Research on LinkedIn. Ace an interview!

[Ed. note: This belongs to our series of posts featuring tips for recent grads from LinkedIn users. Joyce Solano is an MBA candidate at the University of San Francisco where she will graduate in May 2009. She is currently at Sun Microsytems managing social media communities and identifying strategic partnership opportunities. You can read her blog here and listen to her podcast at NewGenTech]

Last Spring, as the competition for MBA internships started to heat up, I knew I needed a leg up to land that coveted opening at Sun Microsystems. My strategy was simple, understand the personal brand of each of the team members. I would feel more confident if I knew as much about them as they did about me. LinkedIn was an invaluable source of information that helped me understand the history, interests and accomplishments of my potential colleagues. As job seeking students we have to remember that we are assessing potential companies as well, truly making it a two way evaluation.

Realizing how much I had in common with the team and how interesting they were, really cemented that Sun was a match for me as well. I knew that my skill set was up to par, but also recognized that culturally, I would make a great addition. I walked into my series of interviews, armed with resources, rich with relevant data points and teeming with confidence.

A year, later I’m still with Sun and can look back and know that my insight from LinkedIn was right on point.