How to Spot a Company's Warts Before You Take the Job

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By Althea DeBrule
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Spot a Company's Warts Before You Take the Job

Millions of people suffer with warts-those unsightly growths that occur on the skin and wreak havoc with a person's self-image and self-esteem. The same is true of companies. All companies have warts-the unattractive and embarrassing things in their culture that they would rather keep hidden from prospective customers, shareholders and employees. Identifying a company's warts is only half of the job seeker's desired outcome. Determining a company's commitment to getting rid of them is the other half. This article presents 10 steps you can take to ferret out what a company is really like before you accept a job offer.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Computer
Internet
Annual Reports
Newspapers
Magazines
Keen Observation Skills

Step 1

Think of your job search as an investment. It's like an acquisition process. You're contemplating whether or not to ally your talents, skills and perspective with a prospective employer.
Step 2

Do lots of digging. You must dig deeply and do significant research on a company to find answers to difficult questions. After all, most companies do not structure the interview process to educate you about their real culture. Their goal is to sell you on why working for them would be the best thing you could ever do.
Step 3

Find the truth about a company for yourself. Gather as much feedback and hard data as possible to gain an objective view of what it would really be like to work there.
Step 4

Examine the materials and information you received from your initial contact with the company. Look at the position requirements again, and find out why it is vacant.
Step 5

Develop an approach for interviewing companies and checking their references. Interview the company as much as it interviews you.
Step 6

Draft tough questions you will ask in interviews that go beneath the surface in order to get at the heart of a company's culture.
Step 7

When visiting a company, watch and observe how employees interact with each other informally. Pay attention to what you see. Listen to conversations while you wait. Look at the physical evidence-the expression on people's faces, and body language.
Step 8

Talk to high profile people in the community or industry who may know of the company's reputation.
Step 9

Try to catch a company with its guard down. Learn from the attitudes of the people you meet. Check for employee satisfaction by paying close attention to nonverbal clues.
Step 10

Identify how the company perceives itself. Check out the leadership style and character of the company. Form a picture of the prospective employer through the conclusions you have reached.