How To Do Company Research That Will Make You An Amazingly Hot Commodity.

In today’s hyper-competitive job market, it is not enough to go into an interview without a thorough understanding of the company you’re interviewing with or without a gigabyte of knowledge about the type of job you’re interviewing for.

As I’ve said time and again, in prepping for a job, you should be working 40+ hours per week. That prep time should include, among other things, writing and rewriting your resume, practicing your interviews, and performing job and company research.

Today I’m going to tell you how to research a company in a way that’ll make you an amazingly hot commodity.

How does it make you hot?

Knowledge is power baby. The most confident people are often those who know their subject matter best. If I know what I am talking about, who I am talking to, I feel more at ease. That ease or confidence communicates loud and super clear! Knowing your company inside out and backwards will win more arguments than it will lose! …and in this case, the argument is “should we hire you or not?”

Knowing your company can make you really persuasive. It’ll also help you think up creative ways you can assist the company. If you know much about the company, you can see solutions. Not that they’ll like your solutions, but they will like your passion.

Bottomline: knowing your company can make you hot Hot HOT!

So what does someone who’s hot know about a company?

They tend to know about seven different areas. They tend to know about a companies:

1. Competitive profile—how are they positioned in the marketplace? How hard competitors are fighting against them.
2. Size and Growth Patterns—How big the company is? .
3. Direction—can be difficult to find, but worth the chase.
4. Products or services—what does it do?
5. Culture and Reputation—though often subjective, still important.
6. History—it’s future might be influenced by it’s past.
7. Net Worth—finances are hard to get a hold of sometimes, but again…worth it. You want to know if the company is in trouble.

How do I get the knowledge?

The key to doing brilliant research is having good questions! Ask a good question, get a good answer. Ask a poor question, get a poor answer. Today I’m going to give you some questions you can use to ask when doing your research. But first….

Where can we find knowledge?
(I want to you readers to write some good research sites in the comments box. Pass on the knowledge. Also feel free to pass on some research tips.)

The internet, baby! Some great sites for Korean business—in English or Korean: company’s direct website, or Korchambiz.net (Korean Chamber of Commerce has great information), Yahoo Finance—English, KoDart.or.kr (executive & industry information) These are free. One pay site that I know of includes people.joins.com. Offers awesome information about managers and CEO’s of companies.

But what do you do if the company is small?

Open up the Yellow Pages and give a company a call. Informational interviews. Some people think this is rude? I don’t think so. I think you can call people and ask. Remember your intention. When doing an informational interview, you’re not looking for a job. You’re collecting information. Ask them for ONLY 10-15 minutes of their time. (Keep your Promise, don’t go over 15 mins.) Be very polite. Stay away from salary questions. Keep it business related. Also, keep away from financial information. Say thank you for your time, and hang up.

If you are interested in applying, a few weeks later, you can write and tell them that you were interested. Tell then that if they are ever looking for a new employee, consider you for a specific position.

But I also know that there are a tremendous amount of web boards, blogs etc. that are available. So readers, send some information. Share the love, people!

Now!

Once you find some good places to gather information, you break your search up. As I said, there are seven key areas you’ll want to find answers to. (Check out books by Joyce Lain Kennedy for more questions. She helped me write this today!)

Let’s start with Competitive Profile:

• Who are the company’s competitors?
• What are the company’s current projects?
• What’s the industry like? Growing?
• What technologies does it use?

Size and Growth Patterns:

• What does the company do?
• Has it expanded globally?
• What are the divisions or subsidiaries?
• How many clients? Employees?

Direction: Can be found in newspapers, trade pubs, annual report.

• What’s the mission?
• What are it’s current problems?
• Initiating any new products?
• Current priorities?

Products or Services?: Absolutely necessary you know this!

• What services or products does the company provide?
• What are it’s areas of expertise?
• What’s it’s production standards? Quality profile??

Culture and Reputation: Subjective, but can tell you if you’ll fit in well.

• What’s the company’s business philosophy?
• What’s it’s reputation?
• What kind of employees does it usually hire? (Don’t guess…call if necessary)
• Management style?
• Woman friendly?
• Family friendly?
• Drink Friendly?
• How does it treat it’s employees?
• Work time?

Company History:

• Known for change?
• Stayed the same over the years?
• How quickly has it grown?
• When was it established?
• Who started it?

Financial Picture:

• What are the companies sales?
• Earnings?
• Assets?
• How stable is it’s base?
• Loans?
• Profit trend?
• Do employees receive earnings benefits?

I’ve just given you a brick of questions to guide you in your search for the kind of information that can help you become knowledge filled. With all the knowledge you gain from this, you’re sure to be amazingly hot! Now get to work!

See you next week!

Write To Win!

Our topic this week comes from Ko. Mr. or Ms. Ko wrote me with the following letter: I’ve just graduated from university. I am really worried. I’m finished school, but I don’t think I have skills. What can I do to get skills?

