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What Should You Watch Out For in an Employer?
sl3xd asks: "It's getting to be the time of year where corporate recruiters are out and about on university campuses, interviewing, and recruiting about-to-be graduates. In fact, it seems that's about all I hear about (other than homework). Since at this point, ca$h is a rather depleted resource, getting a good job right away is a must... I've got debts to pay off (tuition, etc.) The recruiters also know that this is the case for most students; as to the companies that employ them. My worry: I don't want to get hired by a company that will end up making me an indentured servant - stuck working there as a virtual slave, and unable to leave due to financial and contractual constraints (such as non-compete clauses). Not to mention being unable to develop any Free Software if the company somehow shoehorns the work I do in my own time as 'their' property. What should people in my situation look out for? Besides the painfully obvious 'gotchas', what other, more subtle and less obvious things are there to avoid when shopping for a first employer?"
beware of any company that has a long winded and worthy mission statement, that calls its employess "associates", that talks of synergy and paradigms. Avoid anywhere that interviews you for a technical job with a non technical HR person (I've been through this - they don't understand what it is you know how to do, let alone whether you'd be any good doing it at their firm). It's a cliche but it helps if you get warm fuzzy vibes from the interviewers - my best jobs have been where I've been the kind of person they want - not the ones where you have to be a little corporate drone/ette. And, as above, avoid any IP and non compete agreements - you don't want to start your working life entangled with legalise and court time.
blazing a trail for mediocrity...
It really doesn't matter that much. You shouldn't stay at this company for more than about a year and a half. Leaving will be the only way to move your salary up once you have experience.
Look for something that can look good on your resume. Take a job coding over one doing support or QA even if it means a pay cut. You'll make that money back within 2 years and the longer you spend working in a non-coding job, the harder it is to make the leap back to coding.
If you're young and don't mind doing it, a job that requires 50% travel can be a good thing. You get a lot of different experiences and get to work with pretty senior people. There's usually a lot of opportunity there, since you often travel to a customer site to resolve a situation that's pretty messed up.
Other than that, try to find a place that looks fun. It's hard to tell from the little tour, but if you can, watch the cube dwellers as you get the tour. If they duck down and get silent as you and their manager walk by, that's probably not a good sign. If there's a pool table and video games in the break room, make of note of whether anyone is using them. If not, that's probably worse than not having these toys. Do people have Nerf guns and other toys scattered around? Or does it look like they need permission to have a plastic plant on their desk?
I interviewed with a startup that I'm convinced will not be in buisness in 3 years (still 2 years to go, but i've not been keeping track, in my mind the odds are against them) Find out what kind of finincial situation the company is in. If they are a start up, do they have the capatol to stay in buisness? If not a startup (selling a product), how profitable are they? If they are very profitable (Microsoft, Cisco...) figgure out if they can keep it up. (Juniper networks seems te be better then cisco???, while nothing stands out as a replacemnt for microsoft, but thay can change too) If they are not number one in their field, what are their plans to become number one. Do you belive their plan?
Most companies go out of buisness due to management incompitence, not technical problems. Make sure you trust management to make the right decisions. Remember the right decision is often one you won't like (and they may not like it either), and sometimes it means deciding on the wrong thing now becuase of incomplete information instead of waiting until you know enough to make the right decision. Management that is nice isn't always good enough to make the company succede. If you get stock, or options, this is important, otherwise just make sure they can pay you. If the company ever misses paying anyone, look for a new job, emploiees are the first the be paid if there is any money at all. The only company that cannot be driven out of buisness by anouther in 5 years is goverment supported. Most competing companies are not enough better to do so however.
Most important, convince yourself they will accually pay you for the amount of hours you are willing to work. Personally I'd rather make half the pay I could make, to work 40 hours a week instead of more. My time is worth more to me then they will pay me, I've considered going part time in fact, and haven't only becuase I like the money I'm earning. If you want to live like a king for the few hours your allowed home and not asleep you can work long hours for a lot of pay. Of course you will need to pay a housekeeper and your laundry. I prefer to do that myself, but it means less hours I can work. (If I was paid overtime it wouldn't pay for me to do my own laundry or clean my own toilets, but I'd probably do it anyway just because bad as those jobs are I like the change of pace) There is nothing wrong with working 120 hours a week so long as you know the sacrafices you are making for your pay and are willing for them - you better have a goal for the money you make though.
I have been to interviews where they told me flat out I was expected to work 80 hours a week. They pay was much more then I'm making now, and several people there were willing for it (all of them were investing everything in hopes of retirement - but look what the stock market has done in the last year and it makes more sense why I wasn't willing for that gamble)
Make sure you interview your boss. i've worked for micromanagers, and wouldn't recomend it. For a short time (I transfered out in 4 months) it was okay, but for longer I couldn't. I've worked for managers who had a weekly 3 hour meeting, managers who had 10 minute meetings (and managed to say just as much), and managers who never had meetings when I could attend. The latter sounds like a dream, but it wasn't - My boss didn't see me for weeks one end, and it was hard to get work, hard to know where the company was going, and hard to do my job. Make sure you can get along with your boss. I've worked for excellent bosses with horrid upper management, but my boss shielded me from those problems and since I got my pay check I was okay. A lot of what makes a good boss is personal, so even if I had a sure fire way of finding the perfect boss that doesn't mean it would work for you.