Ten minutes spent on the person interviewing you changes the conversation more than an hour spent on the company's website, because the interviewer is a person with a role, a history and things they care about, and a candidate who knows those asks better questions and gives more relevant answers. The line between prepared and unsettling is also real, and easy to stay on the right side of. This page gives a ten-minute routine, the sources that are worth the time, how to use what you learn without announcing it, and what never to mention.
The ten-minute routine
- Minute 1 to 2: their name and title, from the invitation. Which interviewer are they: recruiter, hiring manager, peer, skip-level, cross-functional? Each wants something different, as described in AI interview help for interviews with hiring managers.
- Minute 3 to 5: their professional profile. How long at the company, what they did before, whether they came up through the work or through management, what their team does.
- Minute 6 to 8: anything they have written or presented: a conference talk, a company blog post, a public project, an interview. One is enough; it tells you what they care about professionally.
- Minute 9: what their team has shipped or announced recently, from the company's news or their posts.
- Minute 10: write two things: one question only this interviewer could answer well, and one connection between your experience and what they care about.
- Stop. More than ten minutes produces detail you will be tempted to mention.
Sources worth the time
| Source | What it tells you | Caution |
|---|---|---|
| Their professional profile | Role, tenure, path, team | Visiting it is normal; many interviewers check who looked |
| The company's team or leadership page | Their official remit | Often out of date |
| Talks, posts, articles under their name | What they care about and how they think | Read one; do not quote it back verbatim |
| The company's recent news | What their team is working on | Use it for questions, not flattery |
| Mutual connections | Context, if you know someone well | Only if the connection would be comfortable being mentioned |
| Personal social media | Nothing you should use | Do not go there; it is the line between prepared and unsettling |
The research into the company itself, which answers what do you know about our company, is separate and comes first; the interviewer research sits on top of it.
Using it without announcing it
The research shows in the quality of your questions and the relevance of your examples, not in references to it. If the hiring manager came up through the work, lead with technical depth; if they came from another function, lead with outcomes and collaboration. If they gave a talk about reliability, your example of preventing a problem goes first. The one question you prepared for them sounds like 'I understand your team moved to X last year; what has that changed about how you hire?' rather than 'I saw your talk'. Mentioning that you read something is fine once, briefly, if it is professional and relevant: 'your post on onboarding made me curious how the team does it now'. Twice is too much. The approach is the same as using inside knowledge from a referral, described in interviewing after a friend referred you: use it to prepare, let them tell you, and listen as if you did not know.
What never to mention
- Anything personal: family, location, hobbies, photographs, where they went to school unless it is in a professional context you share.
- Anything from personal social media, even if public.
- Their previous employers' problems, or why they might have left.
- Anything that suggests you looked at more than their professional profile and their published work.
- Mutual connections you do not actually know well.
- Their age, tenure or career path as a judgment; 'you have been here a long time' lands badly however it is meant.
Where CoPilot Interview fits
CoPilot Interview is an AI interview assistant whose free AI mock interview can be told who is interviewing you, a hiring manager or a peer or a recruiter, and asks the questions that interviewer type tends to ask, scoring each spoken answer out of ten, so the research turns into relevant answers rather than remembered facts. The free plan gives 15 minutes a day of live help in sessions of up to 15 minutes, with AI mock interviews included. The product is built for practice; if you ever consider live help in a real interview, follow your employer's rules.
Disclosure: CoPilot Interview is our product, so weigh what we say about it accordingly.
Frequently asked questions
How do I research my interviewer before an interview?
Ten minutes: their role and tenure, their path, one thing they have written or presented, what their team has done recently, then one question only they could answer and one connection to your experience.
Is it creepy to look up my interviewer?
Looking at their professional profile and published work is expected. Personal social media, family and photographs are over the line, and so is mentioning more than one professional detail.
Should I tell them I researched them?
Once, briefly, if it is professional and relevant. Otherwise let it show in the quality of your questions and the relevance of your examples.
What if I cannot find anything about them?
Research the team and the role instead, and ask them about their path in the interview; it is a good question in itself.
How long should I spend?
Ten minutes. Longer produces details you will be tempted to mention.
Practice this interview before the real one
The AI mock interview builds questions from your resume and the job description, reads them aloud and scores each spoken answer out of 10. Included on the free plan.
Start a mock interview