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Admittedly, I’ve taken jobs before in the past where I should have paid more attention to the red flags during the interview process.
Oh well, you live and you learn and sometimes you just need ANY job to help pay the bills.
But you should be cautious about warning signs in regard to potential jobs when you’re out there looking for employment.
AskReddit users weighed in on this question.
1. You still took the job?
“I had a team lead interview me for a contract once say bluntly, “you don’t want to work here; it’s horrible”.
He was right and still undersold the experience somehow.”
2. Constant turnover.
“Places who always say they’re hiring and always taking applications but you never actually see anyone new being trained or anything.
It means people are quitting CONSTANTLY and management isnt hiring new people, so they are critically understaffed on top of poorly managed.”
3. No thanks.
“I turned down a second interview for a position in which the interviewer said something to the effect of “If your boss Emails you on a Friday night, you don’t have to respond, but you know how that looks….”
Made it pretty clear that they expect work to be your first priority.”
4. Not a good sign.
“When they shit talk previous employees. They’re going to do it to you.
Same goes for them insulting current employees behind their back. I saw that during my orientation. Two supervisors were loudly talking about how useless an employee was after they got off the phone with him. Even if it’s true, the fact that they don’t care who hears them is a sign of a toxic work environment.”
5. “Optional.”
“Making jokes about overtime and “crunch time”. Guaranteed it’s going to be a nights and weekends are optional (but not actually optional) place.”
6. Don’t do it!
“Initially unpaid, but will result in full time offer upon completion of XYZ.
This will be an excellent chance to expand your portfolio and gain lots of exposure with leading global brands!”
7. Know your value.
“In 5 years you can be making X”
Cool, add that to my offer as guaranteed and we have a deal.
“Well it’s not guaranteed”
Oh gotcha, so what you’re saying is that statement holds no value.”
8. Some people…
“This was a red flag I had during an interview process once. I was doing a phone interview for an IT position and the person I was interviewing with basically changed the details of the job during the interview.
Instead of the first shift hours the position promised, he immediately went into saying it would be 6+ months before the opportunity for first shift would even be a possibility.
Also, he was big into asking how dedicated I was to jobs. The idea of weekend shifts (again, not in the original description) kept coming up and how everyone had to be a team player and help out on weekends when needed. The kicker was when he started talking about how many hours he worked.
He was bragging that he was up at 6 am everyday working, then he’d go into the office for the day, come home to see his family for dinner, and get right back to work until 10-11pm every night.
I had never been turned off from a job faster in my life. He asked me to think things over and he’d send me some paperwork via email. Needless to say, I called him the next morning and declined the job. It was the worst interview process I’d ever been in.”
9. Keep these in mind.
“A couple of things.
Open interviews
Admittedly I’ve fallen for this a few times but I was young and stupid. It’s clear they have a high turn over so they’re trying to secure as many people as they can. Most of the time these open interview jobs don’t have salaries, just commission.
Refusal or reluctancy to share details over the phone
This is what usually ends up in you turning up to an open interview. If they withhold information about the role (what you’ll be doing etc.) that’s a huge red flag. They just want to get you in the door for an interview to pressure you into joining.”
10. Ugh. Uh uh…
“”Looking for rock stars” in the job description, unless of course the posting is in fact for a position to be a rock star!”
11. Not paying attention.
“Manager who doesn’t really interview you or who doesn’t take the interview seriously.
They are on their phone the whole time, don’t ask any questions, are too casual.”
12. Don’t you have any questions for me?
“If it feels like you have the job before your ‘interview’.
I once applied to a trainee position, I got to the interview and it felt like I had already got the position and the meeting was just for details. It was weird, he looked at my docs more as a formality but apart from the excessive praise, I was never actually asked anything. I was told I would do a week trial with only travel expenses paid.
During that week there was no training or anything, I heard some not nice things (also some illegal things) whilst there, the boss was making plans to go out of the country for an extended period within 2 months and I’d be taking over for him as well as expected to bring in clients too…Also I wasn’t deemed to be working fast enough and therefore they wanted to pay me less than £4 an hour. I didn’t go back.”
13. There will be no “play”.
“We work hard and play hard”, it actually means all work and for sure no play.”
14. Keeping you waiting.
“Arrived for an interview not to long ago. Showed up 15 minutes early and had all my certs to prove training. Waited over 20 minutes before the secretary led me to a conference room. Waited another 40 minutes and got fed up.
Quality manager walked in as I was getting up to leave. He was very offended when I told him he had wasted my time and i would never accept a position after being left to wait almost an hour while having an appointment.”
15. A HUGE RED FLAG.
“We are a family here” which means this is how they try to make up for the shitty pay and long hours.”
Keep an eye out for those red flags when you’re looking for a job, people.
What about you?
In the comments, please share the red flags you look for when you’re on the job hunt.
