Unless you have an insider in a company, it’s really difficult to tell if a company is what they present themselves to be. Just as you’re putting your interview face forward, the company is most likely singing their own praises and telling you generic blanket statements like, “We are all collaborative and there’s tons of room for growth!”
4 Tips to Assess if Glassdoor Reviews are Reliable or Not
Despite hearing these statements during an interview, I know countless new hires that start their job search all over again weeks after starting a new job. Some frightening reasons on why they need me to help them find a new job include:
– “The company started to go through massive layoffs shortly after I joined.”
– “My boss that hired me failed to tell me during the interview he was not going to be there by the time I onboarded. My new manager is the complete opposite of what I signed up for.”
– “There’s massive turnover and everything from the top bottom is chaotic.”
– “The company is so disorganized and dysfunctional; my role is nothing as they described.”
Yikes! While humans are trying to master the broken recruitment process, companies like Glassdoor.com have started to sprout up over the years to help jobseekers avoid these situations. Glassdoor.com is a career site where current and past employees provide reviews on pros, cons, CEO approval ratings and salaries of their companies. (Fun fact, I visited Glassdoor’s headquarters in 2011 and their entrance is actually a wooden door!).
But is what you are reading what you get when it comes to online reviews?
I have heard of companies that encourage (ahem, order) employees to write something positive. I have also heard of disgruntled employees spewing negativity even though they were the ones to blame. Without any type of formal verification process on whether a review is an actual employee, it’s difficult to assess. And even if it is from an actual employee, how strong should one employee’s opinion be held when making a decision without knowing their full background, circumstance, or values?
Then there is the argument that people who have negative experiences are most likely to complain to all of their friends on why they should avoid a company like the plague. We are less inclined to spread the word of a positive experience. We now all pinpoint United Airlines as one of the worst airlines to select, but do we have a single airline that we pledge loyalty to based on raving fan reviews going viral?
So, with all of those caveats in mind, keep reading for my guide on how to use Glassdoor if you can’t locate an insider at the company. And if you’re interested in watching my YouTube video for even more tips on how to determine if a company is a good fit, I’ve linked it below!
Glassdoor Reviews: 4 Tips to Assess if Glassdoor is Reliable or Not
1. Read every review and start looking for patterns in the pros and cons.
Fake reviews are pretty easy to spot. If they have nothing negative to say, it’s probably the owner or someone from the recruiting department. There’s always room for improvement in any company! As you review, take note and see what positions and departments these reviews are coming from. You should know what title and role you will be entering so make sure you pay particular attention to those ones. Spotting consistencies is key – if you read ‘lack of management’ or ‘lack of growth opportunities’ or ‘no work life balance’ over and over again, you have your answers.
2. Come up with a list of five qualities and values you really admire and need in your next organization.
Make sure you have this written out before you do any research so you don’t feel swayed as you start looking at reviews. If positive or open communication is really important to you, and you don’t see any of these words or synonyms of these words populating, you might want to assess further during an interview.
RELATED: What’s On Your Career Mind Map?
3. Ask open-ended questions in an interview.
One of the best questions you can ask the interviewer is, “There seems to be a lot of positive qualities about Company, but if there is one thing you wish you could change about your role or company, what would that be?” And pause. See what the interview has to say. Remember, as much as you are being interviewed, you should be interviewing the company to avoid a bad match.
4. Analyze LinkedIn profiles.
Take a look at LinkedIn profiles by doing a search for both past and current employees. See if you can filter down to your department and ask these two questions: How long have they worked at Company? Has anyone been promoted at Company? By studying profiles, you can tell a lot about growth trajectories and longevity within each department.
RELATED: How To Create a Linkedin Profile (optimized for job searching)
When you’re job searching, make sure you’re also checking in with your gut. You can generally get a good pulse based on the various people you speak with along the way. Make sure a company treats you with respect, is good at communicating, and is courteous from the first email to the first visit. This, combined with Glassdoor Reviews, will allow you to make a more confident decision.
