Job Interview Success Secrets

Job interviews are inevitable and unavoidable part of adult life. Unfortunately, so are the often clichéd and canned answers associated with the typical job interview. "Where do you see yourself in five years?" "What is your greatest accomplishment?" or my favorite, "Tell me about a time when you had a problem with a supervisor." With such canned questions, it can be very difficult to come up with an original and memorable response. Sure desperate attempts to get noticed like wearing a wacky tie or bringing the interviewer cookies may immortalize you in annals of the prospective employer's water cooler fodder. But, to truly leave a lasting impression and get the job, you need a secret weapon--research. This is where business searches come in.

What exactly is a business search? PeopleFinders.com defines a business search thusly, "Business searches provide various data on a company including basic information such as the name, address and phone number of a business to more complex data such as the physical description of the building that the business is located in and corporate filing information." So how can business searches help in a job interview? As the famous expression goes, the devil is in the details.

For about the cost of a large pizza, job seekers can purchase a business search from people such organizations like PeopleFinders.com or VoomPeople.com. Anybody can look over a company's Web site before an interview and try to impress an interviewer with random facts about the company. However, to show that you have a significant interest in the organization, it is best to avoid a simple regurgitation of the company's "about us" section. Therefore, smart job applicants turn to business searches to gain an edge.

Just what type of information do business searches provide? Quite simply, business searches provide you with a structural, financial and legal snap shot of a particular organization. Here is a typical list of information that is provided on a business search report:

-Full legal name of the business
-Corporate officers or owners
-Address/phone number
-Physical description of building
-Real property ownership
-Other businesses owned
-State and federal tax liens
-Corporate filing information
-Corporate status
-Agent for service
-Professional licenses
-DBA/Fictitious business name filings

At first, this information may not seem at all useful to a job seeker. However, if you take a closer look at it, you can gain a lot of insight on an organization from the data on a business search report. The key to utilizing this data effectively is to analyze it and determine what exactly it is "saying" about an organization.

Here are some examples of how a job seeker can gain an edge from studying a business search report:

-Physical description of building: Knowing the history of an organization's office building can help you with small talk during the interview and can show that you have a sense of the organization's history.

-Other businesses owned: If an organization owns multiple businesses, a candidate can impress an employer by researching information on the relationships of these companies and by coming to the interview already understanding how these businesses interact.

Corporate officers or owners: Knowing the makeup of an organization's execs can clue a job seeker in on the culture of the organization. Knowing such facts as if an organization's executives are older or younger, related, multi-national or the total number of executives can give a job seeker insight into the culture of that organization.

Armed with the results from a business search, a proactive job seeker can utilize data from a business search in a variety of different ways. Though there may not be an exact science for how to best use business search data, if an applicant can give a job seeker insight into the culture of that organization. Armed with the results from a business search, a proactive job seeker can utilize data from a business search in a variety of different ways. Though there may not be an exact science for how to best use business search data, if an applicant can benefit from any piece of data on a hiring organization that other applicants do not have, a business search has been utilized effectively.