Look Before You Leap: How and Why to Do Pre-Interview Research to Snag a Job of Your DreamsWritten by Cheryl Ferguson
I got a call from a friend other day who had been approached by a recruiter with a lead about a position at a hot company rumored to be going public shortly in a sexy business space. Later that day she called me and asked, “What, if anything did I know about XYZ company?”While it is always flattering to be singled out for a lead on a great new opportunity, you can avoid a lot of surprise, heartache and frustration by doing your homework before making a move. Here are three suggestions to help you decide whether to pursue a new opportunity or stay where you are. 1. Learn all you can about company. Visit company website. Does business interest you? Why? Has management team been successful in past? Has company raised money, won an award, or signed an exclusive agreement with a key business partner? And finally, company website is a great place to find out what industries and universities they’ve tended to hire from. Are you an alumnus of CEO’s alma mater? 2. Get a sense of company culture. Find out if somebody in your circle of friends or a business colleague knows of someone who works at company, or has worked with any of these individuals at one of their previous companies. What’s company’s reputation like? Is this kind of environment you can thrive in? 3. Contact local chapter of industry association. This is especially important if you are new in town, new to industry, or don’t know anyone connected to company. Find out when local chapter of industry association is having their next meeting and go. Introduce yourself to someone during pre-meeting reception or at your table, explain that you’re considering a new position in industry, and ask for their advice. If you’ve already got a particular company in mind, see if someone from that company is attending event or is on program. Introduce yourself to that person and ask them why they enjoy working at company. Get person’s business card and send a note, thanking them for their time immediately after meeting. If you decide after doing this preliminary research that this is company and industry for you, then by all means go on interview if invited. Prepare yourself for day by asking person setting up interview what interview process is like: how many people are on interview team, what are their titles, and how long will each individual interview will be.
| | Fact or Opinion?Written by Nan S. Russell
"You ain't going nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck." What if Elvis believed this Grand Ole Opry manager's critique after his l954 performance? Or Beatles listened in 1962 when Decca Recording Company responded, "We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on way out."What if Rudyard Kipling quit writing when San Francisco Examiner told him, "I'm sorry, but you just don't know how to use English language." Or as a struggling artist, Walt Disney took seriously words of a prospective employer to "try another line of work" because he "didn't have any creative, original ideas." What if ten year old Albert Einstein believed his teacher's words, "you will never amount to much." Or opera star, Enrico Caruso, gave up singing after his first vocal teacher counseled, "your voice sounds like wind whistling through a window." Thankfully, they didn't believe what they were told. But many of us do. We accept someone else's opinion as our fact. We allow others to determine what we believe about ourselves, what we aspire to achieve, what we dream and what we become. Others people's limiting beliefs about us become our own as we give them power over our life. But, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen didn't. Their "Chicken Soup for Soul" series, now with 65 titles, has sold more than 80 million copies in 27 languages. Not bad for an anthology rejected by 33 major publishing houses in first month, receiving more than 140 total rejections before their agent gave it back to them saying "I can't sell this book." Only by going booth to booth and pitching their vision to editors at a booksellers' convention did they finally find a small publisher who said yes.
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