Watch Out For These Red Flags 🚩

Job Seeker’s need to do a better job avoiding red flags.

If they don’t, they risk a very high chance that they end up in the same exact situation, dealing with the same exact pain points, and end up just as miserable.

Maybe their job search has dragged on for months at a time and they start letting their guard down. Maybe they’ve never had an issue working for a bad company, so they stopped looking out for them. Maybe they’ve only worked at one company their whole career, and never thought to even ask.

Listen, I get it. Especially the way the market’s been in 2023, most of you just want a job. Any job. Even if it’s just a bridge job.

But do me this favor:

At least figure out these red flags up front so you know what you’re getting into.

Let’s dive in:

1: High Employee Turnover

The biggest red flag of them all. Why should you join a team that everyone else is leaving? If it’s one person, that’s fine. If it’s two, a little sketchy. If it’s a revolving door, back out of the process while you can.

• Try looking up current/former employees on LinkedIn. See what they have to say on Glassdoor.

• Pay attention to how the interviewer & hiring managers are talking about their teams.

• Ask the interviewers directly: “Can you tell me about the average tenure on the team?” or “Why is this position open?”

• Trust your gut. If you think something stinks, it’s because it probably does.

2: Lack of Transparency

It’s your right to interview the company as much as they interview you. You deserve to know some basic information before you spend your valuable time going through their process.

Salary, headcount, reason for the opening, growth opportunities, project details, and so on…

If they avoid these questions, it’s for a reason. They know something is off and they don’t care to fix it.

3: Lack of Communication

A *rough* timeline of events should be discussed on the first call. At the very least, when the manager expects to fill the role (i.e. 1-2 months from opening), and when you’ll hear about next steps.

If they ghost you until it’s time for the next round, that just shows you how they treat their employees before you even walk through the door.

4: No Growth Opportunities

No one wants to stay in the same position for years on end.

Ask about how you can grow within the group & within the company. You can also look up the manager & other interviewers on LinkedIn to see if they’ve moved up during their tenure.

Make it a point that you want to move up as you progress, whether that be as a higher level IC or into management.

Ask if any others on their direct teams or their peers have while they’ve been there.

If they can’t outline this, then avoid at all costs.

5: Vague Job Descriptions

Usually this means that they lack clarity and/or they’re going to have you do everything + the kitchen sink.

A job description should essentially be a big-picture outline of what you can expect to do on your day-to-day, with some room to operate outside the job description every now and then.

You’ve heard me say if you want a raise/promotion, you’ll have to operate above the job description you’re working for.

That’s true. But at the same time, you should still have an idea of what’s expected of you when you join the company.

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What do you think? Any others I’m missing? What red flags have stood out to you during your job search?