

For example, there was the time I went to interview for an HR Director position and the CEO interviewing me said "tell me about ... well, whatever it is you HR types do all day."

You're probably thinking I must have been a fool to take that job - maybe so. But the job was in a beautiful building, with a company that paid really well and gave great employee benefits, in an up and coming industry that was lots of fun. Once I saw the beautiful office I would be moving into, it was easy to rationalize the CEO's lack of interest in HR by telling myself that I wouldn't be reporting to him anyway, and that I'd be able to show him the value of my work once I started.

That mistake cost me three very unhappy years. If I had done some research into the company before my interview, I would have known that the salaries were so high because they had trouble keeping people. I would have known that they were not respected in the industry, that they didn't pay their bills on time, that managers routinely screamed at their employees because the CEO routinely screamed at them. I would have known that the beautiful furniture and expensive italian tiled floors reflected bad priorities on the part of management. And I would never have taken that job.

So researching potential employers is not only a way to make a good impression, it's a way to ensure you find the job that's right for you.

Comments

[resumepromo]

I guess I should define a potential employer at times (neccessity), because my career plan would change after years, and the neccessity or career objective would change as well. I would list up at least 5 criterias which could tell me how potential employers or job offers look like. After that I would conduct a research, using both online tool and the newspapers, yellow pages, networking (this is the most reliable source). The next and important step is to actively approach my ideal employers.