Have you ever walked into an interview and known immediately that either you didn’t belong there or that you would pass on the opportunity to work there if extended an offer, or both? A few years ago, one of my friends—looking for a job with a software development firm—had such an experience. Upon entering the building, he knew something was wrong—the atmosphere seemed dull, and his immediate impression was that nobody enjoyed working there. He saw employees lethargically trudging around the office emotionless; stained ceiling tiles; and even saw that one employee had fresh “key face,” a clear indication that that employee had been napping on his keyboard. Not only this, but he plainly sensed the overwhelming smell of beer emanating from his interviewer. While some interviewees may have taken the introduction of this scent into the interviewing space as a positive sign—an indication that their prospective boss knows how to cut loose—my friend saw it, combined with his other observations, as a warning flare—gigantic letters spelling “Keep Away!”
A recent article posted on the career resource site, CareerRealism, lists 10 such signs that should be a dead giveaway that a job may not be everything it’s cracked up to be. What are these warning flares? Counting down the top five:
- “When you ask how the position has changed over the years the response is, ‘It hasn’t.’”
- “When you ask the interviewer to tell you something about the particulars of the job you hear, ‘Very steady work; lots of security.’ In other words, you’re not going anywhere from here!”
- “When you ask if the interviewer has any tips before you leave and he or she says, ‘Just make sure you have some fun out there.’”
- “When you ask the interviewer, your would-be boss, how long he or she has been in their job and you hear, ‘Since the company started.’”
- “When asked if happy with where the company is today, he or she replies, ‘Hey, it pays the bill at the Club and keeps the kids in tennis lessons!’”
Although the above may not produce the same “run for the hills” feeling experienced by my friend, all of the above touch on two things every job seeker should have on their mind when interviewing for a new job: corporate culture and upward mobility. That is, before taking a job, it is always critical that you think about whether the position has room for promotion and if you will thrive in a given corporate culture. Of course, it is also important that you be on the lookout for “key face.”
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