Not knowing anything about the potential employer can quickly eliminate your chances of winning an interview. Apart from everything else (which includes practicing interview questions and knowing interview etiquette), doing company research is an important step to follow before attending a job interview. Most of the applicants make this mistake even when they are aware what benefit employer research can actually bring them.

If you want to gain a competitive advantage over other job applicants and wish to impress the interviewer or the hiring manager quickly, you should know how to conduct a company research for maximum benefits.

Online Resources
There are various online resources that you can utilize to know more about a potential employer, business or company. Though the most comprehensive sources of a company’s information (its objective, mission and goals) is always its own website, there are many other platforms that you can always exploit to dig out much deeper. Knowing other people’s feedback is also a useful thing to know more about a company’s work culture, environments, employee benefit programs etc.

There are many websites that provide you top-of-the-line business information about companies around the world. One such example is Hoovers.com. This is certainly a good resource to collect business or work-related data about a company or employer. In addition, there are several review websites that you can check out to know people’s views about different companies.

A good idea (aside from checking a company’s own website) is to have a look at its competitors’ websites. This kind of company research can provide you with something really valuable, which you can use as an extra benefit for winning over the interviewer or the hiring manager.

LinkedIn is also a good platform to collect some essential details of a company and achieve success with your research. No matter which online sources you make use of, always focus on collecting data like latest developments, strategic goals, specialized projects, work culture etc.

Offline Resources
Company research can also be conducted by using an array of offline sources or mediums. Most of interviewees miss out on some of the most valuable resources that they can use for the purpose. Business publications and industry related magazines are excellent tools that you can use to know more about a business, industry or employer. The public library can prove to be of great help in this regard. 

Friends or colleagues can also provide you in-depth information about a specific company. If you know someone who works in a company or has worked there in the past, you can hope to get a good feedback from them. This is something like background check, which you also use to make a good career decision.

Calling the HR department is also an excellent idea to do some research on a specific company. If you can’t know much after using other available sources, you can also decide to talk with someone in the HR department. You can ask them about company’s policies, departmental functioning, future business targets, upcoming projects etc.

All of this effort is aimed at improving your chances of winning over the interviewer with how much you know. The more you know about an employer, the better signal you’ll send to the hiring manager. It’s a proven strategy to get ahead of the competition and score the job offer.