Do Your Own Background Check on a Potential Employer Before Accepting the Position - Sterling Career Concepts

Do Your Own Background Check on a Potential Employer Before Accepting the Position Do Your Own Background Check on a Potential Employer Before Accepting the Position According  to a survey by Right Management, only 19 percent of employees are satisfied at work while about 5 percent plan to stay in their current position. Career dissatisfaction creates a ripple effect of turnover and searching for new positions. When searching for new jobs, many only get a little information from Googling a company and going on an interview. But there are strategic ways to do your own background check on an employer to figure out if it’s a good fit before you take a job. Go deeper on LinkedIn Anyone can go onto LinkedIn and look up a company. But job seekers shouldn’t stop there. Instead, set-up a profile (if you haven’t already) with a detailed resume and bio and use LinkedIn’s features to find contacts to connect with. Next, look to see who you might be connected to within the company youre interested in working for. You might find your LinkedIn connections have a friend of a friend who formerly worked at the company. Send a note to your friend to see if you can get introduced, and ask the company contact if you can have a quick 10-minute phone call to find out what it’s really like working for the company. Many companies also belong to LinkedIn Groups or post articles and content directly on the site. Look to see where the company is active on LinkedIn. Are they posting, for instance, about the challenges of a fast-paced corporate environment and demanding clients? Potential employers can pick-up clues to figure out what the work environment might be like and what to expect. Review Glassdoor Glassdoor can give insights to everything from salaries to job titles and may also have anonymous complaints about the management. Even Vice President Joe Biden turned to Glassdoor when trying to glean more insights into unemployment to the U.S. Former and current employees of a company can also rate their workplace. Look for star ratings for Culture and Values, Work/Life Balance, Senior Management, Comp and Benefits and Career Opportunities. Job seekers can figure out whats most important  to them in a job. You might not really care much how the Culture and Values rate, but you may want to pass on a company that rates poorly for Career Opportunities. Visit the companys website Don’t overlook the company’s About and Jobs page as a way to glean information. Find out what type of employees they’re looking for, exactly what the company does and what to expect from the work culture. For example, Lifelocks job page  alerts future employees that they can make a positive impact on peoples lives and that its challenging. Job seekers can take this information and figure out they won’t be doing the same thing every day and to expect some challenges and variety. Email marketing company Aweber’s job page offers photos of everything from a gaming room and the staff to get a sense of what to expect. Meet your future coworkers Consider taking it one step further and asking for a chat or coffee meeting  with an existing employee or two. You can find such contacts through LinkedIn, or ask the hiring manager after an interview if it would be possible to meet with your future colleagues to see what the work dynamic is like. While it’ s clearly not appropriate to ask potential coworkers about salaries or management, you can get a sense of what your future teammates are like and how everyone works together.