> One should is that the person
> should find out a bit about the company and the job before the interview. A
> student asked me how one does that and, well, I was stumped. Besides
> brochures friends who work there, web sites, how does one find out this info?
>
The three you suggest are good sources. If it is a large and/or
publically held company, students can also get information from a
computer database or set of books likely to be in your school library (I
can't remember the name of the database right now, but your reference
librarian should know). Annual reports of the company may also be
available in your library, in specialized libraries across campus
(e.g., business school libraries for information on banks), or in the
career planning office.
Doing a search of recent media reports about the company is a good idea
as well. If it's a large company, this might be easier--look on infotrac
or NEXIS/LEXIS or in large newspaper databases. But even if it's a small,
local company, the newspaper in the town where the company is located has
probably written something about it in the last couple of years. Even
many small newspapers now have searchable indexes available on their web
sites.
Hope this helps.
Helen C. Harton
Department of Psychology
University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0505
