Last week you really got us thinking about your motivations behind applying to a specific company. So much so that it made us think of this week’s question: How do you find out what it’s like to work at a company before you apply for a job?

Many of you thought along the same lines by going to your online and personal networks for first-hand accounts from employees; like the following people would:

Shahzad: I Bing about the company.

Kirsten: I will try to find someone who works or has worked for that company and ask their opinion

Igor: LinkedIn, Facebook. There are a lot of ways to get to know and reach people who work there. :)

We agree: You should try all three of these methods in combination, but you might also try to attend an event that the company was hosting. Either an in person event or even a podcast or webcast.  If you have a chance to attend an in person event, you can get a really good feel for the company’s culture by interacting with their employees. At the same time, a webcast can tell you a lot about how the company reaches out to different communities and interest groups. 

No matter what, make sure to take another commenter’s advice not to believe everything you read on the internet or hear from other people. Part of doing this advanced research is making sure your gut agrees with your head. It’s important for a company to be able to support your career and not all of that can be learned about on the internet or from employees. Though you’ve most likely heard this before, a job search can often be a job on its own, so it makes sense to find as much as possible from as many sources as possible and then compare notes.