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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.
Ahhh. So the real purpose of this interview is to try and get free plane tickets to Mumbai....
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
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.
I am going to assume that youre not a money whore and that's not criteria #1, and that youre a techie type, not looking to become a CEO .
Some of the more subtle things, imho:
1.) Benefits/cost of benefits: Companies that offer "benefits" but have you shoulder the cost of 80% of them often reeks of a company that is just putting up appearances in all areas, and is generally cheap, or struggling.
2.) The kitchen, or perhaps lack thereof. Are there lots of pay vending machines, even for coffee, or worse, water? This again reeks of a company that doesnt really care a whole lot about their worker's happiness or isnt doing well enough to go to price club and buy a vat of coffee or chips.
3.) The office. Cube farms w/ managers in corner offices w/ the doors closed? Do the cubicles/whatever appear to be layed out in a way to encourage the flow of ideas, or just for managers to keep tabs on employees. Is it painted in flat white cost-cutting paint that has needed a fresh coat for the past 5 years? Im not saying look for wood paneled walls, but it should be easy to spot whether or not the office was designed to be a nice place where you would want to spend your time, or a factory line meant to spit out code. Check out the machines- do they have old 17 inch monitors on the fritz, or do most developers have nice 22" monitors w/ newish machines.
Are there signs posted about "procedures" and "reminders" to put waste paper in the proper receptacles and that office supplies are meant for in office use only, and that employees are not to take more than 10 minute coffee breaks, and to please be considerate and make sure your coffee mugs are cleaned and out of the sink before you leave at the end of the day... etc? Ive seen this... it reeks of low level managers and admins struggling to flex any muscle they have- any requests for favors or exceptions to policies will most likely get stonewalled by some bitter under appreciated admin. Excessive procedure reminders reeks of micro-managing types that will never let you make a decision.
4.) The general 'aura' of the office. Are there people grumbling in corner's or are people generally chipper and interested in what they're doing. Do people have "personality" items on their desk- IE pictures, nerf balls w/ the company logo on them, brain teaser puzzles (especially in a techie office) like rubik's cubes, etc, or do they appear to have a "I need to get back to work" look to them.
5.) Do they bring someone from the trenches in to speak to you alone and tell you how they like the company? This is usually a good sign. Do your coworkers and managers seem like good guys? I went from a company of very cool people, to a much better "job" where my coworkers are generally very lame and anti-social. I went from doing a close to weekly happy hour w/ my coworkers to close to zero social interaction both outside and inside the office. It sucks more than you may think, never really having more than general polite hows the kids conversations w/ your coworkers at lunch (or on the flip side, it can be a life changing experience to make good lifelong type friends w/ your coworkers).