You maybe got excited for getting a job offer during the terrible job market. However, you might want to consider key things before considering quitting your current job as the new offer might not be as good as it seems; below are top 5 things that the hiring managers and recruiters won't talk about.
Disclaimer:
None of the issues I'm mentioning below are related to any people I'm working with at the current moment.
1- "Diversity,Equality and Inclusion", but we don't actually believe in it
You may wonder why I put this at the top since we have been hearing companies telling us that they are DEI for many years.
Unfortunately, 15 years ago, when I used to search for jobs, companies used similar terms such as "EOE" which meant Equal Opportunity Employer. Unfortunately, what hasn't changed is the fact that companies still use those terms as marketing labels without actually implementing them or enforcing them in their hiring process and employees' conduct at job.
A friend of mine, joined a company who claimed to be DEI, but he got not only discriminated against, bullied and harassed; but on top of that, they forced him to quit when he raised the issue to HR (HR are not your friends).
So if you're a minority, you would want to assess to what extent the organization you're joining is actually minorities' friendly.
You can ask the following questions during the job the interview, if the hiring manager dodges the questions, changes the topic or doesn't address them well, it's a red flag:
- Can you give me examples of how your company implements diversity, equality and inclusion policies?
- Does your policy explicitly state that racism, xenophobia, homophobia, etc... are forbidden and punishable?
- Can you give me an example of how your company handles harassment, bullying or discriminatory behavior?
- How many of the senior managers are of different nationalities or have diverse backgrounds?
- How many of the team members are of diverse backgrounds?
Even if you're not a minority, you should still take the above questions seriously because if the above questions aren't answered properly, it means that the workplace will be toxic even to you.
2- "We treat each other like family", but we will fire you eventually
This is one of the most difficult topics that the employers and their HR are not willing to talk about or tell you.
Many companies have a very high turnover rate because they fire employees for the smallest reasons. This is specially true if those in charge have authoritarian management style or moody unorganized managers. Unorganized management is a different topic from a bias manager or manager who doesn't like you for personal reasons.
The reason that a company with a high turnover rate is undesirable to most people, is because of several factors:
- Unrealistic expectations.
- They want to look good to their managers by firing employees as cost reduction.
- Focus on finding better candidates for the same salary instead of focusing on growing their existing employees.
- Company is financially unstable.
- Senior management constantly changing or getting replaced.
There are many other factors that could lead to a high turnover rate but obviously, what's the point of signing a contract and spending another year looking for a new job?!
One extremely important issue you need to ask about, is whether you're replacing someone because if this is the case, it means that they are going to fire an existing employee or the job wasn't that interesting so the previous Dev/Employee left.
3- "We are looking for an autonomous Engineer", but we suffer from OCD and trust issues
This one is very common where they claim that they're looking for an autonomous Engineer but in reality, there will be someone watching you all the time and questioning why a task took 1 day more than usual.
It's very hard unfortunately to determine whether or not there is a micromanagement culture before joining the company because obviously they don't like to talk about it; this might be related also to unrealistic expectations from employer side.
If your manager is redoing your code shortly after you without a good reason, it indicates many issues including but not limited to micro-management and mistrust. This could happen specially if the manager wasn't involved in the hiring process.
You truly don't want to work with a team or company that doesn't trust their own employees and not willing to tolerate letting their employees make mistakes; because a good manager/company doesn't care about the mistake but rather cares more about how you try to handle the mistake responsibly.
You can try to ask the manager for example "You said that you're looking for someone who could work independently, can you give me examples of how you facilitate this?", if they give you vague or unclear answers, it means that they have a micro-management culture.
4- "We follow Scrum principles", but our favorite employee can do 20 story points every sprint and everyone else is doing boring uninteresting tasks.
This unfortunately a prevalent issue where they don't truly implement scrum framework; so you end up in a situation where few favorite people are given an excessive amount of work and claiming all the awards and others are under loaded or given boring uninteresting tasks.
This one might be easier to figure out, you can ask them for example:
"Can you give me an example of how you distribute the work/tasks?". While Scrum is not strict on how it's implemented, use your own judgement to determine whether or not they are really distributing the tasks fairly.
5- "We have work-life balance", but you have to get up at 7 AM to the factory b***!
If you worked with big tech, this may have never been an issue since truly, big tech companies have sorted out this question long-time ago by addressing the difference between an intellectual creative job and assembly lines in a factory role.
Unfortunately, lots of companies don't truly think this way. If the managers are boomers, there is a high chance that they are still wearing their factory boots to write their C based application.
You need to ask about this early on. A good company will have a clear on-call scheme that is well defined as certain hours during which you need to be available instead of being asked to be on your desk 9-5.
Good companies don't care whether you're on your desk but care about you coming to meetings, finishing your tasks during the sprint and communicating any blockers clearly and promptly.
If the company has a culture where everyone is expected to be behind their desk 9-5, it indicates again that they have an authoritarian work style and potentially office politics.
Unfortunately, many companies still don't try to fix all of those issues or address them properly. Most people who are affected by the above issues are also people of minority since even if hired, are still treated with double standards depending on the company or team you're working with.
You may ask before the interview for a copy of the company employee's handbook which should address all of the above issues. If the company doesn't have an employee's handbook, it's a big red flag.
You need to be very careful before signing a contract and perform your due diligence. Ask all of the questions; if they become dodgy or don't like it that you're asking those questions, it's also a red flag.
By the end of the day, your mental health and well being is the most important thing that you should never ignore.
While even good companies may have some problems above, the degree to which they have it will differ. Some will be severe and others will be mild. What really matters, is if you're feeling satisfied and fulfilled.
If you have other points or you'd like to mention similar experiences, please comment!
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