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1. The quality of the coffee and toilet paper you encounter during an interview tells you more than promises about table tennis or fruit baskets.
2. Try to determine who their primary client is: subscribers, app buyers, advertisers, etc. It's a major influence on the company dynamic.
3. Before an interview, you can just say: "I would like to sit down with a PO and run through one backlog feature and one bug, to get a feel for the type of tasks at the company". Such an activity immediately reveals team structure, whether they have product owners & scrum masters, what a sprint looks like, how they prioritize tasks, and how organized/chaotic your work experience will be.16 -
Before an interview prepare a list of questions for them, they expect it!
My list to give inspiration:
Describe your company culture? - if the response is buzzword heavy, avoid.
What’s the oldest technology still in use? - all companies have legacy systems but some are worse than others
Describe your agile process? - a few companies I’ve interviewed with said they are agile but it’s actually kanban
Are developers involved with customers?- if they trust you to talk to customers you can infer trust to do your job ( I’m sure others will disagree)
Describe your development environment?- do they have such a thing as dev, test and prod?
These are the only ones I can remember but should give others a bit of inspiration I hope 😄9 -
1. When you are inexperienced, probably you’ll need to accept any job.
2. Learn and discover what you prefer to working on.
3. Become an expert on you desired field.
4. You can choose where you would like to work.
Remember friends: Life is to short to work for an asshole.5 -
-When they ask for your current/previous salary in a job interview, tell them that you don't find that relevant or that you don't want to tell. If they insist on you telling your salary, GTFO
- When they are overenthusiasticly telling about all the latest technologies they're using without staying one word about legacy projects, GTFO. It's a trap.
- If you walk trough the developer room(s) and everybody is extremely focused and just programming like a zombie, GTFO.
- If they cannot tell you one single downside of the company, it's probably too good to be true.
That's about everything I can think of at the moment
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I'm actually starting to search for a new job and no clue about this so I'll just sit by and watch 😇13
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Avoiding bad companies starts at the job interview. Remember that the job interview is not only for them to evaluate you, but also the other way around. Make sure to ask a lot of questions. What are they doing, how are they working, what help is there if you get stuck, are they doing code reviews, what will you be doing etc.
The job interview is the opportunity for you to get an inside view of the company. Don’t just accept any job because you are desperate. Luckily qualifies devs are much needed in companies.
Also, make sure to go to multiple job interviews so you can see the differences. I think it can be difficult to avoid in the beginning, but as you get more experience, you can sort of tell whether it’s a good or bad company at the job interview.
Though sometimes you are just unlucky. In that situation: leave. It is so good damn easy to get a job in this field.3 -
Make yourself known as a "wix developer".
*Nevermind this will propably get you a job only in a bad company*6 -
If you can get a chat with the CEO I would ask this question.
“From your vantage point, what do you see as your job as CEO?”
Anything less than a list of 10-50 different job responsibilities is a total pass. It shows the the CEO thinks he knows it all. Everyone can and should grow and it has to come from the top down.
If you don’t hear anything about building culture then this is a problem. If you do, then probe further.
If the CEO seems to give the impression that he is above answering this question for “someone in your position” then this is a big red flag.
In my view everything in a startup come from the top down, and shit runs up hill. Therefore the CEO has to not only perform every conceivable task but must have a desire to learn and grow. A CEO who doesn’t learn builds companies that don’t learn. Companies that don’t learn, fail.3 -
1) Glassdoor
2) Only work on open source projects so you can see what you're getting yourself into.
3) Avoid job postings that use the words "polygot" and "passion" in the same sentence.
4) Work for yourself. Build a product or service to make you money, and if it doesn't pay for itself sell it. -
#forexposure, for experience, flexible hours (especially when coupled with work from home, it makes your workplace too accessible and management can guilt trip you into working at ungodly hours way too easily), and such I'd really avoid.. not that I have much experience with these things though. Oh and also, startups. They're small so very intimate in a way but too unstable.
