When you’re looking for a job and see a job posting that you are interested in, it’s only natural to want to know more about the company. After all, you’ll be spending at least 40 hours a week there, so you just want to know that you’ll be in a place that you’ll like.
Though you want to learn as much as you can before joining a company, the resources are limited, especially when you don’t know someone from the inside. You don’t have a lot of choices when trying to find information on whether a company is good or bad, and your best opportunity is during your interview.
By being vigilant in your interview, you can detect certain indicators of how a company treats its employees. Here are some of these indicators:
Signs of high turnover rate – One of the easiest ways to find out how a company treats its employees is by examining the history of a position. When you ask an interviewer about the people who previously held the position and they’re hesitant to answer, it’s a good sign that they’re trying to hide something.
Another sign is when there are more than two people who held the position within the last two years. This could mean that there were two people ahead of you who weren’t able to handle the work environment or the workload.
No clear vision – Frequently during an interview, applicants are asked about their vision and where they see themselves in a few years. The same should also be asked of the company: Where do they see the role in a few years? If an interviewer can’t tell you the answer, it’s probably because there’s no clear goal in mind. It’s up to you if you want to be in a position where there’s only the present and no future.
Negative work environment – You can observe hints about the work environment in a company immediately after you enter the door; you’ll see how employees work and interact with each other and how the interviewer talks about people who previously held the position. If they show enthusiasm in explaining what it’s like to work for the company, then there’s a good chance that they’re happy and enjoying the experience.
There’s more than what you saw – You were interested in the job posting and read through everything, but when you came in for the interview and asked what a typical day is like, the job description you read is now long gone. Clearly, there may be more to the job than what you bargained for.
What do you do now?
You have to ask yourself: Can you see yourself working with this company? You have to be honest about it. Sure, you might finally have a job… but for how long? So look for the red flags now, and save yourself from major problems later on.
