How to Research a Company for an Onsite
I'm finally at the onsite round with the unicorn that I've been interviewing with over the last month. The onsite consists of 5 interviews, none of which are technical. There are a bunch of behavioural interviews with business and technical people. The HR person told me the company wants to know that I'm interested in them and know about their business.
How should I prep for these interviews? I'm going to write out and prep answers for the most common behavioural questions, but how can I increase my knowledge of the company and it's product? Not go overboard, but enough for them to be impressed?
Thanks!
Discussion
(2 comments)- 2a year agoEx @Meta @Microsoft, Founder Algolab
You can look up the company at crunchbase to learn about its funding round, news mentions, and recent leadership changes.
Check Blind, and Reddit for what people are saying about the company. (keep in mind that people share more negative things, so take it with a pinch of salt)
Check LinkedIn if any 1st connection worked at this company and send them a message asking this same question.
Watch all the interviews by the founders on youtube to learn about their philosophy and vision.
Go in-depth on the careers page and learn about their Core Values / Leadership Principles. Each company has its own core values and they want to see if you fit in them.
Do the exercise of acting as CEO of the company, and making these decisions; cutting the cost, adding a new product feature, improving product quality, and increasing customer satisfaction.
In the interviews, bring enthusiasm, excitement, and energy. Not many people like to work with dull and sad faces.
- 3a year agoSenior Software Engineer [L5] at Google
First of all, congratulations on making the onsite round!!
I'm assuming you are going do your due diligence to prepare your answers. Do you best. However, know that the information battle isn't in your favor - no matter what you do, as a candidate, you aren't likely to know enough insights about the company to "impress" them.
Instead, I would take a different approach. Impress them with your curiosity. Focus on preparing good questions, rather than good answers.
When digging through the official/public information available, jot down anything you don't understand. Don't see how their go-to-market strategy will work? Ask the interviewer to explain the parts you don't understand. Maybe the company has "published values", but not clear information on how this manifests day-to-day. Ask specific questions about it. What do people talk about during lunch in the office?
Ask each of your interviewer why they joined the company. If their reasons resonate with yours, dig deeper and see if whether they found their initial goals fulfilled. If not, also dig a bit to see.
I feel the goal of these rounds is to show you are genuinely thinking about the future of the company as a whole, and a big part of that is asking the right question and having in-depth discussions. It's also an opportunity to figure out if it's the right fit for you.
Good luck!
