How to Prepare for Interviews in a Flash: Feed Yourself!

One of the best ways to make a great impression on a prospective employer is to show that you have an understanding of what they do and why it is important. Asking thoughtful questions that demonstrate what you know--and areas that you need to know more about--can go a long way in helping both you and the organization come to a mutual decision about whether a position is right for you. I've heard it said before that one of the fast ways to take yourself out of the running for a position is to simply say that you "don't have any questions" at the end of an interview.

The question then becomes: how to prepare? Is it really necessary to spend 8-10 hours researching for one interview? My answer: it's important to be prepared, but you can also do it as you sleep by setting up "RSS feeds" to feed you news and up-to-date information.

Using web tools such as "Google News Alerts," you can type in key word searches (e.g. company names, news, and events) and have the results sent to you automatically during the time duration that you specify--i.e. "as it happens," on a "daily" or "weekly" basis. You can then review the results of your key word searches, pick out the most relevant information and prepare questions in advance...You can also set up feeds on the Google News Reader or other syndicated content sites so that you can read all your findings in one place!

Feed yourself first, and then let the employer feed you later...