Dan Klamm is the Outreach & Marketing Coordinator at Syracuse University Career Services, where he advises students on using social media for career success. Connect with him on Twitter @DanKlamm.
Succeeding at a job interview is all about coming prepared: Doing company research and being able to articulate how your unique skills and experiences are a fit for the job. Social media can help you gain crucial insights about the company you’re applying to, as well as the people you’ll be interviewing with, so that you can gain an edge during the interview process.
In the past, doing research on a company meant looking at their website, reading over press releases, and searching for mentions in the news. While these are still valid techniques, now you can learn about companies through people-powered online networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Blogs provide additional insight. With social media, you can get a fuller picture of the company — not just the official corporate message, but all of the messages from the “little people” on up to the CEO.
1. LinkedIn Company Page and Employee Profiles
To get started, search for the company on LinkedIn. A company’s LinkedIn page features a list of new hires, recent promotions, departures, as well as demographic information about its employees, such as gender, geography, and career track. If you’re interested, you can have daily or weekly e-mails sent to you with new activity. Just hit “follow” at the top of the page.
Take a look at the profiles of employees, particularly those you’re scheduled to meet with during your interview. “Candidates should be looking up hiring managers and recruiters on social media, just as hiring managers and recruiters can look them up,” said Tracy Tillapaugh, technical recruiter with Professionals Incorporated in Liverpool, New York. Resourceful candidates can learn about each individual’s background and job description so they’re prepared to ask more insightful questions during the interview, Tillapaugh said.
Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the company page on LinkedIn is the ability to see how you’re connected to current and former employees at the organization, and immediately tap into those connections. In some cases, you may know a person directly, while in other cases it might be a friend-of-a-sister-of-a-colleague who works there. The best way to learn about a company is to make use of the expertise of its employees, as they are the ones with inside knowledge of the organization and the challenges that arise on a daily basis. They’re also the ones who can tell you that little kernel of information about the job you’re interviewing for that’s not in the job description.
If you find an employee you’d like to contact, you can send them a message directly or request an introduction from a mutual LinkedIn connection. Ideally, the connection will be made quickly and seamlessly, and you can move forward with setting up an e-mail, phone, or in-person conversation to learn about the company. For detailed advice on information-gathering conversations and etiquette, visit the Informational Interviewing Tutorial on QuintCareers.
A LinkedIn company page also provides insight into the organization’s hiring practices. Take a look at the roster of current and former employees, and click through a few profiles. How long do most people stay with the company? Where do they go after? Do all current employees share similar credentials or belong to certain professional associations? You can learn all sorts of information about their employee population that may not be directly applicable during an interview, but may give you a better feel for the landscape of their business.
2. Corporate Blogs and Accounts on Facebook and Twitter
Additionally, visit the company’s official Facebook Page, Twitter account, and blog. This is a great way to keep up on company happenings whether you’re interviewing for a small organization or a global brand.
Ray Lapena, a recent public relations graduate from Syracuse University, closely followed General Electric’s Twitter account and blog as he prepared to interview with the Fortune 500 company. “GE was in the middle of changing its portfolio of businesses,” Lapena said. “By reading blog posts regarding these changes, I was able to capture somewhat of an inside scoop and understand things from GE’s perspective.” During his interviews with GE, he directly referred to blog posts he had seen. “I was able to talk about GE in a way that was relevant at that time. I think some of my interviewers were pleasantly surprised when I brought up specific things that they were doing,” he said. Lapena was hired for General Electric’s Communications Leadership Development Program and will begin in June 2010.
3. Employee Blogs and Social Networking Accounts
In addition to official corporate accounts, many CEOs and higher-ups tweet and blog as individuals. You can gain extraordinary insight into a company by following them, as they are the people driving the organization. What issues do they face? What motivates them? What do they write and tweet about on a daily basis? These are all things that can help you better understand the company as you approach your interview.
Take it a step further and find the accounts of non-executive employees within the company at which you’re interviewing. This should be easy to do, as many people include links to their Twitter account and blog in their LinkedIn profiles. If you’re having difficulty identifying employees, use a directory like Twellow.com.
The benefit of following employees is that you may get hints about issues currently affecting the workplace that you wouldn’t see in official press releases or the CEO’s blog. For instance, a mid-level manager might tweet about challenges presented by the company’s new database software. A junior employee might blog about the recent effort to emphasize team-building in the company’s training program. Some of these insights may directly relate to the position for which you’re interviewing. These comments also give you a feel for corporate culture.
On Twitter, it’s easiest to set-up private lists to follow the tweets of employees at particular companies. Some may call this “stalking” — I call it “being resourceful.” As you prepare for your interview, you may even want to reach out with a tweet: “I’m interviewing for a marketing assistant job at your company next week. Any insider tips?” If you’re going to do this, it’s usually best to exchange a few introductory tweets first.
Conclusion
Researching the company has always been an important element of interview preparation. Now, social media tools have made it easier to gather relevant and useful information. Once you’re armed with knowledge about the company, you’ll be on your way to interview success!
Article by Dan Klamm on Mashable Business on June 1, 2010
Link to Original posting: http://mashable.com/2010/06/01/job-interview-social-media/