Researching your hiring manager before an interview gives you a real edge. You can ask smarter questions, find common ground, and show you take the role seriously.
Most candidates walk in knowing the company but nothing about the person sitting across from them. That's a missed opportunity.
Why It Actually Matters
Hiring managers are people. They have interests, career histories, opinions, and things they care about at work. If you know a little about them beforehand, the conversation feels less like a quiz and more like a real exchange.
That shift matters. People hire candidates they connect with, not just the most qualified ones on paper.
Where to Look
You don't need to go deep. A 10-15 minute search is enough.
LinkedIn is the obvious starting point:
- What's their career path? Have they switched industries or roles?
- How long have they been at this company?
- Have they posted anything recently about their team, their work, or the industry?
Google their name plus the company name. You might find:
- A podcast they were on
- A conference talk or panel
- A quote in a trade article
- A blog post or byline
Check the company's own site. Sometimes managers are quoted in press releases or listed in a team page with a short bio.
Look at the job posting again. If they wrote it or approved it, the language in it often reflects what they personally value.
What to Do With What You Find
You're not stalking them. You're preparing. Here's how to use what you find:
- Shared background: If you both worked in the same industry before, mention it naturally. "I noticed you came from retail before joining here, I did too."
- Their priorities: If they've posted about building team culture or scaling a product, you know what keeps them up at night. Shape your answers around that.
- Smart questions: Ask about something specific they've worked on. "I saw the team launched X last year, what's the biggest challenge that created?" shows you did your homework.
Keep Watching Target Companies, Not Just Managers
If you're interviewing at multiple places or waiting for roles to open up, it helps to stay updated on what's happening inside those companies. New hires, leadership changes, product launches, and press coverage all tell you something useful.
Doing that manually for five or ten companies is exhausting. A tool like AIDular handles it for you. You tell it what to watch in plain English, pick a schedule, and it searches the web and emails you a tidy report. No more checking LinkedIn, Google News, and Crunchbase separately every few days.
Here's a prompt you can copy and paste into AIDular:
Search for recent news about [Company Name], including new executive hires, product launches, funding announcements, layoffs, or press coverage from the last 7 days. Also find any recent LinkedIn posts or interviews from [Hiring Manager Name] at [Company Name].
Set it to run weekly for each company you're actively pursuing. You'll show up to every interview already knowing what's been happening.
A Few Things to Avoid
- Don't mention personal details that have nothing to do with work. Their kids, their hobbies outside of work, their location. That crosses a line.
- Don't over-prepare to the point where you're reciting facts at them. Use what you find to ask better questions, not to show off.
- Don't rely only on LinkedIn. Profiles go stale. Cross-check with a quick Google search.
Make It a Habit
The best job seekers treat every interview as a researched conversation, not a test they're cramming for the night before.
Start your research at least two days before the interview. That gives you time to think about what you found and weave it in naturally, rather than force it.
If you want a simple way to stay updated on the companies and people you're targeting, try AIDular free. You set up your research once, and it keeps you in the loop automatically.