Fearless Interviewingabout this company—analysts and others in the media who know
the industry and this company’s place in it.
What do major magazines and newspapers and financial and
business analysts have to say about these organizations—their sta-
bility, their treatment of employees, their place among their com-
petitors, or their outlook for the future? Here are a few things
you might look for in others’ assessment of a company:
- Is this a company that is in a major union dispute?
- Does this company have a reputation for receiving many
employee complaints or even lawsuits? - Is the CEO just about to resign?
- Is management trying to delay a layoff that appears to
be inevitable? - How does the public view this company—as a philan-
thropic community hero or as a greed-driven monster?
All of these things have a great deal to do with both your short-
term satisfaction and long-term stability at a company. How do
you find out about these things? My favorite places are either on
http://www.hoovers.com or at the reference desk of my friendly neigh-
borhood library. Both sources are free, and both have more
information on company stability, image and “culture” than you
can imagine.
Let’s pick a medium-sized hypothetical company from
hoovers.com. We enter the company name, and we are immedi-
ately greeted by a great deal of useful information, including the
following:
- The location of company headquarters and subsidiaries
- The names of executives and vice presidents
- The names and information of the company’s main
competitors - The scope of the company’s products and services
- A brief history of the company
- Some views on its further development