Employers like to feel special. They prefer to hire candidates who want to work for them rather than any other company. Being able to talk about the reasons you want to join this particular organisation is a way of making yourself stand out from most of the crowd.

At a minimum, you should be able to find out answers to the following questions:

■ What sort of business are they in? What services or products does the organisation offer?
■ What are the company’s vision, mission, and values? In other words, what does the organisation aim to achieve and how does it aim to do it?
■ Who are the key people within the organisation? For example, if the chairman, chief executive, or any of the directors are well-known figures in the local or international community, make sure you know their names so that you don’t look confused should an interviewer mention them in the discussion.
■ What is the organisation’s strategy for the future? What plans or future investments do they have?

■ Approximately how many staff does the organisation employ? Are they a very large or a very small employer?
■ Where does the organisation have offices? Is it concentrated in just one location or many locations around the country or even the world?
■ Who are their competitors? What products and services do those competitors offer? How do the products and services of your prospective employer differ from those of its competitors?
■ What are the trends across the industry? What are the main challenges and opportunities facing organisations within this sector?