What do you know about our company — best answers
Answering "What do you know about our company?" is one of the most solvable interview questions — and yet it remains one of the most frequently fumbled. A 2023 survey by Glassdoor found that 47% of hiring managers in the US and UK cite lack of company research as a top reason for rejecting otherwise qualified candidates. This is not a question about how clever you are. It is a test of whether you cared enough to prepare.
The question matters because it is a proxy for your motivation, your professional standards, and your ability to research — three qualities that predict job performance across virtually every role. This guide will give you a systematic research framework, two detailed worked examples, and the exact structure to use in your answer, tailored for UK, US, Canadian, and Australian interview contexts.
Why this question matters more than it looks
Recruiters use this question as a filter for serious candidates. Here is what they are actually evaluating.
Genuine motivation versus spray-and-pray applications: In the UK, where it is common to apply to dozens of jobs via Reed, Totaljobs, or LinkedIn with a single click, a recruiter can tell immediately whether you prepared a specific answer or recycled a generic one. The same is true in the US, where Indeed and LinkedIn Easy Apply have made high-volume applications trivially easy.
Research ability as a job skill: For roles that require analysis, due diligence, or stakeholder intelligence — which includes most professional roles — your interview research signals how you approach information-gathering on the job. A thorough, well-structured answer demonstrates that you approach problems methodically.
Cultural fit signal: In Australian workplace culture, which values down-to-earth preparation over formal polish, showing that you know about the company's local market position and recent news is particularly well-received. In UK financial services, where competency-based interviews are standard, demonstrating knowledge of the firm's regulatory environment or recent press coverage shows business acumen.
Respect: At its most basic level, this question tests whether you respect the recruiter's time enough to have prepared. Arriving without research is the professional equivalent of showing up to a dinner party empty-handed.
Pro tip
Your research goal is not to recite facts — it is to demonstrate perspective. The recruiter knows everything about their company. What they want to hear is your informed take on what makes the company interesting, what challenges they face, and how you specifically fit into their story.
A five-source research framework
Thorough company research takes roughly two to three hours. Spread across these five sources, it produces an answer that is genuinely impressive.
Source 1: The Company Website (Foundation Layer)
Do not stop at the homepage. The most valuable pages are typically: - "About Us" or "Our Story" — mission, founding story, and core values - "Products" or "Services" — understand what they actually sell and to whom - "Careers" or "Culture" — how they describe themselves to potential employees - The blog or "Insights" section — this reveals what the company thinks is important right now
Source 2: LinkedIn (People and Recent Activity)
Follow the company page for recent posts and announcements. More importantly: - Research your interviewer's profile — understand their background and what they likely care about - Look at the profiles of people in roles similar to the one you are applying for — understand what career paths are realistic - Review recent employee posts tagged to the company — this gives you a ground-level cultural perspective
Source 3: Press and News (Recent Context)
A 10-minute Google News search for the company name, filtered to the past six months, will surface: - Funding rounds, acquisitions, or major partnerships - New product launches or market expansions - Executive changes or restructurings - Industry awards or recognition - Any regulatory or reputational news (both positive and negative)
Source 4: Financial Data (For Business-Facing Roles)
For any role with commercial, financial, or strategic responsibility, understanding the company's financial health matters. In the UK, public companies file annual reports with Companies House and publish investor relations pages. For US public companies, 10-K filings are accessible via SEC EDGAR. Revenue growth, profitability trends, and stated strategic priorities are fair game in an interview.
Source 5: Glassdoor and Employee Reviews (Cultural Intelligence)
Glassdoor reviews are noisy and skewed toward disgruntled ex-employees, but they surface patterns that are worth knowing. Recurring themes in reviews — whether positive ("great learning opportunities") or negative ("poor work-life balance") — give you intelligence about the company culture that official channels do not reveal.
Watch out
Never bring up negative Glassdoor reviews in the interview. Use them privately to calibrate your questions and your willingness to join — not as ammunition in the room.
