Looking for employment is an easy task, said no one ever.
Not only is it difficult to tell if you're a surefire candidate for a company you're interested in working for, applicants should also be aware of their self-worth before accepting a job offer that's too good to be true.
Luckily for us, strangers online offered up the signs to notice indicating we should turn away from the jobs we're seeking.
Redditor WonderfulMeat99 asked:
"What's the biggest red flag about a company that screams 'Don't Join Us'?"
Unorganized Void
"When you ask about the training period during the interview and they say 'we're still figuring that out.'"
"Been at my job for almost a year and I have access to 10% of the systems I was 'trained' on. Three of us were hired for this position, mid level IT stuff. They have almost no documentation, and they keep having to pull people from other teams to handle the systems we don't have access to yet."
"We've asked over and over again about getting access and everyone seems to think someone else is handling it... sometimes they say 'checking' and then don't respond for a week."
"I currently have maybe an hour of work a day because of this, so I'm not complaining. Still getting paid for 8! Working from home, so I have too much free time. But if you want a fulfilling career, this is certainly not it."
– send_me_jokes_plz
Figuring It Out
"I got hired for a position that was still not totally defined. I had been given the initial job description by a recruiter and after our first discussion she said I was over qualified."
"Months later the recruiter reached out to me saying they revised the position and I'd be a great fit. I asked for the new job description and she said they were finishing that up still but they want me to interview."
"I did the first interview and it went well. They followed up asking me to so a second interview with someone else. I said 'of course. Can you provide me with the updated job description'. They said they'd send it straight away. Still didn't have it by the time my next interview was."
"In all I had 4 interviews and I asked for the updated job description after every time they confirmed they'd move me to the next round. When I was offered the position I got a letter with the job title, benefits, salary. And that was about it."
"The money was good so I signed. Never got a complete job description."
"The company was a mess. They're over a hundred million dollar company and do everything in smart sheets and antiquated/broken excel docs with macros."
"There were several systems I needed access to and I was given the run around about them multiple times. The CEO encouraged me to meet with him weekly and then canceled every meeting between him and myself, every single time."
"I was let go after 30 days and they blamed it on not working well with another coworker. That coworker was the only 100% remote worker in the company and the only person senior to my position who was not in the room when I got let go. Never got a job description."
– cheeseburgerwaffles
Too Good 2 B True
"Applied, interviewed and hired all in the same day. Feels nice but actually is not nice."
– im_poplar
"I once bombed an interview and still got a job offer on the spot. No thanks."
– FreakingTea
"Happened to me in college. Guy down the hall in the dorms freshman year suckered me into trying Vector Marketing doing a good job giving the whole spiel on setting your own hours and guaranteed pay."
"Didn't take long once I was at the interview to figure out what it actually was and I bombed it on purpose and even embarrassed myself spitting my gum at the trash can and missing, having to pick it up off the floor and toss it. Guy still offered me the job, clearly they'll take anybody dumb enough to sign up."
– jfchops2
Stuck In The Past
"I interviewed to be a lecturer for a university. They sought me out and wined and dined me for a couple days and did a few presentations on the university. The presentations were on a TV hooked up to a VHS. This was in 2014."
– discostud1515
It pays to read between the lines.
High Expectations
"Passionate self-starter."
"Means they want you to work extra hours without being told to with no direction."
– priority_inversion
Taboo Topics
"Posters on the walls talking about NOT discussing pay."
– CIockParts
"Very illegal. Super easy lawsuit."
– lsord
The Opposite Is True
"'Fast Paced, ever changing, multi task environment!' Means they're gonna over work you or make you do sh*t that isn't in your job description."
– HeadFit2660
"Had a sales job pass me up on a second interview because I wouldn't quit my job the day of the first interview."
"Pretty good indicator that that specific 'fast paced, ever changing, multi-task environment' was about using desperation for control."
"Had another job bait and switch me on pay from 17.75 to 12 dollars an hour. I told the interviewer I wasn't sure if I wasn't interested in a job for 12$ an hour and they disconnected from the video call while I was mid sentence."
– anon
Going In Blindly
"Hit the ground running”
– Feeling-Visit1472
"Translation: there's no onboarding or training. You're expected to magically know all our company-specific knowledge as soon as you arrive."
– ChunkyBezel
"lso means “turnover is so high that nobody even knows what they’re doing”
– bomber991
Spilling The Tea
"Complaining about employee behavior in the listing."
– Vegan_Harvest
“We are looking for someone reliable and depended because Katie keeps calling in sick, the lazy a**!”
– abgry_krakow87
A Family Affair
"we are a big family, usually means a disfunctional family, that only the senior people reap the true benefits of the profits . the underlings are expected to be loyal, but when its time for budget cuts, it is not meritocracy."
– augustwestburgundy
You may want to heed these hidden warning signs.
Taking The Pressure
"can perform well under stress''
"they will stress tf outta you bruv."
– kantotero69
It's Procedure
"I f'king hate all the bullsh*t fake questions and hoops you have to jump through when you're job searching and interviewing. BUT, if a company essentially does the bare minimum to vet you, the interview process is a breeze, and they hire you, they probably have a very high turnover, and it's because they f'king suck."
– HogwartsClitSeeker
Looking Beneath The Surface
"My last two jobs the interviews felt very easy, BUT reflecting on them after the fact they were very deep technical conversations which were just that, conversations."
"So I didn't feel like I was being quizzed, I felt like I was talking about interesting stuff with a peer. And I've really enjoyed the last two jobs I've had, so I guess recognize when that's happening. Because on the surface they can look similar."
– Durakan
Work Life Is Separate
"We work hard, and play hard!"
"Look...you're my employer. I have no desire to 'play hard' with you outside of work. You are literally paying me to hang out with you during work hours, but when I'm off the clock and you're not paying me?"
"You can f'k off. I'm going home."
– gogojack
Toxic Enivornment
"My current job has issues where management tends to fire people once their three months probation period ends because that's when they are accepted into our union and then it's super difficult to fire someone. Every person we've hired over the past six months has been fire just before their three month."
"Also my current job. The OGs of the workplace bully the sh*t out of new hires. It's always the elderly women who have worked at the place for like 40 years too. They talk so much sh*t."
"And they tend to influence management on their firing practices by sowing discontent about certain employees. I'm so glad that I work in a clean room by myself all day where I don't have to deal with them."
"Not everyone has the luxury of being picky."
"But the examples mentioned are worth entertaining if you don't want to be stuck in a situation you weren't planning for."
– Elsa_the_Archer
Remember, job interviews are a chance for you to get to know your potential employer by asking them questions about their company and protocols.
If your interviewer isn't positively responding to your inquiries, that's another red flag.
Know your worth and resume accordingly.
@thejenniwren.teamlh.social/Bluesky
@NancyMace/X