How to Research A Company For A Job Search in 12 Easy Steps
Taking the time to thoroughly research a company is a huge part of any job search and an extremely important step that can’t be passed over. It serves two important purposes. The first is to understand the company in enough detail to be able to make an informed decision about whether you would be a good fit and like to apply for a role there or not. The second is to have collected the knowledge necessary to be able to truly impress with your application and in an interview.
Here at Zealify, one of our aims is make the information easily accessible and discoverable for a job seeker but collating it all in detailed, informative company profiles. However, in most cases you will need to embark on some external research and here’s how.
First things first, what information needs to be researched exactly? Below is a list, in no particular order, of the points that are advisable to get an understanding of.
- What are the company’s products and services?
- What year was the company founded?
- Where are their offices located?
- Who are the current management and team members?
- How many people in the company / team?
- Has the company raised funding?
- Have they been in the news recently or in the past?
- What events do they attend?
- What do they talk about and share on their social channels?
- Who are their clients?
- Who are their competitors?
- What are the reviews of their services like?
- What is it like to work there?
- How has the company grown over time?
- What are the values and the culture like at the company?
- How has the company performed financially?
- Important Bonus: How do you pronounce and spell the company’s name?
At face value this might seem like a long list, however, any one of these could give you the competitive advantage to land the job. It’s also worth bearing in mind that doing this research is not a wasted exercise for companies that you eventually decide are not worth applying for. For a short time researching, you have saved time later down the road with the rest of the application process. Even worse, you land the job only to discover at a later stage that there is a big red flag on something which you could have uncovered with some detailed research beforehand. Taking the time to research an employer can help you establish what you might be walking into.
Whilst some of the methods might appear to be painstakingly obvious, they are all important steps in leaving no stone unturned. Without further ado here are the methods of extracting all the information you will need:
1) The company’s website.
Start here at the company’s website. This doesn’t mean just a quick browse through; every page should be uncovered. Many of the items on the checklist above could be discovered right from the company’s own website depending on its detail. Pay attention to the sales pages and ‘about’ pages.
2) The company’s blog
Have a read through the company’s blog if they have one. It could provide insights into the industry, the progress of the company, how the company operates and possibly even ‘behind the scenes’ information about the team. To find a company’s blog (it should be linked on their homepage), but if it is not then try typing “company name blog” into Google, try adding /blog onto their domain name, or prefix their domain with “blog.” eg blog.companyname.com.
3) LinkedIn Company Page
The LinkedIn company page has it’s own section here as it is a goldmine of information for a job searcher. To find a company’s LinkedIn page you can click the dropdown menu next to the search bar as shown below to on for companies.
Along with information about the company itself you can then also click through and see everyone who has this company listed as their current employer. See if you have any mutual connections with anyone and do some digging around the team’s background to check for credibility. See the screenshot below for an image on Google’s company page and you can immediately get an overview of how well you are connected to people in the company.
4) Other social profiles
Find the company’s other social profiles. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus, Youtube and perhaps other niche sites. Pay some attention to what they’re sharing and talking about. It will make for interesting background reading for you.
Also take a look at the team’s social profiles on other networks. What are they talking about? It will give you a great insight into whether these people are the kind of people that you will enjoy working with. They could become your future colleagues after all.
5) Social monitoring tools
Use a social monitoring tool such as Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or Topsy to set up a search for the company. This will give you a sense of what others are sharing and saying about the company. You can simply search for the company name in quotes eg “Zealify” and it will return results mentioning the company.
6) Google Alerts
Setting up a Google Alert about the company allows you to really keep your finger on the pulse. It allows you to “get email notifications any time that Google finds new results on a topic you’re interested in”.
7) Google News
By going to news.google.co.uk you can search for content about the company that has appeared in the news. You can make various adjustments to your preference settings to refine the results. Try searching for the company name as well as the name of key products and senior team members to pick up all mentions.
8) Review sites
Find relevant review sites where the company is likely to have customers reviewed them. Some examples may include Yelp for local businesses or G2 Crowd for software products. These reviews will help you to establish whether the company is reputable in the industry and get a sense for how well they are perceived by customers.
9) Employee Review Sites
Take a look on Glassdoor and see if the company is listed. Glassdoor is an employee review site which can help you get some insider knowledge on what the company is really like as a place to work.
10) Meetup & Eventbrite
Finding out which events a company attends can be great for trying to meet the team before you apply. You can do this using some simple searches on Google. By searching “site:www.meetup.com company name” you will get a list of results where the name of the company appears on the site. Often this will be past events that a member of the company has attended, a meetup group that someone is a part of, or it could even be a meetup group that the company hosts. The same applies for Eventbrite.
11) Company Databases
Company databases can be a great source of more detailed information. Sources include Crunchbase, AngelList, DueDil and Mattermark etc. You can even try the Companies House database itself if you’re in the UK. Through these databases it’s possible to uncover the growth, funding, and in some cases financial performance along with other data about a company.
12) A regular old google search
Do a regular google search for the company, its products and its team. Take the time to go through at least the first few pages. You might uncover some worthwhile information that hasn’t yet been discovered by the other methods above.
Bonus: Power up with Chrome Extensions
There are some Chrome extensions out there that are an extremely handy way to get data about companies and people right alongside their website or profiles. Note that some of these extensions weren’t intended for company research but work well nonetheless.
My favourite is HoneyBadger which combines a number of sources but here are some other suggestions.
Sidekick by Hubspot — get detailed profiles in your email inbox.
Connectifier — a chrome extension built for recruiters to get information when sourcing candidates but it can definitely be used the other way around.
Riffle — A great app for getting a deeper look into someone’s (either a person’s or a company’s) social accounts.
What have I missed?
I hope I have shared some handy techniques to power up your company research. There are lots of methods and tools you can use to learn about an employer. What have I missed that you have used or done in the past? I would love to hear any further suggestions in the comments section below.
If you’re searching for a new job, have you checked out the company profiles on Zealify? They give a detailed insight into what the company is really like to work for to help you find a company and role where you really fit. There are some great companies to discover.
If you’re hiring at your company, making the information freely available and easy to find is all part of building a great employer brand. Make it easy for job seekers to make an informed decision about your company’s job openings. We’d love to help! Learn more about how we can help build and enhance your employer brand and hiring.
Note: This is a repost from the Zealify Blog. This post originally appeared here and was published on 10th February 2015.