Drop your email down below to get instant access to our FREE resource library packed with tools, templates, & guides!
These are wonderful tips! I’ve learned that it’s really helpful when you do your own research about the company.
Thanks, Tasheena, definitely necessary to research everything and everyone!
Very interesting to get your tips! I am currently job hunting as I am about to finish uni. It’s hard knowing where to look and what to apply for!
Laura || http://www.thelifeoflaura.com.au
I hope Australia has a Glassdoor or Glassdoor extends to Australia! Good luck!
That’s such an interesting website! I’ve never heard of it before – its like Yelp but for companies! And just like Yelp, you take everything with a grain of salt! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Haha yes! That’s actually a great analogy. A Yelp for companies and the way they treat their employees.
I look up all my future endeavors on Glassdoor!
These are GREAT tips. I especially like the idea of asking open-ended questions in an interview. My partner is a great interviewee because he’s not passive. He’s very engaged in the conversation and is just as much interviewing the company as much as they are interviewing him. Well done!
Awesome! And I’m sure your partner gets a ton of offers. By being engaged, you automatically look 100x more marketable!
Wow, these are all really great tips. I personally haven’t ever used Glassdoor, but now I’m going to check my company’s rating just for the fun of it. Thank na for sharing!
Definitely, check it out and see if the reviews of your current company are accurate to your experiences and opinions.
its a good thing to find a company who respect their employees, very good and helpful article!
Thanks, Frank! Glad you found it helpful and yes, preach! Companies need to respect their most important assets: talent!
I think so many people are just desperate to get jobs that they don’t take the time to really research the company first. Then they have a lot of issues after getting hired.
Yes, it’s difficult to reject an offer when you’re unemployed but unless you’re racking up debt, it’s sometimes necessary to hold out for the best opportunity in long-term goal planning.
This is really interesting. And a great reminder to not take everything we read at face value and to do our own due diligence/research.
Thanks, Jojo! Yes, all reviews are to be taken with a grain of salt, but with a little bit more digging, some insights hopefully will come to light.
Thanks for this post. It can be so difficult to tell what’s really going on at a company before one works there – even during an interview, employees may not feel totally comfortable answering tough questions honestly. Thanks for sharing these helpful tips for figuring out the full picture!
Agreed. Non-verbal cues are really telling though! I’m big on reading body language.
This is very helpful. Sometimes we are so grateful just to get an interview that we don’t look very hard into the company. It’s important to think about what it will be like if we get the job. Will it be a good place to work?
Absolutely. If we make decisions without the fear or self-doubt, it’s amazing at what kind of responses our inner wisdom tells us,
My company just recently started doing glass doors we find it helpful
The job search process can suck! Even worse is to join a new company and hate it. These are great tips.
Good advice, I like reading your blog it is very informative and easy to understand. Thank you for sharing! It is so important to have confidence in what you do.
Thanks for the kind words!
This is totally helpful, I’d say I’m one of those people who got disappointed by a company that wanted way more than they asked, it made me shrink back and decide to be my own boss
That’s one way of solving a problem. Hopefully, you can conduct your own self-assessments on how great it would be to work for someone like you or your organization.
Wonderful guide, it’s true when you’re soliciting for a vacant position you always look up on whats gonna be working on that company however you don’t really know what’s the environment, ambiance between colleagues, the real situation. It’s good to know some of these essential informations. thanks for sharing.
Great tips for job hunting! I haven’t used Glassdoor to analyze potential companies before, but it sounds like an amazing resource if you know what to look for.
Thanks, Heather! Yes, it can be helpful when used correctly. Try it out the next time you find yourself in interviewing stages.
”
This weblog is excellent i really like studying your posts.Keep up the good work! You already know, lots of individuals are hunting around for this information, you can aid them greatly.”
Nisha, thank you so much for all of the kind comments you left on various pages. I’m glad you find the posts informative and helpful!