Researching a company before an interview: the 45-minute method
· 9 min read
A recruiter can tell within one sentence whether you skimmed the About page or genuinely tried to understand the company. The difference is not the time spent — 45 minutes is enough — but what you look for.
Most candidates collect facts: revenue, founding date, headcount. None of it helps in an interview. Nobody will ask you the founding year. They will ask why this company, and what you think you can bring to it.
What do you actually need to know about a company before an interview?
Three things, and only three: what it sells and to whom, what has changed for it over the past twelve months, and which problem your role answers. The rest is scenery. Those three points feed a credible answer to every company question, and they fit on half a page of notes.
Which six sources actually matter?
In decreasing order of usefulness. The first two alone are half the work.
- The job posting itself, read three times. The verbs used, the skills repeated, the order of the duties: it is all already there. A posting that says "autonomy" four times tells you what the predecessor lacked.
- The company website — not the About page, but the product, pricing and customer pages. They tell you who pays, and for what.
- The company's LinkedIn, filtered to the last three months. Recent posts reveal current priorities, not the ones on the published strategy deck.
- The profiles of people already doing your job there. Their exact title, background and tenure tell you whether the role is a replacement or a new one.
- Trade press for their sector, over six months. A funding round, an acquisition, a new competitor, a regulatory change: a recent event is an ideal way in.
- Employee reviews, read at arm’s length. You are not looking for a verdict but for recurring patterns: the same complaint fifteen times deserves a question from you.
How long should it take?
Forty-five minutes: fifteen on the posting and website, fifteen on LinkedIn and profiles, ten on sector news, five to write your notes. Past an hour you are accumulating facts you will not know how to place. The time limit is what forces you to keep only what is useful.
How do you turn research into sentences you can use?
This is the step almost everyone skips, and the only one that counts. Information never said out loud will not come out on the day. Write three sentences, no more.
- One sentence on what the company does, said the way you would explain it to a friend: if you cannot, you have not understood their business.
- One sentence connecting a recent company event to your role: "you have just opened a Lyon office, and this role is the first hire there".
- One question for the end of the interview that shows you read up without trying to impress. Our piece on questions to ask the recruiter covers which ones work.
Should you cite your sources during the interview?
Yes, briefly, and once. "I saw your post about the launch of…" beats a vague allusion, because it can be checked. But repeating in every answer that you did your research has the opposite effect: it reads as homework rather than genuine interest.
Which mistakes show immediately?
- Reciting the About page. The recruiter wrote it or knows it by heart; hearing it back teaches them nothing about you.
- Confusing the company with the group that owns it. A 40-person subsidiary does not have the culture of its 40,000-person parent.
- Quoting a figure without knowing what it covers. Citing 30% growth without being able to say growth in what invites an awkward follow-up.
- Arriving with a firm opinion on their strategy. You do not have the facts, and it shows.
What if the company is small and there is almost nothing to read?
That is an opportunity, not an obstacle. When public sources are thin, your questions carry more weight, and the little you found stands out more. Focus on the founders, their visible customers, and what the posting reveals about how they are organised. A small company rarely meets candidates who took that trouble.
It is not the volume of research that impresses a recruiter. It is that you connected what you found to what you can do.
Once your notes are ready, hold them against the posting: that is where you see whether your profile answers the need, or whether you are telling yourself a story. Our article on what recruiters look for explains what they actually read, and why hire you tackles the question that follows directly from this work.