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(I'm a programmer so my personal rules reflect that) I like these guidelines. For salary, my rule is "does the offered salary meet local norms for the positio

(I'm a programmer so my personal rules reflect that) I like these guidelines. For salary, my rule is "does the offered salary meet local norms for the position and the company's situation, and does it show respect for me and for the role I will be playing?" I wouldn't be applying for the job if "norms" for the job would not meet my needs (and, as another replier points out, leave more than a little after expenses to plan for the future). Also, I look hard at the working conditions and environment. I don't really start talking about this stuff until after an offer, but I'm watching for signs throughout the process: * Are the hours humane? Overworking programmers is a sign of disrespect for the role. * Is it friendly to women? An engineering team with no women is a huge red flag of bad management and culture, for teams of more than about 5 people. For smaller teams, is there a sense that hiring women is important? * Does the company try to dominate the employee's non-working life? Regular "happy hours", catered dinner at night (RED FLAG), bar/keggerator in the office... all bad signs to me * Is there flexibility about when and where the work gets done, or is it ass-in-a-seat-9-to-7? * Do people stick around? Has my manager pulled in people he/she has worked with in the past (big plus)?

baconomatic 10y ago
> Does the company try to dominate the employee's non-working life? Regular "happy hours", catered dinner at night (RED FLAG), bar/keggerator in the office... all bad signs to me. That's one of the biggest red flags for me, both for work-life balance and what the company is spending money on. If they have all sorts of fancy toys around the office I'm not sure I can trust that they are spending their money wisely.
- Declanomous 10y ago
  When I graduated from college and was applying for literally everything, I started a list of companies who had pictures of ping-pong tables in their job postings. They always appeared to be included as proof that the company was 'fun'. Call me cynical, but I think those "perks" exist purely for marketing purposes. The greatest expense of a ping-pong table is almost certainly the space it takes up in the office, and overall I'd say it's a relatively inexpensive marketing tactic, and it's definitely a cheap line item when it comes to employee perks as well. The biggest issue with ping pong, and similar games (bubble hockey, foosball, bags), is that if you need a break, you will need to find someone else to take it with you. Furthermore, you are basically broadcasting to the entire workplace that you aren't working at the moment, which is disruptive even if they break is well-deserved. I worked at a place that had something like that, and I literally never saw anyone playing it.
  - Spoom 10y ago
    Had a ping pong table at the old office, can confirm was never used.
  - dllthomas 10y ago
    The foosball table at my last place of work definitely saw use. It was away from work areas, mind you.
scriptkiddie95 10y ago
>Is it friendly to women? An engineering team with no women is a huge red flag of bad management and culture, for teams of more than about 5 people. For smaller teams, is there a sense that hiring women is important? Personally, I'd rather a team that hires based on meritocracy than gender.
- falsedan 10y ago
  Me too, yet I'm surrounded by middling young white men who went to top tier US colleges.
- hendler 10y ago
  In case you aren't just trolling: A lack of meritocracy causing of a lack of female engineers is ignorant. There are plenty of meritorious but under-represented populations; especially female engineers. A culture without enough women or without a plan to hire women is a red flag. Surrounding yourself with people that support [your] unsubstantiated biases increases the likelihood that the culture is unhealthy.
  - chmln 10y ago
    What about other men-dominated (thus sexist), well-paying industries? Are you also concerned about the lack of female plumbers? Construction workers? Miners, perhaps?
    - falsedan 10y ago
      I don't interact with those industries regularly, so neither am I confronted with their gross gender inequality nor can I encourage their employers to do better at attracting female applicants. For dev jobs, both the problem visibility and remedial actions are obvious to me. To answer your question: yes
    - citizenkeen 10y ago
      I don't plan on being one of those, so it's rather abstract.
    - 10y ago
deleted 10y ago
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baconomatic 10y ago

> Does the company try to dominate the employee's non-working life? Regular "happy hours", catered dinner at night (RED FLAG), bar/keggerator in the office... all bad signs to me. That's one of the biggest red flags for me, both for work-life balance and what the company is spending money on. If they have all sorts of fancy toys around the office I'm not sure I can trust that they are spending their money wisely.

Declanomous 10y ago
When I graduated from college and was applying for literally everything, I started a list of companies who had pictures of ping-pong tables in their job postings. They always appeared to be included as proof that the company was 'fun'. Call me cynical, but I think those "perks" exist purely for marketing purposes. The greatest expense of a ping-pong table is almost certainly the space it takes up in the office, and overall I'd say it's a relatively inexpensive marketing tactic, and it's definitely a cheap line item when it comes to employee perks as well. The biggest issue with ping pong, and similar games (bubble hockey, foosball, bags), is that if you need a break, you will need to find someone else to take it with you. Furthermore, you are basically broadcasting to the entire workplace that you aren't working at the moment, which is disruptive even if they break is well-deserved. I worked at a place that had something like that, and I literally never saw anyone playing it.
- Spoom 10y ago
  Had a ping pong table at the old office, can confirm was never used.
- dllthomas 10y ago
  The foosball table at my last place of work definitely saw use. It was away from work areas, mind you.

scriptkiddie95 10y ago

>Is it friendly to women? An engineering team with no women is a huge red flag of bad management and culture, for teams of more than about 5 people. For smaller teams, is there a sense that hiring women is important? Personally, I'd rather a team that hires based on meritocracy than gender.

falsedan 10y ago
Me too, yet I'm surrounded by middling young white men who went to top tier US colleges.
hendler 10y ago
In case you aren't just trolling: A lack of meritocracy causing of a lack of female engineers is ignorant. There are plenty of meritorious but under-represented populations; especially female engineers. A culture without enough women or without a plan to hire women is a red flag. Surrounding yourself with people that support [your] unsubstantiated biases increases the likelihood that the culture is unhealthy.
- chmln 10y ago
  What about other men-dominated (thus sexist), well-paying industries? Are you also concerned about the lack of female plumbers? Construction workers? Miners, perhaps?
  - falsedan 10y ago
    I don't interact with those industries regularly, so neither am I confronted with their gross gender inequality nor can I encourage their employers to do better at attracting female applicants. For dev jobs, both the problem visibility and remedial actions are obvious to me. To answer your question: yes
  - citizenkeen 10y ago
    I don't plan on being one of those, so it's rather abstract.
  - 10y ago

deleted 10y ago

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