I work as software engineer. I usually do the following: - get a short list of representative people who work for the company i’m applying for. This usually m

I work as software engineer. I usually do the following: - get a short list of representative people who work for the company i’m applying for. This usually means: a few engineers and a few managers, linkedin profiles (and if available their github/personal websites). I guess this step could be automated, but I wouldn’t pay for it (since it only takes at most 1h, and I never apply to more than 1 or 2 companies at a time) - I try to read all the company’s social media stuff online (blog posts, tweets, glassdoor, etc.) Depending on the company this is impossible, so again I try to get a representative sample. Again, could be automated, but I wouldn’t pay for it - Based on my findings above, I prepare the following: a) a couple of stories about what I have built in the past. I have this already prepared but I may modify it slightly to include buzzwords suitable for the company; b) rehearsal of the usual non-tech stuff companies usually ask (like, talking about my leadership abilities and so on) I don’t rehearse coding exercises (mainly because I don’t spend too much time preparing interviews, so practising leetcode for a couple of hours is rather pointless). If i’m applying to work with a tech stack that’s new to me then that’s different: I spent around 1 week playing around with it. If i’m applying to a job for which I know the tech stack, the whole preparation takes me around 3-4 days (around 5 hours in total, including the points above). So, I try to know as much as possible about the company. The more they have published online the better (it’s very easy to fake you talk the buzzwords they use when they describe their culture, principles, values, etc.)