Background
Understand their professional history and current responsibilities.
Interviewer research guide
How to Research Your Interviewer Before an Interview
Knowing who you’re meeting can change the entire conversation. Learn what to look for, what to ignore, and how to turn public professional information into better interview questions.
Research My Interviewer FreePublic professional information only. No private databases.
Research the person, not their private life.
Useful interviewer research focuses on professional context: role, career history, expertise, public work, and legitimate areas of common ground.
Career background
Professional expertise
Public work and appearances
Questions you can actually ask
Why research your interviewer?
An interview is a conversation between two people deciding whether working together makes sense.
You already research the company and read the job description. Researching the person who will actually interview you can give you context that generic prep cannot.
Perspective
See what experience they may bring into the conversation.
Common ground
Find genuine professional overlap you can discuss naturally.
Better questions
Prepare questions that are specific to the person in front of you.
The goal is not to memorize everything about them. The goal is to walk into the interview with context.
How to research your interviewer in 5 steps
1
Confirm you have the right person
Start with the information in the recruiter’s message or interview invitation. Confirm the person’s full name, current company, title, office or location, professional profile, or company biography.
Do not assume two profiles belong to the same person unless the professional details match.
2
Review their professional background
Look at their current role, previous positions, previous employers, career progression, company tenure, industries, and areas of responsibility.
Example
Imagine your interviewer is a Finance Manager who previously worked in public accounting, corporate FP&A, and financial reporting. Instead of asking “What do you like about finance?” you could ask:
“I noticed your background spans both public accounting and FP&A. What made you decide to move into corporate finance?”
3
Look for public professional interests
Career history is useful, but strong conversation opportunities can also come from professional topics the interviewer discusses publicly.
Industry trendsTechnologyLeadershipProfessional organizationsConferencesPublished articlesPodcastsCertificationsCompany initiativesUniversity involvement
4
Find genuine areas of common ground
Look for legitimate overlap: the same professional organization, university program, technology, industry, certification, conference, or project area.
Do not fake common interests.
If you barely know a subject, do not pretend it is one of your passions because your interviewer likes it. Common ground works best when it is actually common.
5
Turn your research into better questions
Research only becomes useful when you know what to do with it. Prepare a few questions based on what you learned.
If they recently changed roles
What has been the biggest difference between your previous role and what you’re doing now?
If they have been there for years
You’ve seen the company through a few different stages. What has changed the most since you joined?
If they moved between industries
What made you interested in moving from your previous industry into this one?
If they have a technical specialty
How important is that specialty to the work your team is doing right now?
If they started in a similar role
What helped you succeed when you were first learning the role?
Research smarter
Research your interviewer free
Stalk My Interviewer helps organize relevant public professional information into interview preparation you can actually use.
Research My Interviewer FreePublic professional information only. No private databases.
Where should you research your interviewer?
A few reliable public professional sources are usually enough.
Professional networking profiles
Useful for current role, previous employers, education, certifications, career progression, public posts, and professional interests.
Company website
Look for leadership biographies, team pages, employee spotlights, press releases, conference announcements, and company blog posts.
Published articles
Your interviewer may have written an article, been quoted, published research, or contributed to an industry publication.
Podcasts and conference appearances
Event descriptions, webinars, panels, podcasts, and university appearances can reveal how someone thinks about their field.
How much research is too much?
If it would feel strange to mention in a professional meeting, you probably do not need it.
Useful research
Professional experience, company biographies, published articles, industry involvement, professional organizations, public professional posts, and career history.
Possibly useful depending on context
Public hobbies someone openly discusses professionally, university affiliations, volunteer organizations, and professional events.
Usually unnecessary
Home addresses, family members, private social media, personal phone numbers, private records, restricted accounts, personal financial information, or information obtained by bypassing access controls.
Is it weird to look up your interviewer?
Usually, no.
Employers research candidates before interviews. Candidates can also prepare for the people they are meeting. The important distinction is how you use the information.
Professional
“I saw you previously worked in audit. What made you move into FP&A?”
Potentially uncomfortable
“I found photos from your family vacation three years ago.”
What should you learn?
Focus on five things.
Current role
What do they do, and what is their relationship to the role you want?
Career background
Where did they work before, and how did they get to the current role?
Areas of expertise
What professional topics repeatedly appear in their background?
Shared interests
What genuine professional experiences or interests overlap with yours?
Questions to ask
What can you ask about their background, current role, or company experience?
Interviewer research example
Turn a few public facts into questions that are actually worth asking.
Imagine you are interviewing for a Financial Analyst position. Your interviewer is a Senior Finance Manager who started in audit, later moved into FP&A, has worked at the company for six years, and recently spoke on a company panel about automation in finance.
“What helped you transition from audit into FP&A?”
“How has the finance team changed during the six years you’ve been here?”
“I saw that you’ve discussed automation in finance. Are there particular processes your team is currently trying to automate?”
