12 Questions To Ask Before Accepting An IT Job
The corporate culture in which you're working is as important as the work you're being asked to do. Here are 12 questions to help you figure out what kind of workplace you'd be walking into before you accept your next job offer.
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How can you tell whether the corporate culture at a given company suits you before you commit to a new job? Do you dig daily Mario Kart tournaments and office dog spas, or would you rather show up and do your work as quickly as possible so you can get home and enjoy your personal time?
It's often hard to tell from a job interview whether or not a company's culture is a good fit for you. Once you get hired and discover the fit is bad, it is an expensive mistake for both you and the company.
What do we mean by culture? That's part of the problem, right? Chances are, when a hiring manager talks about company culture, she's talking about the free bagels in the morning or the t-shirts handed out after every project is done.
Corporate culture also means how often colleagues share a laugh, and whether the environment is built around collaboration or encourages lone-wolf behavior. It can mean you are expected to be seen slaving away at your desk past normal business hours to look like a go-getter. It might mean you don't have to wear a suit.
[What motivates IT job-seekers? Read IT Salaries: Not as Important as They Used to Be.]
Corporate culture goes beyond that though. It also means which skills are valued, the type of people who get hired and fired, and how much respect there is for new ideas in the office. Maybe all you want is a paycheck and a chance to lose some weight. If so, then that company with the great salad bar that isn't interested in your fresh ideas will be the right fit for you. If you're looking for more, then taking that job could be a career disaster.
How do you determine what a company's real culture is before you take a job? Here are eight tips to help you figure it out before you accept your next job offer.
Once you've reviewed these, tell us in the comments section below how you knew you found the right corporate cultural fit for yourself, or what warning signs you ignored that should have sent you running.
In a recent IT Life radio interview, Lever CEO Sarah Nahm said that culture isn't about perks like t-shirts. She said: "Culture is about who is hired and who gets promoted." When you go into your interview, ask the manager what criteria are used for promotions -- what types of skills the company looks for in its managers. Most importantly, look around at the management teams. Do they seem to fit what the interviewer says they value?
Ask the hiring manager if there's one single trait the company looks for in all its employees. If the person who is interviewing you can't identify this trait, or it's one you don't have covered, you might want to consider going somewhere else.
Lever CEO Sarah Nahm said that managers need to define a corporate culture by identifying one skill that the company wants to replicate. For Lever, the skill was empathy.
"Look around the office and identify the one person you wish you had 20 of, and ask yourself what makes that person special," said Nahm. "Then hire for those traits."
Look around when you're visiting a company's offices for a job interview. Are people smiling and laughing? Is there an ease about the place? If not, that says a lot about the corporate culture. It may be A-OK for you. Maybe you don't need to laugh at work. In fact, some people can't stand the joking and kibitzing that goes on in office environments. If a friendly, easy-going culture is important to you, the sound of laughter can indicate you've come to the right place.
Are you collaborative? Do you like to be a part of a team? Then take a look around the office during your interview. Do people have their heads in their computers, or are they mingling together in small groups? (I'm not talking about in conference rooms. That's not collaborating.) We all know some of the best ideas in an office come from people having a random chat. Having a look around can help you figure out if this kind of conversation is encouraged.
Is the company providing a space to recharge and relax, or are they offering a space where people can scarf down brown bag lunches and rush back to their desks? If the recharge space is bleak, chances are you'll be expected to be at your desk as much as possible.
This suggestion comes from Glassdoor, which also offers other advice for researching culture. A company's social media presence these days is usually held to fairly high standards, needing to be on-brand and on-message. If you give the company a shout-out on social media and get a good response, it might give you a clue as to how people are treated in-house, too. Heck, even the President does it.
Another Glassdoor suggestion. This one isn't always easy, but sites such as Glassdoor and LinkedIn make it more possible than it was a decade ago. Former employees are more likely to speak the truth than current employees who don't want to rock the boat (or worse). Former employees will tell you the little things that annoyed them. Use this information wisely. Any sour grapes can spoil the advice. It is best to find people who fit the company, and left for other reasons than because they were unhappy.
You can't do any better than talking to the person who did the job before. If he or she is getting promoted or transferred, and they'll talk to you, chances are you'll get some honesty, even if it's unintentional. People like to talk about themselves and what they do. They might be guarded at first, but they also know you can come find them later if you take the job. So, if they gloss things over too much, they'll know you can call them out on it later. Plus, people love talking about how they suffer as a martyr to the corporate cause.
People joining a company always bring a fresh perspective. They often spot inefficiencies and problems that others have learned to tolerate. If you see one, how would that be communicated, and would it be welcome? Asking about the innovation process is akin to asking about the decision-making process. It is less about the exact answer, and more about whether the manager has a sense of a process.
In a recent interview with InformationWeek, Gen. John Michel said that the most important things a leader can do are to say thank you and to celebrate team wins. The audience at that interview didn't seem to think these practices were very common. How we celebrate victories can determine how quickly we want to find another one. If the workers at a company feel under-celebrated, they may not feel engaged -- and neither will you if you take a job there.
Managers are (hopefully) trained in the values of the company. All too often, though, what a company says it values doesn't translate to the rank and file. If you ask "regular people" to tell you the values of the company, and they can't, don't be so quick to believe what you were told during your job interview.
Before you ask any of the questions we've highlighted here, you need to know the kind of corporate culture in which you really thrive. Maybe you are a bit of an introvert, and the "fun culture" that is often advertised in Silicon Valley isn't the right environment for you. Maybe you thrive in a workplace that resembles a carnival. Knowing what you want will help you guide your choices. And remember, most companies have more than one corporate culture, sometimes it varies from department to department. When all else fails, fall back on what your senses tell you. Can you see yourself working there? If you can't, save yourself the agony and keep looking until you find the right fit.
Before you ask any of the questions we've highlighted here, you need to know the kind of corporate culture in which you really thrive. Maybe you are a bit of an introvert, and the "fun culture" that is often advertised in Silicon Valley isn't the right environment for you. Maybe you thrive in a workplace that resembles a carnival. Knowing what you want will help you guide your choices. And remember, most companies have more than one corporate culture, sometimes it varies from department to department. When all else fails, fall back on what your senses tell you. Can you see yourself working there? If you can't, save yourself the agony and keep looking until you find the right fit.
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