‘So’ asked the interviewer, ‘what do you know about us?’
Employers love to ask applicants ‘Why do you want to work
for us?’ It’s one of the ways they decide whether you genuinely want to work for them; something
which is really important to show. So when faced with an application or
interview, you’ve got to show that you’ve done your research and found out
about their organisation and their business.
Trouble is, every other serious candidate will have checked
out the company website and read the information for candidates. You need to
find something else that’s interesting to talk about and that’s not as easy to
find.
Fortunately there’s a simple answer to this, as I discovered
at a recent 20-minute talk in the Information Commons, where Maria Mawson from
the University Library told us all about their business databases.
Of course, an easy step is to google the organisation’s name
and see what turns up but you can DO MORE. For instance, including a term like
‘investor relations’ in your internet search can bring up the corporate site,
rather than just their customer-facing webpage. Here you can read more about
the company’s business performance.
But for real commercial insight, you need to turn to the specialist
sources such as the Business Source Premier database and Mintel. To find these
go to http://library.shef.ac.uk/ and
search the ‘University collections’ box in the Star Plus catalogue.
In Business Source Premier the blue ‘Company Profiles’ tab means
you can search your target firm and read
a ‘MarketLine Report’ about it with detailed business and financial info. The
‘Related Information’ feature for the company lets you find references to the
company in journals and trade magazines.
Favourite application questions for some employers include
‘What do you think are some of the challenges facing us?’ Mmm, sounds tricky.
But The MarketLine Report includes a SWOT analysis of the business (SWOT stands
for its ‘Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats’). It also has a list
of their top competitors which will definitely help deal with the interviewer’s
next trump card, ‘So, who’s our main competition, then?’
Business Source Premier also has a ’Publications’ tab with articles
on businesses and different industry sectors, meaning you can research current
trends and developments. One thing to always check though is the date of
the information, to make sure it’s current. You don’t want to be merrily reciting
the critical issues facing the block paving industry in the 1990s.
Mintel is the other major database you can use to identify
issues relevant to your target employer. Mintel provides market research reports written by industry
analysts on consumer and industrial products and
services. Sounds a bit dull? I’ve just been reading about trends in the
flavours of chocolate confectionery products (which made me a bit hungry to be
honest). As well as covering the UK scene, there are reports for a number of
other countries too.
Of course, when you ask a careers adviser about how to boost
your commercial awareness, our answer is to ‘read the business press’.
Sometimes though, the newspapers don’t make their online content free, or it’s
hard to find recent articles covering your chosen career. This is where the
third database Newsbank, comes in. Newsbank is an excellent way of tracking
down reports in a wide range of UK and Irish newspapers including The Financial
Times, the quality press and the tabloids. It
includes a small number of local newspapers too (not The Sheffield Star though),
which could be good for finding news coverage of smaller companies. Newsbank is
also an excellent source of articles on public sector bodies and not-for-profit
organisations such as charities.
A word of warning though. The Library’s databases are only
available to current students, so if you’ve already graduated you’ll need to
try your public library’s business section.
Of course, interviewers aren’t expecting you to be an expert on their industry when they ask these questions.
They just want you to have some ideas. But now you’re armed with how to do this,
a few quick checks of key reports via Mintel etc, and you’ll be able to cope
with whatever they throw at you.
Marcus (Careers Adviser)
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