Honestly though, I have difficulty in working for any employer, especially when that employer isn't a very technical one. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to go self-employed... 🤔
(Sorry for repost, forgot wk144 tag)2 -
This rant is not about avoiding bad company but instead: If you find your self in a bad company make sure to note what is bad in terms of:
1. What is wrong?
2. Is it wrong by your book or by everyone's book?
3. How things should be done if you were in charge?
4. Are you able to be productive if those "wrong" things where done correctly? For example if they should have used gitlab cli for auto deployment, do you know how to do that? No? Learn. Yes? Move to the next item in the list
There is no way to avoid bad companies unless you are really lucky, just make the best out of where you are now :)2 -
Like someone else already mentioned here, remember that interview goes both ways: youre there to gauge wether workplace suits you or no. Always ask to meet teamleads/project leads or potential colleagues before accepting the job and try talking with them.
I applied to 3 jobs and in all of them managers did put a brave face and told me lots of bs just to get me accept the job. Managers live in their own world, sometimes they dont even know what you will be working on.
Once I accepted a job and got stuck with a perfectionist teamlead for 8 months which could have been avoided given I had the chance to catch the bad vibes during the interview.
Another time I accepted a job and had to work with a backend guy for one year and his accent was so thick+stuttering that I had trouble in understanding anything he says. Every conversation felt like trivia contest. I wish I had knew that stuff before accepting the job -
INTERVIEW. It tells everything about the company. I recently applied for a "big" company for the position of ML Engineer. The Job description was like "someone with good knowledge of visual recognition, deep learning, advanced ML stuff, etc." I thought great, I might be a good fit. A guy called me the next day. Introduced himself as a manager of the Data Science team with 8+ years of experience. Started the talk saying "it is just an informal intro". But things escalated very quickly. Started shooting Data Science questions. He was asking questions in a very bookish way. Tells me to recite formulas (like big formulas). When I explained to him a concept, he was not understanding anything. Wanted a very bookish answer. I quickly realized I know more about ML stuff than him (not a big deal) and he is arrogant as fuck (not accepting my answers). Plus, he has no knowledge about Deep Learning. At the very end, he tells me "man, you need to clear up your fundamentals". WTH??? My fundamentals. Okay, I am not Einstein or Hinton, but I know I was answering things correctly. I have read books and research papers and blogs and all. When I don't know about things, I tell straight away. I don't cook answers. So the "interview" ended. I searched that man on LinkedIn. Got to know he teaches college students Data Science and ML. For a fee of 50,000 INR. It's a big amount!! Considering the things he teaches. You can find the same stuff (with far higher quality) free of cost (on Coursera, Udacity, YouTube, free books, what not). He is a cheater. He is making fool of college students. That is why I sometimes hate "experience". 8+ years of exp and he is such an a**hole!! BTW, I thanked God for saving me from that company. Can't imagine such an arrogant boss.
TLDR: Be vigilant during interviews. It tells a lot about the company.4 -
Don't. Especially while you're not a senior specialist. It doesn't really matter bad company or good: they all have something bad, they all have something good. From the bad examples you will learn WHAT, HOW and *WHY* should not be done. From the good examples you will learn what and why works and how efficiently.
Next month I'm gonna be working on a project that is SO bad I will flood DR with rants. But I'm looking forward to it, because I know I will learn what else should not be done.
Better learn from their mistakes than your own2 -
My GOTOs are:
- Check if focus on teamwork is emphasized. Does the company state themselves? Spend a day with the team if possible, see how they work together.
- What tools do they use? Sometimes this will hint you towards whether or not you will encounter a good environment or a jumbled mess.
- Is there organized communication? I know, sometimes there are too many meetings, but that is better than too vew. How often does the team meet, even if just for 10mins? How does management communicate with the team? What ways are provided to give feedback? Are suggestions to improve practices welcome?
I left my last company and joined my current one, where these things work out the way they should. While I liked both projects with respect to development, my mental state has improved dramatically in the new environment. Stress is down, productivity is up. I love my job. -
Make sure they're implementing basic technology that you deem necessary, or at least that they'd allow you to set it up. If they're working without CI/CD, for example, there are probably more problems.