How to structure your answer
A strong answer to "What do you know about our company?" has three components. Keep it to two minutes maximum.
Component 1 — The Summary (30 seconds): A concise description of what the company does, who it serves, and where it sits in the market. This proves you have the basics right.
Component 2 — The Detail That Caught Your Attention (60 seconds): One or two specific things from your research that genuinely interest you. This is where you differentiate yourself from the candidate who just skimmed the About page. Ideally this is recent — a product launch, a funding announcement, a strategic initiative from their blog.
Component 3 — The Connection to You (30 seconds): Why the things you noticed are relevant to your background, skills, or professional interests. This is the pivot from "I know about you" to "here is why I want to be here."
Example
"From my research, Monzo is a digital challenger bank that has grown to over eight million UK current account customers since launching in 2015, with a particular focus on making personal finance more transparent and accessible. What specifically caught my attention was the announcement last year about your expansion into business banking and your recent push into the US market. I find the challenge of scaling a consumer-first brand into a competitive B2B space genuinely interesting. As someone who has spent three years in product at another fintech that went through a similar transition, I think I understand both the opportunity and the complexity involved."
Two worked examples
Example 1: Account Manager at a SaaS Company in Austin, Texas
Rachel is interviewing for a Mid-Market Account Manager role at a B2B SaaS company that provides HR software.
She answers: "I have spent time on your website and your LinkedIn page, and I also read your CEO's recent article on the HRTech landscape in Forbes. From what I understand, you provide workforce planning and scheduling software primarily to retail and hospitality companies with between 200 and 2,000 employees — businesses that have traditionally used spreadsheets or legacy tools and are now digitising. What stood out to me was the blog post from your VP of Customer Success about how you increased net revenue retention to 118% last year, which is exceptional in your segment. For me as an account manager with a background in SaaS for the services sector, that kind of product stickiness tells me the product genuinely solves the customer's problem — which makes the commercial conversation much easier. I am also excited about the mid-market segment specifically because it is where I have spent the last two years and where I find the most interesting complexity."
Example 2: Graduate Software Engineer at a Consultancy in London
Alex is interviewing at Accenture UK for a Technology Analyst graduate role.
He answers: "Accenture is a global professional services firm operating across strategy, consulting, and technology, with particularly strong presences in financial services, the public sector, and retail in the UK. What I found most interesting in my research was the scale of your recent investment in AI and cloud services — I read that Accenture invested $3 billion in AI capabilities and has 40,000 people working on AI-related projects globally. I also looked at several of your UK technology case studies, and the work you did modernising HMRC's legacy systems stood out to me as genuinely complex engineering with real public impact. My final year project at university was a distributed systems project, and I find the challenge of migrating large-scale legacy infrastructure to cloud architectures genuinely fascinating — which feels directly relevant to the kind of client work your teams do here in the UK."
Cultural context across English-speaking markets
UK competency-based interviews: British interviewers often respond well to answers that demonstrate awareness of the company's competitive landscape and regulatory context. For financial services roles, referencing the FCA's regulatory environment or the company's approach to Consumer Duty shows real business awareness.
US behavioral interviews: American recruiters tend to reward enthusiasm and directness. Saying clearly "I've done my homework and I'm genuinely excited about X because of Y" is appropriate and often welcome.
Australian style: Australian interviewers value genuine engagement over rehearsed polish. If you found something in your research that you found surprising or counterintuitive, sharing that observation — respectfully — can create a genuine moment of connection in the interview.
Canada: For companies operating in bilingual markets or heavily regulated sectors like banking or telecoms, showing awareness of the Canadian regulatory environment or Francophone market context can differentiate you.
Watch out
Two answers that reliably end interviews: "Honestly, I didn't have much time to research" and "I know you're a very well-known company in this space." The first admits a failure of preparation. The second is so vague it is indistinguishable from knowing nothing at all.
Practice your answer
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