How to prepare for an interview when you are in between jobs?

How do you prepare for a marketing job when a company is in stealth mode and little information is known about it (if anything)?

• I have recently had a number of interviews with start-ups where they don't have much in terms of information and what they provide is often incomplete (at best). Because of that, I often provide generic strategies on how to succeed, yet don't get the jobs because I "didn't take the time to prepare for the interview". The fact is that in many cases all I can provide is high level advice and then dig deeper when we talk. The fact is I often don't have the time/energy to pull together a detailed analysis of the company and its market and find it unrealistic to assume that a candidate has time to do this. Without sounding lazy or arrogant, how do you explain this to a company that you want to work with? I was thinking that I tell them I would pull together a presentation shortly after speaking with them once I have all the facts, but in some cases it is too late by that time. Any thoughts?

• Answer:

  The question is inconsistent.  The main question indicates that there is little that can be known about the company because it is trying to be stealthy.  But the details say that in fact there is relevant info out there but you can't or don't want to spend the time needed to command it all. I'm guessing your issue is really the latter.  Unless the product is something so radically novel that there is simply no category in existence even similar to it, then there is at least general market research you can do to prepare. In any event, the burden really is on the job applicant to prepare for the interview.  You say you don't have the time to prepare for a lot of these interviews; if that is the case, I would accept half as many interviews but prepare three times as much as you have been doing.