Question: Career Management: Researching Target Employers, Research is a critical element of the job-search process. With information in hand, you increase the chance of fi ndingthe right opportunity (and avoiding bad choices), and you impress interviewers in multiple ways by demonstrating initiative, curiosity, research and analysis skills, an appreciation for the complex challenges of running a business, and willingness to work to achieve results.

Your task: With a small team of classmates, use online job listings to identify an intriguing job opening that at least one member of the team would seriously consider pursuing as graduation approaches. (You'll fi nd it helpful if the career is related to at least one team member's college major or on-the-job experience so that the team can benefi t from some knowledge of the profession in question.) Next, research the company, its competitors, its markets, and this specifi c position to identify fi ve questions that would

(1) help the team member decide if this is a good opportunity and

(2) show an interviewer that you've really done your homework. Go beyond the basic and obvious questions to identify current, specifi c, and complex issues that only deep research can uncover.

For example, is the company facing signifi cant technical, fi nancial, legal, or regulatory challenges that threaten its ability to grow or perhaps even survive in the long term? Or is the market evolving in a way that positions this particular company for dramatic growth? In a post for your class blog, list your fi ve questions, identify how you uncovered the issue, and explain why each is signifi cant.