Researching company business

By JULIE MIDDLETON

Going into a job interview well-armed with information on the company you're targeting confers an instant edge. It shows not just motivation and digging ability, it gives you confidence and the contextual clout to answer questions well - and it helps you bounce back at the would-be employer their own buzz-words.

But it would appear we tend to go into interviews having not done our homework.

A survey released in January by recruiters Robert Half found that one of the most common mistakes by candidates during job interviewers was lack of knowledge of the company they were targeting.

The hirers quizzed said that 44 per cent of potential recruits fell into this category. The next most-common mistake was unpreparedness to discuss career plans and goals - a sin committed by 23 per cent.

The first step in researching a company is to find out if the company is public or private.

Companies can be owned by one person; be a partnership, owned jointly by two or more people; a private company, whose shares are not publicly available; or a publicly-listed company, whose shares are publicly traded.

Only listed companies are required by law to disclose detailed company information - which makes them the easiest to research.

But first stop should always be a company's own web site, says Phil Davis, the managing director of Robert Half International New Zealand and Australia. Read the mission statement and goals as well as investigating the firm's past business history.

He suggests reading analysts' ratings of the company and searching out past media coverage.

And often crucial in painting a complete picture of a company is an informal but informed chat with someone who works there, or has done in the past.

It's something Richard Nelson "What colour is your parachute?" Bolles would agree with - the power of the off-the-record conversation. In his latest book, Job-Hunting on the Internet (Ten Speed Press, $26.95) he says you always wish you had known:

* What the real goal of the place were, instead of what they state in their annual report;

* What the corporate culture was like there: cold and clammy, or warm and appreciative;

* What kinds of timelines they conducted their work under, and whether they were flexible or inflexible;

* What the job was really like;

* Whether the skills you care the most about, in yourself, would really get used. Or was that talk about your skills just window dressing to lure you there, and you, with rich people skills, ended up pushing paper?

* More about the boss, and what she or he was like to work for. Ditto for your immediate supervisors.

* What your co-workers were like: easy to get along with, or difficult? And who was which?

* How close the company or organisation was to having to lay off people, or on how tight a budget they were going to ask your department to operate.

For some naked feedback, check out on-line chat groups -every large company has disgruntled employees who like public whinging.

Just remember there are two sides to every story. Happy people are less likely to profess their happiness on the net than those with a gripe.