Also, note that you might also be quite under qualified in comparison to the average employee. That might also affect you in a bad way. -
From my experience you can't really avoid bad companies with 100% success ratio. You can pay attention to the surroundings during an interview, you can research the company online, but in the end whether the company is good or bad is a purely subjective feeling. I think the most important thing is to make sure you don't get too attached to the company either emotionally or legally, so you can just gtfo when you decide it's not right for you.2
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A shitty job is any job where there's a role "manual tester", defined as a person with no software development experience clicking about some application. That person/role is bad for health and will shorten your life. Stay away!2
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After they look into your CV .. ask to look into their repo ! See what type of spaghetti they are cocking !10
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You don't! Working for a bad company would ultimately give you the experience you need that a good company wouldn't2
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I can’t say much about this, but there is one thing.
When you go for the interview, and if the interview is in the same working place you will be working at, check the office, working tables/chair, pc/laptop, accessories etc.
You may think these are not much important but believe me, when the company hesitates to invest these things in you, think how can they invest on your knowledge, and other things..
It means they don’t care about you, you are just $ for them.2 -
A good way to avoid working for a bad company is that you can spot major problems in the interview and pre-employment phase. There are a number of things that indicate a bad culture that you can ask about right off the bat. Dress code, blocked websites, and work from home policy(or a lack thereof) can all indicate what kind of work environment to expect.
But the biggest one of all is a request for your salary history. If a recruiter or hiring manager wants to know how much you are or were making at a previous job, and will not allow the process to continue without the information, run.
Every job opening has a budget associated with it. The employer already knows what they want to spend on the position. They want to know what your current or previous compensation is or was, so they can perhaps save some money of that budget by offering you a very small amount more than the amount you tell them.
If they ask the question, I get suspicious, but then say, "I'd prefer not to disclose that. What is the budget for the requirement?"
If the person who asks you relents and tells you the budget, then all is well, in my opinion. But if they stick to the subject and insist on getting your salary history, then it indicates a culture of arbitrary subordination, which is not a healthy work environment. If it ever goes this way, I politely tell them that I'm not comfortable disclosing that information, and that I would like to withdraw my interest in the position. -
Do due diligence. Research the prospective employer. If possible, find out what their employees say about them on Glassdoor, and where they rank on Forbes best places to work.
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Go to their social pages, talk to former employees, search about technology stacks they are using.
Gather as much information as you can. -
On interview, ask: "Does this company participate in open source projects/has a few?". If no, run away. If yes, it's a pretty big chance to get a nice job. (don't know if this works)7
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Anything with an HR department, or anything where employees are running around with neon dyed hair.8
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Here's my checklist:
- education opportunities? Conferences etc.
- blogging?
- open source contribution?
- test coverage?
- CI/CD?
- always meet with the team -
I would recommend to check:
+ The technologies used if it suit to you
+ Make a trial to get into the env.
+ What they provide as advantage (food, flexible time, home-office, etc...)
+ How old is the company (avoid fresh startup and the I have an amazing app idea)
+ The renown of the company on kununu
+ Why not ask some customers how they experience to work with the company -
well, in this tag if feel life is perfect..
anyone talked about a full job-seeking market and a few companies -
On top of what others have said, like the interview questions to ask, etc, do your own research too, not just on the company/companies you're applying for, but also on the industry as a whole and the average salary of that position in your country.
This will help get a better idea of when you're getting ripped off, especially for those who are just entering the job market. -
Why avoid? Maybe it's part of the experience. Lets you appreciate a good company even more.
(That said my first employer was a bit.. twisted. Small, workaholic family, hands on. Lots of pressure. Probably drove some into depression or burn out. Learnt a ton though, and maybe made me a bit more thick-skinned) -
Avoid the words blockchain, microsoft, competitive, startup, and equity. This works well for a primary screening. Second at the interview talk to them if they don't know shit either the company is shit or don't give a shit who they hire. Third figure out what you need to make to live without stress, any company that will pay it cares about their employees as long as it's somewhat reasonable
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