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Do Your Homework Before You Apply For a Job
To effectively sell yourself to a prospective employer, you need
to be able to persuade the employer that you fit that their
needs. Even when the job market is great for job seekers,
employers aren't going to interview and hire candidates who are
not a match for their needs.
To present yourself effectively in cover letters and interviews,
it is important to do your homework first. This means research
the employer.
By doing research, you get information to decide which employers
to contact. Rather than sending tons of letter and resume to
employers you know little or nothing about, send twenty letters
and resumes to employers you know something about and increase
your chance of securing an interview. Targeted and
individualized letters are more effective than "form" letters
(you know a form letter when you receive one, employers do too).
In interviews, employers expect you to arrive knowing background
information about the company. If you don't, it looks like
you're not really interested in the company or the job. You have
to be able to answer the critical questions of why that employer
should hire you, and why you would like to work for that
employer, not sound like you would take any job.
Research helps you formulate intelligent and appropriate
questions to ask in your interview about the company, it's
competitors, future plans, goals, challenges, etc. It also
greatly increases your chances of making a good impression and
getting the job.
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