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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?"
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?