4 ms·

Can you show me where I'll be sitting? (I once thought I'd get a private office, but was made to sit in - I swear I'm not making this up! - "The Boiler Room".)

Can you show me where I'll be sitting? (I once thought I'd get a private office, but was made to sit in - I swear I'm not making this up! - "The Boiler Room".) A company of just 10 people wouldn't have a lunchroom. Before you accept an offer - preferably before you interview - explore the neighborhood around the office, to determine whether there are good places for lunch, or for coffee or beer, if that is to your taste. I would not consider working for a big company unless they had a good lunchroom. It's not that I can't go out to eat, or bring my own lunch, but there's something about a lousy lunchroom in my workplace that I find quite depressing. If I drive, can you cover my parking, or alternatively will you cover public transit? Do you have an employee library? (Most companies don't. That is the essence of stupidity. There should be at least a few technical books, for the languages, tools, platforms and APIs you use.) Have any of your products been reviewed in the trade press? (Better if you find this out on your own, but you might not be able to find the reviews. The products might have online reviews though.) Don't ask in the interview, but search around for dirt on the company principles. Like maybe they robbed a previous company blind, then invested their ill-gotten gains in the firm you are interviewing with. I actually worked for one such company. Do you provide on-the-job training? (Even if you have the chops to fulfill your job description, work will get uninteresting if you don't get to learn anything new on the job.) Do you pay for conference tickets or travel?

mind_heist 12y ago
Thank you ! I suppose going on-site to the company sort of solves most of these issues. But how would you go about finding the following ? "Like maybe they robbed a previous company blind, then invested their ill-gotten gains in the firm you are interviewing with. I actually worked for one such company." Is it just a background check on the founders ?
- MichaelCrawford 12y ago
  If the founders might be well-known (as was the case at the company I worked at), they might have been discussed in the trade press, as well as the mainstream press like the Wall Street Journal. Also inquire with their coworkers or subordinates at their previous companies. Possibly you would want to do that anonymously, say by using a pseudonym when posting to a message board to social networking site.
- MichaelCrawford 12y ago
  While strictly speaking it's true that going on-site _can_ solve these issues, being on-site won't actually solve anything unless you pay attention to your surroundings. In the "boiler room" case, I simply assumed I'd get a private office because everyone in the same hall as my manager had a private office. I simply assumed I'd be on that same hall. Rather than explicitly asking about where you'd be sitting, what the lunch room is like and so on, perhaps it would be more diplomatic to request a guided tour around the facility. It's quite common to be taken to lunch during job interviews. If that doesn't happen, maybe it's because the lunchroom sucks.
  - MichaelCrawford 12y ago
    "pay attention to your surroundings" For example, on your way to the room where you will be interviewed, have a look at the expressions on the faces of the employees. Do they look happy? Or do they look like "lifers" or "wage slaves"? Do you see any technical books out in plain sight? You might not see the actual library, if there is one, but you might see books on the desks of the engineers.

mind_heist 12y ago

Thank you ! I suppose going on-site to the company sort of solves most of these issues. But how would you go about finding the following ? "Like maybe they robbed a previous company blind, then invested their ill-gotten gains in the firm you are interviewing with. I actually worked for one such company." Is it just a background check on the founders ?

MichaelCrawford 12y ago
If the founders might be well-known (as was the case at the company I worked at), they might have been discussed in the trade press, as well as the mainstream press like the Wall Street Journal. Also inquire with their coworkers or subordinates at their previous companies. Possibly you would want to do that anonymously, say by using a pseudonym when posting to a message board to social networking site.
MichaelCrawford 12y ago
While strictly speaking it's true that going on-site _can_ solve these issues, being on-site won't actually solve anything unless you pay attention to your surroundings. In the "boiler room" case, I simply assumed I'd get a private office because everyone in the same hall as my manager had a private office. I simply assumed I'd be on that same hall. Rather than explicitly asking about where you'd be sitting, what the lunch room is like and so on, perhaps it would be more diplomatic to request a guided tour around the facility. It's quite common to be taken to lunch during job interviews. If that doesn't happen, maybe it's because the lunchroom sucks.
- MichaelCrawford 12y ago
  "pay attention to your surroundings" For example, on your way to the room where you will be interviewed, have a look at the expressions on the faces of the employees. Do they look happy? Or do they look like "lifers" or "wage slaves"? Do you see any technical books out in plain sight? You might not see the actual library, if there is one, but you might see books on the desks of the engineers.