Today I’m going to talk about what our listeners can do to “get some skill!”

First of all, Mr. or Ms. Ko…we all have some skills. They may not be as brilliant as we like YET, but we have them. They need to be developed. So don’t give up!!! “Yet” is a powerful word. We are works in progress. Who we are today is not who we will be tomorrow, if we are taking action toward growth! What are somethings that Ko can do to “get some skill”? Ko has options. There are ways to get job skills, to get experience. There are some obvious ways, and there are some not so obvious ways.

The obvious: take a part time job. Really recommend this. Gives you money. Earning money helps our self-confidence. It doesn’t need to be a perfect job. Take it and learn all you can. Throw your heart into it.

Second, volunteer. We talked about this a few weeks ago. There are many ways to volunteer. It’s up to you to find ways to help others achieve their goals. Again, throw your heart into this. Learn all you can. You’ll be surprised at all you learn.

The not so obvious: and this is my main point today: START WRITING! That’s right, start writing. But not just any kind of writing. I want you to start writing the kind of stuff that helps other people. I want you to start a blog. If we are preparing for a job interview, we should be researching companies, researching industries, practicing interview skills, learning how to prepare our resumes, practicing Toeic, and a number of other different things. I recommend you choose an area and start start writing about what you learn.

Become an expert by researching, and pass it on. Write a blog that teaches others. For example: If you are researching the pharmaceutical industry. What are you learning? What information are you getting that can be passed on to others? If you are benefiting from it, probably others could benefit from it. So write it. Teach it to others. If you have found some great advice on ways to prepare for Toeic, pass that on too. (I’m not talking copy and paste).

I’m talking about learning something, and explaining to it people. I'm talking about using your own words! You could take what I am telling you today, and write it on your own blog. I’m giving you advice, why not pass it on to others? Oh, but won’t others steal my ideas? Why should I help the competition?? What have you to be afraid of? This is a great chance to show that you are not afraid of competition. It’s a great chance to show your confidence. As you learn through research, as you teach through writing, you gain the intelligence, you gain the skill. You gain the power. No one can take that from you. Write weekly. And write consistently.

I recommend you focus your blog on only a few key areas. For example, you might focus it on Pharmaceutical Industry research. Or TOEIC test tips. On specific company information. I might focus it on “Things I’ve learned from various job interviews”. You can focus it on several areas, but try not to be too broad. I have a blog, but I focus only on Career Advice, Presentation Skills, and PR. My blog’s in the baby stage, but I’m learning as I go. So what do I learn? I learn how to use the technology. I learn how to communicate clearly and informatively. I learn how to research. I learn how to synthesize information. I learn how to share. I learn how to market myself. I also learn about industries. I learn about companies. Here’s a key to making your blog helpful. (Can also turn into a self-promotion tool. Online Social Networking is becoming HUGE! And can help you get a job).

Visit other blogs. Read and leave comments. Include a link to your blog. That way people will come and visit you. When you go into an interview, you can talk about your blog. Companies will probably see your commitment to the betterment of others as a good thing, they will see your skill and willingness to put more effort than what is necessary into the job hunt.

But I’ve no time to create this blog???

Yes you do. Searching for a job is a FULL TIME JOB! Building your skill-set is 2 FULL-TIME JOBS! When you’re sitting in front of your television, you can be asking yourself….hmm….is this the best use of my time?

Famous motivational guru Zig Ziglar once said, “When we do more than we are paid to do, eventually we will be paid more for what we do.” Keep this in mind as you work on building your skill-set, your brand, your future through creating an informative, helpful, blog.

Remember, when you write you should be responsible and respectful. Yes it’s your blog, yes you can write what you want. But, it’s also your reputation. Social Networking is a powerful thing. Blogging is a powerful way to create your reputation. If you create bad information, if you write abusive information, if you act and write unprofessionally, you will lose.

What blogsites should I use?

There are many places to go. Blogger.com. Wordpress.com. myblogsite.com., thoughts.com. You can also use microblogging sites like Facebook and Twitter. The blog does not have to be perfect. It’s a work in progress, just like us. Once we publish, we have the freedom to rewrite and edit. It’s our duty, in fact, to always improve upon what we learn.

But I don’t know how to write???

Me too? So what? No one does….at first. But, keep writing. Learning is only done through doing. We act and we learn, we don’t think our way into knowing, we don’t think our way into a skill. Skills come from action. But I can't write English!!! Don't write it in English. Write it in whatever language is best for you, and will help most people.

But everyone has a blog like this!!!

So what! Then join the bandwagon. Do what everyone is doing....you never know, you might just find yourself a superstar blogger! We've all got unique talents that we can only uncover by doing new things. So try something new, you might just surprise yourself. So that’s all for today.

Keep up the fight, Job Warriors!!!! Michael Jay….out!