Research Your Interview Companies

The agonizing search for another job continues yet another day.  Laid off a week ago from a local company, it has been my 8th job in two years.  I personally like to think that I amount to a small percentage of the nation’s job losses and that we, as a country, are actually doing better than we thought.  I have worked them all.  I have been a recruiter, a customer service rep, outside sales, inside sales, and at one point, a guy that holds the signs out in front of a store.  I was laid off from that one because I was replaced by a bucket of sand.  Talk about expendable!

            Hitting the job boards and postings online, I have stumbled upon a few companies that have always had postings up and should be considered suspect.  When you look into these companies, please, to your due diligence and research these firms.  There are several indicators that these companies aren’t necessarily great companies to work for.  Please let the following serve as a better insight as to why you should always research these.

Know your posting formats! You will become acclimated to what a good job posting should look like.  Seriously, I found several companies that gave a David Letterman top 10 list on how to annoy your boss and co-workers in the job posting!  If you respond to these postings with an eagerness to work for them, you will be sorely disappointed in the actual outcome.

For example, this company in Ft. Lauderdale that I interviewed with was one of these fly-by-night operations.  I was called in by a professional sounding receptionist on the phone who basically gives you directions to the place.  When you ask them a question about what the company does specifically, they get really vague on details and work on getting you in.  Since I had nothing going on that day and it was two blocks from me, I decided to check out how bad it was.

 I entered the room and counted 12 people.  Each individual was interviewed one at a time for exactly 5 minutes, and then the next went in.  When it was my turn, I already knew this was a scam company, so I just went in expecting this.  I interviewed with not a care of the outcome.  Hire me, don’t hire me.  Either way, I was never going to work for this company.  I proceeded to tell him everything that an employer wouldn’t necessarily find in a great candidate.  The result? hired me on the spot without hesitation.  This is after I told him that I regularly smoke pot and believe all people in sales should smoke (I don’t smoke, but I always wanted to purposely tank an interview). 

After this professional grade interview I was ushered to meet the sales team where they were engaging in sales training.  In the “team building exercises” participants were instructed that there were going to be singing and dancing competitions and said that the new guy (pointed to me) should start it.  I said, “Not only am I not doing that now, I’m not doing that…..ever”.  First of all I’m 6’3 and 260 lbs and when I dance, I knock people over and fall down a lot and I’m not exactly an American Idol hopeful.  When I said that, the “lead sales guy” who was a colossal tool for the company, yelled “Then maybe this isn’t the company for you then!”  At this point, me being overwhelmed by the professionalism at this company, I did a little jig and flipped him the bird.  Then I left.

The point here, and I’m sure there is one, is to look into what companies you have interviews with.  If the phone interview lasts less than 5 minutes, then that should raise a red flag immediately.  That means the company doesn’t care about wasting their time and yours as they churn through the suckered masses of job seekers.  I would recommend running these companies through ripoffreport.com or any scam report websites first.  No sense in wasting your time on a company that doesn’t want to take a little more time in getting to know you.  More reputable companies are more likely to ask you a few more questions and expect 20-45 minute conversations.  Good companies are thorough.