Researching Companies:
How to be a Job Search Detective  

There's at least two good reasons to develop your sleuthing skills in uncovering company information. For one thing, those skills can come in very handy prior to interviews. Some companies are very good at advertising what you need to know about them before you meet their recruiter; in other instances you may have to do a little digging for the facts that you need.

A second way that researching skills are useful is in sending out unsolicited resumes and cover letters to companies that are not recruiting at Carnegie Mellon (go to Writing Cover Letter) to find out more about making this type of contact with potential employers). In any type of job market, it's a good idea to be looking beyond the on-campus recruiting schedule.

 

So…Where Do I Look For Company Information and What am I Looking For?

As discussed in the Interviewing section, there are, at minimum, three basic things that you need to know about a company before your interview; (1) what does the company do (product or service), (2) how large is the company in relation to other organizations in its industry, and (3) what are the company's 'points of pride'? While numbers 1 and 3 make sense to most people, knowing about the size of the company does not at first glance seem to be an important fact to know. But think about the difference between small and large organizations-small companies tend to emphasize informality and ambiguous job descriptions, while larger firms are more structured and hierarchical. You may want to tailor your approach (i.e. what skills that you highlight) to each interview based on this information.

There's several great sources out there for finding company information. But before we discuss them, a word about time management. Give yourself enough time to find and peruse these resources-20 minutes prior to your interview is probably not enough time. Always remember the wisdom inherent in Murphy's Law---if anything can go wrong it probably will. Most if not all of the information that you need is online-what if you can't get access to the Internet on the day of the interview? So play it safe--do your research well ahead of your interview.

Perhaps the best source of company information is right on their website. Most organizations, including privately held and small to medium sized firms, have company websites. Check out the 'About Our Company' link featured on most company home pages for details about the organization's purpose, mission, and vision. Often, the organization's 'points of pride' (those values or achievements that they are most proud of) are a prominent part of the company Homepage.

For publicly held firms, brief company descriptions can be found at www.morningstar.com. Although some of the 'premium' reports must be purchased, there's still a lot of free company information featured at this site. For example, after finding a particular company by using the 'Search' box on the Home page, click on the 'Snapshot' link on the left-hand sidebar for a wealth of company data, including company description, number of employees, etc. NOTE: Morningstar only has data on publicly held companies.

There's also a wealth of information about public companies in annual reports. And many of these reports are available online. Some companies will feature links to their annual reports on their web sites. Look at the 'Year in Review', 'Operating Highlights' and 'Letter to the Shareholders' sections of the reports for information on the company's vision, values, and direction. Of course, job postings and descriptions on TartanTRAK are also a great source of information. Go to Soft Skills for Success section for tips on how to scan a job posting for 'hidden' information.

 

Putting It All Together

Let's look at a sample company research effort-we'll use the Lockheed Martin Corporation for our example, although the same basic strategy would work for any company.

Your first task is to make sure that you know what Lockheed Martin does. Here's a brief company description from www.morningstar.com :

"Lockheed is the world's largest defense contractor, with 2005 sales of $37.2 billion. It operates through three segments--aeronautics, space, and systems and information technology--to develop aerospace, defense, computing, and communications systems for U.S. and foreign governments. In 2005, U.S. government contracts accounted for 80% of the firm's revenue. Based in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed employs about 135,000 people".

Now that you know what Lockheed Martin does, and its size (measured by number of employees), the next step is to research Lockheed's 'points of pride'.

From Lockheed Martin's Home Page:

Our Vision: Powered By Innovation, Guided By Integrity, We Help Our Customers Achieve Their Most Challenging Goals.

Our Values:

• Do What's Right
• Respect Others
• Perform With Excellence

From the sources mentioned above, you could get a pretty good idea of Lockheed Martin's business lines and core values.

Now it's time to get do more detailed research on the position for which you'll be interviewing. Below is a portion of a job description for a position at Lockheed Martin that appeared on TartanTRAK in the past (boldface has been added for emphasis):

"Perform professional engineering tasks related to analysis, design, development, test, check-out, operation and integration of aerospace or electrical/electronic systems, and/or related support and test equipment. Evaluate requirements, determine technical principles involved, and apply appropriate engineering methods and practices. Perform necessary liaison and coordination with other engineering groups, customers and vendors."

So in addition to the technical background required by Lockheed, a careful reading of the position description reveals that teamwork and communication skills (liaison/coordination) might also be important. Also, the functional skills highlighted in the first sentence (analysis, design, etc.) should serve as a rough guide in preparing to talk about your past work and academic project experiences in the interview (Have you had experience in any of these functional skill areas? Do you have stories or examples prepared to illustrate your use of these strengths? Review Interviewing if you're not sure how to do this).

The above example should give you an idea of what you should know about a company prior to an interview. It takes some time and effort, but the result- a focused interview presentation that's tailored to the company and to the position-will be well worth it.