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Updated September 25, 2023Youโre reading an excerpt of Ask Me This Instead: Flip the Interview to Land Your Dream Job, a book by Kendra Haberkorn. This powerful work is written by a veteran recruiter for job-seekers who want to find their dream jobโnot just the next job. Purchase the book to support the author and the ad-free Holloway reading experience. You get instant digital access, worksheets and a question database, commentary and future updates, and a high-quality PDF download.
Before interviews, one of your primary sources for learning about employeesโ experiences working at a particular company is the internet. There are endless websites with content and information including The Muse and city-focused Built In sites as well as sources for employee reviews and rankings such as Glassdoor, which can provide interesting tidbits and candid feedback. As you read through the information, try to balance it with your own real-life experience as you go through interviews as many of the inputs are anonymous and thus hard to qualify. What didnโt work for someone else, could work well for youโno two employees will have the same experience even given similar circumstances or timing at a company.
Beyond the sites we might seek out when weโre doing research, weโre inundated by messages about work everywhere we go. While scrolling through your LinkedIn feed you see updates from your network about the exciting jobs someoneโs just started or the company milestones that theyโre โso luckyโ to be around for. Sometimes, youโll see an intriguing headline about great perks or high salaries and click into it. Itโs hard to escape. Those messages, particularly the constant flow of them, can be helpful or disruptive at different periods during our career. Those messages can also be very persuasive. When targeted by messages with positive โfilters,โ weโre likely to fall prey. Especially on those hard days, the days when weโre down or disappointed. The days when our boss or co-workers frustrate and exasperate us. The days when someone else gives notice, and excitedly talks about their new opportunity and we wonder, โWhat do they know that I donโt?โ Spoiler alertโthey donโt necessarily know anything more than you do.
โimportantโ Itโs important to read reviews and social posts with a thoughtful and objective perspective. Think about when people write reviews or share content to their social feeds. Actually, no, donโt think about people, think about yourself. When have you been moved to share your thoughts or opinions with people who you donโt know and likely wonโt meet? My experience has led me to think of three primary situations when people post work-related content:
When they were bragging, inspired, or excitedโthese are the new jobs, company milestones, and heartfelt messages.
When they were raging, ruminating, or shockedโthese moments are prime fodder for anonymous review sites.
When theyโve been asked or incentivized to do soโperhaps to push a big announcement or balance out something negative.
Itโs those polarizing experiences that compel us to seek reactions, validation, and camaraderie or commiseration. Read reviews and social posts with those frames in mind and with the recognition that you donโt know the context behind the narrative they are sharing. These precautions do not invalidate the experiences or feelings shared by the person behind the screen, but help remind you that these are but one input in a long list that can be used to shape your thoughts about a particular role or company.
If during the interview process you want to ask about something you read on these sites or in an article, do it! Especially about those tough reviewsโgive an interviewer who you think is in a position to respond to the feedback the chance to provide their own or the companyโs point of view. You might appreciate their insight and youโll certainly learn something about how they respond to challenges and feedback as part of the broader experience and reputation associated with the company.
One final note, a significant portion of the content youโll find on sites is paid for and promoted. It doesnโt mean itโs untrue, but it is placed, polished, and a bit of theater, which means that there is a layer of authenticity missing. Perhaps the company is building its employment brand and took advantage of a content pitch for a piece thatโs part of a package, or it might be a promotion to pair with a strategic launch or announcement. It could also be damage control. In general, itโs contrived and strategic messaging and you can consider it an advertisement of sorts. Take it, along with all information you receive, and use your critical reading, processing, and personal experience to assess the truth.
One of my least favorite questions to be asked by candidates during the interview process was some version of, โWhatโs the culture like at [COMPANY]?โ Because I was asked this question so often, I had many handy responses to rotate through or customize to the candidate I was speaking with, but those answers were never really that great. Culture, for me, is a living, breathing experience made up of and dependent on the behaviors, words, and actions of individuals, team, and the company collectively. There can be dominant themes, and also micro-patterns, present in different pockets of the organization.
And what matters most about culture is a special combination for each and every person. I knew my answers about culture didnโt stack up to reality, but with such a generic question, I often couldnโt do much more. Eventually, I started asking a follow-up question of the candidate to ask them to specify a particular aspect of the culture that they wanted me to talk about so that I could give them information that they might actually find useful rather than a pre-packaged blurb that could have been copied/pasted at one of many different companies.
Because culture is so hard to grasp, I now focus on and emphasize the โemployee experienceโ working somewhere rather than the culture. You can get at โan experienceโ in much more tangible ways through questions, conversations, and observations throughout the hiring process. They are the foundation of what you might choose to label as culture, and since thatโs what I know hundreds of people have asked me about, they are the topics I want you to diligently investigate at each step of the hiring process.