Questions based on who is interviewing you
Recruiter
Ask about the process, what the hiring manager values, team structure, timing, and role expectations.
“What qualities have you seen separate candidates who move forward from those who don’t?”
Potential manager
Ask about expectations, management style, team challenges, performance, and priorities.
“What would make you feel six months from now that hiring me was the right decision?”
Senior leader
Ask about company direction, strategy, industry changes, growth, and long-term priorities.
“What is the biggest change you expect this team to navigate over the next few years?”
Potential teammate
Ask about daily work, collaboration, workload, team culture, and the learning curve.
“What surprised you most when you first joined the team?”
Interviewer research checklist
If you can answer these, you probably know enough.
Identity
- Do I have the correct person?
- What is their current title?
- What is their relationship to the role?
Career
- Where did they work previously?
- How long have they been at the company?
- Have they held other roles there?
Expertise
- What topics appear repeatedly?
- Which industries or specialties do they know particularly well?
Common ground
- Do we share legitimate professional experiences or interests?
- Is there anything we could naturally discuss?
Questions
- What can I ask based on their background?
- What can I ask based on their current role?
- What can I ask about their company experience?
Research your interviewer automatically
You can do all of this manually. Or let Stalk My Interviewer organize it.
Open professional profiles. Search company pages. Read bios and public articles. Compare their background with yours. Then organize everything into useful questions — or start with one public professional profile and build a structured interview-preparation report.
Research smarter
Research your interviewer free
Stalk My Interviewer helps organize relevant public professional information into interview preparation you can actually use.
Research My Interviewer FreePublic professional information only. No private databases.
How to use research during the interview
The research should make the conversation smoother. It should not become the conversation.
Too literal
“I researched you and saw that you worked at Deloitte from 2018 to 2021.”
Natural
“I noticed you also came from public accounting. How was the transition into industry?”
Do not force common ground
If your interviewer loves marathon running and you ran one 5K years ago, that probably is not meaningful common ground. Sometimes the best result of research is simply understanding their career path well enough to ask a thoughtful question.
Do company research too
Company research tells you about the organization, products, customers, competitors, strategy, and industry. Interviewer research tells you who you are actually speaking with and what professional perspective they bring. You need both.
Researching a hiring manager
If this person may become your manager, look at their career progression, technical background, company tenure, previous roles, public leadership priorities, and whether they were promoted internally. This can help you understand what experiences they may value — and whether you want to work for them.
You are interviewing them too.
Researching a panel interview
Research each interviewer separately. Write down their name, title, department, background, connection to the role, and one possible question. Ask the hiring manager about expectations, a teammate about day-to-day work, a senior leader about strategy, and a cross-functional interviewer about collaboration.
What if you cannot find much information?
That is fine. Some professionals have small public footprints. You can still prepare using their company, job title, department, the job description, company website, and information from the recruiter. Not finding information is better than making assumptions from weak evidence.
What if you find something negative?
You may find negative company reviews, controversies, a short tenure, criticism, or career gaps. Do not automatically bring those things up. Ask whether the information changes your own evaluation of the opportunity. Research is also about helping you make a better decision.
What not to do
Keep the goal professional.
Do not try to access private accounts.
Do not search for home addresses.
Do not contact family members.
Do not use leaked information.
Do not bypass login restrictions.
Do not pretend you share interests you do not.
Do not mention extremely personal details.
Do not assume a profile is the right person without verifying it.
Do not over-research until you are more anxious instead of more prepared.
Frequently asked questions
A few things people ask.
Is researching your interviewer before an interview okay?
Yes. Reviewing publicly available professional information is a normal form of interview preparation. Keep the research relevant to the professional interaction.
Should I look up my interviewer on LinkedIn?
A professional networking profile is often one of the best places to start because it may contain career history, education, professional interests, and current responsibilities. Use it as one source rather than assuming every detail tells you something important about the person.
Will my interviewer know I researched them?
Possibly. Some professional platforms may show profile views depending on account settings. Looking at someone's professional profile before a scheduled business meeting is generally normal.
How long should I spend researching my interviewer?
For most interviews, around 10 to 20 minutes of focused research is enough to understand someone's professional background and prepare a few thoughtful questions. Spend more time practicing your own answers than memorizing facts about the interviewer.
What information should I look for?
Prioritize the interviewer's current role, career history, relevant expertise, public professional interests, company tenure, genuine shared professional experiences, and useful questions you can ask.
Should I mention that I researched my interviewer?
Usually you do not need to announce that you researched them. Use relevant information naturally in a professional question instead.
Can interviewer research help me get the job?
There is no guarantee, but thoughtful research can help you ask stronger questions, understand the person interviewing you, feel more prepared, and have a more natural conversation.
Research smarter before your next interview
You already know the company. You already know the job. Now learn about the person sitting across from you.
Professional background. Shared interests. Conversation opportunities. Better questions. One organized briefing.
Research My Interviewer FreePublic information. Professional context. Smarter interview prep.
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