In your job search, you will come across a wide variety of companies. Some will be better to work for than others. Some will suit your working style best. And some are best avoided entirely.
Keep an eye out for companies to steer clear of completely, and learn to recognize them early—and save yourself some suffering and stress!
1. The Revolving Door
Keep an eye out for companies with really high turnover, ones stuck in a hire-and-fire cycle and hunting for the same new roles every six months or a year. This is either the fault of a bad internal culture or fickle management. It’s bad news either way.
2. The Group Interviewers
Some companies like to save time by interviewing candidates in batches. If they can’t take the time to interview candidates one-on-one, they might not be for you.
3. The Bad Culture/Reputation
If a company has consistently bad employee reviews, that’s a bad sign. Worse if the recruiter evades questions about employee satisfaction and culture. And if its reputation is bad? Well, it probably deserves it.
4. The Glossy Faker
The website, materials, even the boss’s office are pristine. But the building itself, and every other office in it (mostly dark and dilapidated cubicles) seems overlooked and cluttered. This is a great sign of how this company treats their workers: badly.
5. The Ghost Company
This company doesn’t give you anything to go on—no information about the job you are applying for, no organizational chart, no mission statement, no specified salary, and no other guidelines of any kind. This hint at a huge lack of organization, and does not bode well.
6. The Non-Trainers
It’s one thing for a company not to offer formal training and to expect you to get up to speed through informal training. But a company that won’t help get you up to speed at all? Not investing in you, and not worth investing in!
7. The Foot-Draggers
You expect have to wait to hear back. But if you’ve been in touch to reaffirm your interest or with questions, or if you’ve gotten another offer and the company refuses to accelerate the process or give you an answer, run away.
8. The Top Down
Stay away from companies where there are a ton of executives and managers making all of the decisions and doing all the brainstorming, but the rank and file employees are more or less overlooked.
9. The Stagnant Pond
If there are no learning opportunities advertised and the hiring manager evaded your questions about your career goals in the future, stay away. You want a company that will help you develop and advance in your goals—not a dead end job, no matter how much you like it now.
10. The Titanic
This kind of company seems to have it all—except direction. If they cannot articulate long-term goals or future plans, then senior leadership isn’t disseminating what it needs to. That’s never a good sign.
