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I know this website discusses vetting for romantic partners, but right now I'm struggling with finding the right employer.
My current workplace is pushing my boundaries right now and they don't support me learning important skills for my career development. Also red flags in how people treat each other. I know work is different than dating because we need to have a job in order to financially support ourselves, while we don't necessarily need a boyfriend for that (we did historically, but times have changed). So the issue is that at work, I feel obligated to tolerate worse treatment than I believe I deserve because I still need my paycheck at the end of the day. I can't just walk away until I've lined up another option.
I am shopping around for new jobs. I'm wondering if there are any useful vetting tips anybody had for employers and how well they treat their staff.
- Ask your interviewers tough questions (“what’s one thing you would change about the company?”, “What challenges have you overcome working here?”)
- Look on Glassdoor or online forums for employee reviews.
- If you’re bold, reach out to current/former employees (could be found on LinkedIn) and ask them their opinion and why they left the company, if applicable.
- Request to speak with at least one woman when interviewing. I interviewed at a very “boys club” company, and the one woman interviewing me spontaneously talked about how much all the men drank together at work functions.
- Similar to how you could vet a man, ask for a small accommodation (change an interview time a few days in advance , ask for a woman interviewer, ask to use a different conferencing software, whatever), and see if they can be accommodating, or if they’re so rigid and ego-driven that they can’t tolerate you making a reasonable request.
I have an interview coming up with a company with terrible online reviews from former employees. I plan on politely asking the employer if they would like to address those reviews, and paying very close attention to their response to my question.
Off the top of my head (I could go on forever haha):
Know the buzzwords employers use to mask terrible or abusive jobs (example: we need a rOckStar!!)
I'd google the company and browse the news tab, as well as their stock info if they're publicly traded
Becoming increasingly common is not applying to a job where a salary range isn't listed.
Tech fields, I always hear of excessive rounds of interviews and hours of free work (read: solving the company's problems for free as an audition) as part of the process. Don't work for free.
I always like to look at company leadership for diversity. Age, race, sex, etc.
I google customer reviews of their service/products and compare experiences to see if I can deduce internal policies that would conflict with my values (example: everyone tries to upsell me at this company, unethical sales practices, etc means they probably force targets people can't meet so the customers get hustled as rule)
See if you can find anyone who used to work at the company on linkedin, connect with them and ask about their experience
Lots of great suggestions in this thread already! Love it! ❤️
If they offer any accomodations or perks in the job interview or negotiations always get them in writing and - if possible - included in your contract. Employers love to offer stuff to bait you and then pretend they never did or offered something completely different when you actually ask for it or they give it to you for a while and then roll everything back and you can't do anything about it because you have nothing in writing. If they are serious about the offer, it will be absolutely no problem to include it in the contract.
This is especially important when it comes to things like the number of days you are allowed to work from home, your pay in general or a promised increase in pay or seniority after a certain goal is met (e.g. after training or after being there for a year), what your role/tasks will be exactly (so they don't bait and switch you and want you to do something completely different after they hire you or add tasks that were not included in the job description) or the times/hours/shifts you can work (e.g. no night shifts or no weekend work).
Also look through their websites for any special or uncommon benefits or perks they offer to employees and then ask detailed questions about how that works on an average day or if/how they used any of those things themselves. Sometimes they talk big about employee health programmes, mentoring programmes for women, trainings, accomodations for parents and so on on their websites but none of it really happens as described (or at all) in reality or is so hard/complicated to access that only very few employees can even use it.
1. Check for arrests and lawsuits - if anyone in the company was arrested for financial issues: money laundering, padded projections, etc.
2. Remember women can be an enemy too - don't let your guard down. Women in the HR dept and women bosses were known to fire women coming back from maternity or sick leaves! Yes, women.
3. Ask about employee networks within the company and mentorship programs
I also check who's working in prospective department, what work conditions are like, look at prospective work desk and amenities. You can also now check at "are we dating the same guy" groups, you don't want to work with scrotes. It's even more important when hiring.
Ooh this is a great question that I myself am considering carefully. Please chime in on this one FDS community!