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I also try and find out information on my immediate manager - is he or she single? No kids? Is the job their life? If so, RUN THE OTHER WAY FAST! Those are the people you really do not want to work for. Show up and work hard for 8 hours and they'll wonder what's wrong with you for not working 'til 10pm at night every night like they do.
I know there are exceptions but in my experience I've found the older/single/childless folks are really the worst people to work for.
That's ridiculous! Just because someone is single with no kids doesn't mean they don't have a life outside of work. Seriously?
Try and find out reviews of the company or any other research you can find on the internet. Indeed.com is another site that has company reviews. Look for trends in the reviews and keep in mind the company size. Ignore outlier reviews like "OMG, THIS PLACE WAS HELL!!" and instead look for a majority of reviews saying things like "lower pay than competitors" or "bad work-life balance". Reverse for positive comments.
A review from someone at a global company with 100K employees may have a bad experience in one department, but another department could be great. On the flip side is a small company where people probably have the same experience.
What this poster said in the last paragraph. Depending on the company, this can really vary from department to department in a larger company. Although, may be more accurate in a smaller one.
I know in my company, I have a couple of friends and one family member who all work in different departments, even though at the same location. We might as well work for completely different companies, the culture and formality and flex options are radically different. So, if you are considering a larger companies, while you may be able to get a feel for firm-wide benefits online, it may be hard to determine the actual culture of the group you would be working for this way.
What this poster said in the last paragraph. Depending on the company, this can really vary from department to department in a larger company. Although, may be more accurate in a smaller one.
I know in my company, I have a couple of friends and one family member who all work in different departments, even though at the same location. We might as well work for completely different companies, the culture and formality and flex options are radically different. So, if you are considering a larger companies, while you may be able to get a feel for firm-wide benefits online, it may be hard to determine the actual culture of the group you would be working for this way.
Yep. I used to work for a global company that had numerous factory locations. I worked at Headquarters and when visiting the factories was like a whole different company/planet.
Asking point blank is brave and you might not always get an accurate answer. As a manager who interviews people often, I am always very candid about culture and expectations. The last thing I want is someone who is poor fit.
As an employee, here is my tactic. I try to schedule interviews either early in the morning or late in the evening, for example, 8 AM and 6:30 PM. Then I observe whether the floor is full or the manager just came early/stayed late to meet with me. Once I walked into an interview at 7 PM and the floor was full, I said to the manager "Must be a monthly closing night" and he said "Oh no, this is our regular schedule", I was like, good-bye. At another place, I asked them about the culture and what makes them come to work every day and they said "We work 7 AM to 7 PM, what brings us here are the opportunities" Yeah, opportunity to bust your behind doing job for 3 people. Observing whether people are happy is not always very helpful because it could be an amazing culture such as exists at many start-ups, yet, the hours could be long, for someone with a family, it would not work, but for singles, it's a perfect extension of college culture, heck, they feel awesome because not only do they get free beer, they are actually getting paid. So look closely at the average age of the workers, a lot of young folks could mean a very dynamic environment. Also, even in the same company, it also depends on department, some departments, just due to the nature of the work might have a more intense schedule than others, so you need to learn about the industry in general, is it more laid back or fast-paced, about the company, the department and of course, the manager, because it all eventually boils down to how your managers manages the workload. Most of companies have cut people and everyone is very busy, but if you have a manager with reasonable expectations, better, the one who has a strong backbone and can tell higher ups that no, this report is not going to be on their desk by 8 AM tomorrow because it takes at least 2 days to properly put together, this is a great thing.
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