Page 68 - John Kador - 201 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview-McGraw-Hill (2002)

DO YOUR HOMEWORK

connected to the Internet. If you don’t have a computer, go to the library
or an Internet café. Log onto the company’s Web site. It has all the in-
formation you could want to frame thoughtful and impressive questions.
“If a candidate can’t spend 15 minutes on my company’s Web site,” Con-
lin notes, “it immediately tells me that they are, at best, not serious and,
at worst, just plain lazy.”
A company’s Web site also gives you good clues about whether the
organization is growing or struggling.
The Web site addresses of most companies are obvious. At the place
in the browser where it says “address,” just type in “www” (for World
Wide Web), the name of the company, and the extension “.com.” Most
Web addresses are obvious. For example, Cisco Systems is
www.cisco.com. General Motors is www.gm.com. General Electric is
www.ge.com.
Another way to find a Web site is to use a search engine. I prefer
Google, although there are dozens of general and specialized search en-
gines that will do the job. Simply type in www.google.com and the lean
page of the Google Web site will appear. In the blank box, type in the
name of the company you want to research and click on “I’m feeling
lucky.” Google will almost always take you straight to the Web site you
want. It’s unlikely that Google will fail you, but if it does, click “Back”
and then click on the “Search Google” button. Now you will get a list
of possible destinations. The company you want to research will usu-
ally be near the top of the list. Click on that item and you will go straight
to the Web site you want.
And if a company does not have a Web site, that tells you that the
company prefers to be invisible. Why would you want to work for an
invisible company? If you still want to be interviewed, a question like
this probably needs to be at the top of your list:

In my research on the company, I tried to find a Web site. I did not see
any reference to a Web site on the company materials, nor could I find
one using any of the search engines I tried. Is this intentional, and what
is the logic behind not having exposure on the Web?

Every company’s Web site is different, but they are all organized in stan-
dard ways. The first thing is to look for a tab or button that says “About.”

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