Career Management and Job Search for Top Talent Blog

Does this seem like a basic question?

Brad and I do executive search for key executives and CEOs. You would probably be surprised by the lack of preparation most executive candidates do prior to an interview. Imagine moving that down through the organization for managers and staff - it's probably non-existent!

How much prep work did you do before your last interview? Did you google the company and all the key managers that were listed on the website? Did you research their key competitors? Did you discover the primary trade associations in the field and read up on issues affecting their business? Were there industry publications you reviewed? Did you develop a long list of questions based upon this research to pose to the hiring manager?

My guess (perhaps it's a little more quantitative than a guess since I've asked every candidate I've sent to a client) is that most executives and managers spend maybe 25-30 minutes prepping for an interview - if that much. To be effective in an interview, you must conduct deep research about the company. This takes at least 2-3 hours. If you're not willing to do this depth of research - why go on the interview - you'll most likely violate one of the top rules of interviewing - know something about the company/executives that you can ask in the interview.

 Barry Deutsch

Copyright 2008 IMPACT Hiring Solutions

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