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How Do You 'Vet' an Employer?
Not-to-desperate asks: "There is lots of info around on interviewing when hiring but what about the other way around? What do you look for in an employer? Are the any 'minimum requirements' that should be met? Obviously if you haven't got a job at all, getting hired is the main criteria, but what if you're jumping ship so to speak? I'm thinking of stuff like better salary, work conditions, type of projects, possibility of on the job training, and so on."
Monster.com has an entire page dedicated to interview tips. They include things like illegal interview questions or talking salary. Generally it's worthwhile to establish top three priorities that you would like to see in a prospective employer.
Choose from wide array of things like good team to work with, free coffee in the office, paid vacation, general atmosphere, opportunity for advancement, trip re-imbrusement policies, overtime policies, sick leaves, vacation packages, perks like gym memberships, availability of good food nearby, company kitchen, dress code, stock options, medical insurance, dental packages, etc. Ask about your top three priorities directly during the interview, when the HR person or manager asks "Do you have any questions for us?" This will tell them that you have thought certain things through, and will also signalize that those are some things you care about, so it must be important to you.
Or just think about the three-four things that were awesome about the previous employer or other companies on the market (like Google allows you to spend one day on your own projects, and they allow pets in the building, Microsoft buys its employees gym memberships, and I think at some point they were also buy Costco cards).
Do a Dunn & Bradstreet on the company. Any liens, lawsuits, good credit?
Ask to speak to someone who would be your peer at the company. Find out what they think.
Search Fuckedcompany
Onorus drug testing policies are a bad sign.
What do the restrooms look like?
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
Often in a interview you are asked for some questions.
One question that could be asked, Can I go meet the people I would be working with?
It may or may not fly, but talking to the existing employees of the company sounds to me like the best, most direct way to find out anything you really need to know.
The People/Culture Who am I going to be working with? What are they like? Do they have lives outside of work, or do they exist in some company-subsidized virtual reality? (I once interviewed at Dow Jones, and they told me in glowing terms of their company-sponsored sports and all that... thanks, but, um, I have a life, and it's not about a company.) Are they knowledgeable, clueful (yes, those two are different) and friendly? The Work What am I going to be doing? After almost 15 years of this stuff, I don't want totally trained-monkey work, but at the same time, I've served my time in the tech-support and sysadmin (and other) levels of hell, and like to have some time where I'm not "on call." The Business What does the organization do, and how does it do it? Does it do things, and do them in ways, that I can believe in, or at least support? Less than a decade ago, I was the webmaster for the majority of the casinos in Atlantic City, as well as several others across the country. It was "exciting" work, to be sure, but I had a hard time knowing that my salary was largely derived from the social security checks of blue-haired slot-stuffing (oh my, that sounds Freudian) grannies. On the flip side, I once worked for free for a year to fight spam. The Commute In the early days of the ISP industry, I once had a commute of 3.5 hours, each direction, to work at a helldesk. Since then, I've done much better, thank goodness. These days it's usually 5 or 10 minutes with decent scenery and ocean views, and it's unlikely that I'd ever go for an hour-each-way 5-days-a-week run like a lot of people have. The Pay How's the compensation package, overall? Is the wage or salary enough to pay my bills, save a bit, and get the occasional shiny! new toy? How are the benefits? Medical, dental and optical? 401(k)? Employer match? Profit-sharing? I've used these five criteria to evaluate potential new jobs relative to current ones, and in cases where I have multiple offers, to compare them. Usually, to get me to change jobs, the new one has to be significantly better than my current one in at least a couple categories, and can't be worse than it in any. In retrospect, I've still made some decisions that I now question, but I don't tend to find myself in jobs that suck in every possible way.