Research and colored note cards

The first research paper I ever did was on the history of cloves, which is a bit strange because I was a second grader at the time. While other kids were looking for information on kangaroos or the history of chocolate, I was reading about the history of spices. This may all seem a bit odd, but I don’t pretend to have lived a normal childhood.

My interest in research started back then. I enjoyed the colored note cards—pastel pinks, yellows, blues, greens—that represented different subject matters my paper would later highlight. I loved the old books with faded covers and black and white pictures of people who lived across the world. In short, I loved the very art of collecting information about a particular subject.

But not everyone has a positive view of research, in fact, probably very few people do; colored note cards just don’t do it for everyone. But research is something no hopeful applicant should ignore, because a well-researched applicant is an attractive applicant. Imagine you have an upcoming interview. Before going to the interview, you decide to spend a couple hours researching the prospective company. Such research leads to preparedness, confidence, and several other qualities that appeal to a potential employer.

Researching is also incredibly easy to do given the huge network of information available via the Internet. I recommend checking out a company’s main website and also any related company or industry blogs. After reading up on the different sites, it’s a good idea to prepare some questions for your potential employer ahead of time. But you should also be ready to modify those questions according to the natural course of the interview.

Research will always pay off for the serious job seeker and it’s a relatively simple process thanks to the Internet—one that won’t consume nearly as much time as the whole colored note card system.