Surviving the employment hot seat: Investigate a future employer thoroughly — before the interview

Picture this. A student nears the end of a successful job interview. Then the interviewer asks, “What do you know about the XYZ Corp.?” Or, “Why do you want to work for us?” At that point, the interviewee coughs nervously and mumbles something about the merits of XYZ's D/A converters. End of interview, end of employment possibility with XYZ, which manufactures display terminals.