Asking past employee's for their perspective 3

[bombardment]

I am in the process of looking for a new job and have a potential offer from 1 company and an interview with another. I want to get more information about what working at these companies would be like and was thinking about messaging past employees through linkedin. I assume that that is one of the advantages of linkedin but wanted to make sure that it is ok and professional for me to do so.

 

[SNORGY]

I wouldn't use linkedin, personally. You might leave a footprint that your prospective employer takes offense to, and from what I understand, they do try to follow you there to scope you out.

Pretty scuzzy on their part, if you ask me, but...probably an MBA-driven mindset.

Regards,

SNORGY.

 

[casseopeia]

I think it's a very good idea to talk to ex employees. Contact them initially through Linkedin, but then move the discussion off line so your comments can't be discovered. I'd use Facebook as well with the same caution.

"Gorgeous hair is the best revenge." Ivana Trump

 

[tygerdawg]

I wouldn't.
A friend of mine (who is quiet but unapologetic about his sexual orientation) is clearly on the outs with the Pointy-Haired-Boss who is running his company. The PHB is clearly an incompetent, evil, MBA-addled, paranoid buffoon and he apparently is aggressovely controlling his perceived image to the corporate overlords. The PHB accused my friend of making disparaging comments about the company/PHB behavior on his Facebook account, which I was told was completely false. The PHB was looking at the wrong account apparently. But, like most false accusations that are immediately withdrawn, irrecoverable damage was done.

Using any of those social media outlets eliminates any chance of privacy, discretion, or confidentiality. Or truth, it would seem.

There are other avenues to find out what people are saying about companies, like glassdoor.com . But you must filter the rage & bitterness that sometimes show up in the comments.

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering

http://www.bluetechnik.com

 

[jmw]

There was some relevance to the

(who is quiet but unapologetic about his sexual orientation)

?
It read OK without that. Really.
PHB with MBA (cue Snorgy) is buffoon.
Does more harm than good. Yes, all believable.


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[bombardment]

I use Glassdoor a lot to check companies. Only problem is that some companies do not have a lot of reviews. The 2 companies I am looking into only have 1 review for each.

Some of the LinkedIn users have their personal email listed. I was thinking about contacting past employees that has their email posted. Thoughts?

 

[MacGyverS2000]

I will ask employees in person... but I won't approach them via email unless I've met them first. I likely wouldn't answer an email like that from someone I've never met.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[bombardment]

Any other way to find out the working environment of a company?

 

[MacGyverS2000]

Get hired?

In the end, you're relying on someone else's opinion on the work environment, and their viewpoint may be tainted by circumstances that will not pertain to you. Truly toxic environments are (usually) fairly easy to notice, same with really good ones... those in the middle are either found out through the grapevine or by personal experience.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[FreddyNurk]

Not quite the same thing, but a recruiter managed to interpret my work email address from linkedin and sent me an email asking me if any of my colleagues were interested in 'New Opportunities'. I duly noted their company down so that I know never to approach them.

My personal email is listed (well, an address I keep just for these sorts of things), and I don't expect to be contacted via work for such things.

I have had candidates for jobs we've had open look at my linkedin profile, though no one has asked me yet as to what its like to work here. I would expect that a fair amount of background can be gained quickly if one progresses to interview (I'd seen the indications during my interview for here, my suspicions were more than confirmed once I started, and yet I'm still here...).

 

[MacGyverS2000]

Freddy,

I run into that sort of shiftiness from time to time. Last year a recruiter called my desk asking if I needed any contractors. I asked for her name, company, etc., then went on a little fact-finding mission. Turned out her company was a recruiting contractor of ours, which meant she knew quite well that direct contact to anyone other than HR is a no-no. I suggested we cancel her company's contract as it was obvious their recruiters were not following the rules...

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[MikeHalloran]

One way to recognize a toxic environment:

If a person who is not on your official "people to see" list drags you aside and asks if you can get your old job back, you might reconsider whether you want to work there.

( Happened to me once. I took it too lightly.

Buttonholed a person ((who happened to be my successor)) and returned the favor while mustering out.

He took it too lightly too, and didn't last as long as I had. )


Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[zdas04]

In college I listened closely to the hall gossip about professors. If EVERYBODY hated a particular prof, then I made it a point to sign up for whatever he/she was teaching. I only went wrong that way once (a teacher of philosophy really should have a passing acquaintance with the language he is teaching in). Most of the time I found that the reason people didn't like the Prof was that they were using the same criteria to reject the Prof that I used to praise them.

My point is that your happiness or success in a particular situation depends upon your own attitude and little else. If you are committed to being happy and productive then you won't listen to the hallway crap and you'll be happy and productive. If you think you'll be in the board room in 6-9 months, then you will never be happy. If you listen to rumors you'll never be happy. If you solicit opinions from the disgruntled minority, you'll never take any job. Learn all you can about the COMPANY (what do they make, where do they make it at, who are their suppliers, what are the supply/regulatory risks, what is their bond rating, etc). But learning how particular individuals responded to their micro work-environment is counter productive. A big factor in people's failure to succeed is their reaction to the person they work for. Many bosses are jerks. Not much you can do about it. In my last assignment for a big company I sat in the same chair, responsible for the same kit for 11 years--during that time I had 13 bosses, some were great, some were awful, most were OK once we established what each of us needed from the other.

I've found many people spending a lot of time bashing the working conditions at the company I mostly enjoyed for 23 years. If you'd found one of them on LinkedIn you'd say "I'm not going to consider this sweat shop". If you'd contacted one of the 90% of employees (and probably 80% of past employees), you would get a very different picture. Make up your own damn mind.

David

 

[Gymmeh]

Zdas,

hit the nail on the head. I will add one thing, YOU can change the atmosphere of a work environment.

In my current place, me and another coworker got hired at the same time. We had a long term employ complimented use one day saying we brought a lot of good vib's to the office. Before us it was supposedly very quiet and angry...

I will probably miss quote this...

"be the change you want to see" Gandhi

 

[zdas04]

Gymmeh,
You couldn't be more correct. I've seen many situations that could have been miserable turned into interesting challenges by the attitude of one or two team members. I've also seen work that should have been fun turned into drudgery by the attitudes of one or two people.

My oldest son has a real talent for this. If we were doing something that he wanted to do, we ALWAYS had a blast. On the other hand if he was less than thrilled we ALWAYS ended up at each other's throats with someone (usually me) crying.

Usually in a business setting the reactions are a bit more subtle, but just as real. Each individual has the ability to be a change agent for either good or bad. Its all about choices.

David