Company-Specific ResearchDo research on the company and its values. You should have a good idea of what the company offers, how large it is within the market sector, the general history of the company, and its overall business philosophy.

A quick review of the company website should be plenty, but make sure to be thorough enough that you can incorporate the company values into your answers and your questions. The corporate culture can also inform what you wear for video and in-person interviews; usually you can wear anything, but for certain companies you might want to dress a little more formally.

You can find information about company values on their websites or blogs. Companies care about promoting their values, so they should be easy to find.

Simplify BlogSimplify has created blog posts that walk through the process of finding an internship at 18 companies, including all of the FAANG companies. Don't treat the information in these posts as gospel (they say Boeing hires 136,000 interns, which is off by a factor of at least 10). Instead, use the blog as a good starting point, before you read more information on the company.

GlassdoorGlassdoor is a great place to find information about companies, especially those that you're less familiar with. You can read reviews from employees at the company, check out commonly-asked interview questions, and more.

Company Research ExampleAs an example, Amazon cares very much about its Leadership Principles Engineers think about them when designing new projects, evaluating interns, and more. So if you’re interviewing with Amazon, it would be a good idea to review these LPs and have a few in mind to reference if you’re asked a question like “When have you shown Ownership?” or “What Amazon LPs do you have the most experience with?”

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Values of Top CompaniesWe’ve collected some of the most important values for a few top companies here, but you should still do further research to make sure you have a complete picture. Click on the company names to see the lists on their websites.

• Amazon: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking (also all of the LPs).
• Apple: a healthy respect for well-being, putting the personal in personalization, keeping it green and clean, off to a running start, inspiring minds by augmenting reality, looking ahead for Apple and looking out for all, bridging cultures, helping people grow in their own direction, accessibility, recycling, connecting products with code and connecting people with privacy.
• Google: focus on user, best to do one thing really well, fast is better than slow, democracy on the web works, you don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer, you can make money without doing evil, there’s always more information out there, the need for information crosses all borders, you can be serious without a suit, great just isn’t good enough.
• Meta: move fast, focus on long-term impact, build awesome things, live in the future, be direct and respect your colleagues, and Meta, metamates, me.
• Netflix: the Dream Team, people over process, uncomfortably exciting, great and always better.
• Jane Street: make an impact, one big team, level up, work functionally.
• BCG: integrity, diversity, respect for the individual, clients come first, the strategic perspective, value delivered, partnership, expanding the art of the possible, social impact. 
• Stripe: users first, move with urgency and focus, be meticulous in your craft, seek feedback, deliver outstanding results.
• Goldman Sachs: build with passion, obsess over the experience, look around corners, innovate incrementally, inspire trust, lead with data, keep learning, express humanity, promote inclusivity. 
• NASA: safety, integrity, respect, inclusion, teamwork, balance, innovation, excellence.
• Microsoft: innovation, diversity and inclusion, corporate social responsibility, AI, trustworthy computing, responding to COVID-19 together.

Interviewer ResearchIf you have your interviewer’s name ahead of the interview, research them and see if you have anything in common. Maybe you’re from the same city or state, went to the same school, or have a common interest. Even if not, you can still get a good sense of their career trajectory to understand what types of answers they might view positively and what types of questions they might be interested in speaking about. For example, if they spent 15 years at start-ups before joining their current company, you might want to ask a question like “Does Company XYZ still feel like a start-up even though it’s fairly big? Do you wish it felt more or less like a start-up?