Vocations · Career Resources

Know the company
before they ask what you know.

Add the interview, then work through the research: what the company does, what is new, how it talks about itself, and why you want to be there. Match the posting’s skills to your own examples, write your questions, and the checklist tells you what is still open as the day gets close.

Add an interviewWhat you get

Interviews

The worked example is made up: a credit union video interview in two days with two examples and one question ready, and a finished record for a transit internship. Records save on this device only.

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What you get

Vocations · Career ResourcesFree

What you finish with
A record per interview with the company, role, date, time, format and interviewers; what the company does, recent news, culture, competitors and why you want the job; skills from the posting matched to your examples; questions to ask; eight research steps; counts of examples and questions; flags for an interview within two days with steps open, fewer than three examples and fewer than two questions.
Who it is for
Job and internship seekers, students preparing for their first interviews, and the counselors and teachers who run mock interviews.
Format
Browser checklist with a saved record per interview. Prints a one-page prep sheet to read before you walk in, every interview or a blank form; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); exports and imports a file.
Access
Free. No account, no sign-in and nothing to install. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Career Resources space in Caveat Vocations.
Support
Questions about access, an order or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Add the interview the day you are invited.
  2. Read the posting twice and copy the skills it repeats into the examples table.
  3. Research the company and write what you found in your own words.
  4. Write two or three questions you actually want answered.
  5. Print the prep sheet and read it an hour before.

Add an interview

From research to answers

Where each part of your research gets usedTell me about yourself.Why this jobyour two sentencesWhy do you want to work here?What they do + recent newsshows you lookedDescribe a time you…Skills matched to examplesone story per skillWhat do you know about us?What they do, in your wordsnot their sloganDo you have questions for us?Questions to asktwo or three, realWhere each part of your research gets usedTell me about yourself.Why this jobyour two sentencesWhy do you want to work here?What they do + recent newsshows you lookedDescribe a time you…Skills matched to examplesone story per skillWhat do you know about us?What they do, in your wordsnot their sloganDo you have questions for us?Questions to asktwo or three, real
Research is only useful if it turns into answers. Every field in the record maps to a question you are likely to hear.

Where to look

Start with the organization’s own site: the About page, the careers page, and its products, services or programs. Then search news from the last six months, the interviewers’ professional profiles and, for public companies, the annual report’s opening letter. Employee review sites show patterns, but single reviews are often written by the happiest or angriest people.

Good questions to ask

Ask about the work, not the perks: what a good first three months looks like, what the team is working on now, how success in the role is measured, what the interviewer enjoys about working there. Leave pay and time off for after an offer, unless they raise it.

Sources

  1. U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. CareerOneStop: Interview preparation and researching employers (careeronestop.org).
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Outlook Handbook: what workers in the occupation do, for matching your examples to the role (bls.gov/ooh).
  3. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. EDGAR full-text search for public companies’ annual reports (sec.gov/edgar).
  4. National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). Career readiness competencies, the skills interviewers commonly probe (naceweb.org).

The worked example is made up, including both organizations. Nothing you type is sent to Caveat. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.