So you are unemployed, perhaps having a hard time to score a job. For an engineer this is pretty normal since qualifications could get in the way.
Now there comes an opportunity, a company that is open for hiring. And you seem to be a perfect fit.
Should you take that job? Not so fast.
Jobless engineers need not to settle on a company that is not worth it. To be able to know if it’s worth it or not, you have to look for signs, like work-related red flags, about the company you are applying for.
Career coach Hallie Crawford defines a work-related red flag as a warning sign, “either overt or even a gut feeling you have, that the job won’t be a good fit for you.”
He added, “It can also be a possible issue you sense with the company, why the job is available, your prospective boss, or a team member you’d be working with.”
Ignoring such red flags will make you waste your time in the future. Now how should you know that the job is not as good as it sounds, and it’s only attractive because it is the one available?
Here are the red flags:
Your interviewer (or his/her space) looks like a mess.
First sign that the company might not be for you is how disorganized the hiring manager is in terms of the interview and his or her working desk. Blueprints are everywhere, files are scattered all over.
Job applicants always prepare, and you should expect the same with the interviewer. A mess that appears before your eyes during interview means that that is a regular day at the workplace – you do not want to work with that.
You get offered the job during the interview.
It is bad thing to be offered at the job interview right away for one thing: there could be issues. Why is the company itching to fill the role?
There are several reasons for that and it could be that the engineering position asks more from the employee that what is required and paid or perhaps the company fires engineers from time to time.
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The job description is not clearly defined.
To know the job title is one thing, to understand what you have to do with that title is another.
If you saw a job hiring for an engineer in a company, it has to be clear what tasks and responsibility you will be given once you are hired. And when the hiring manager refuses to say or fails to properly describe the job, it’s best not to accept the offer.
The hiring manager says he works 24/7—and so does the staff.
Hard work is not a bad thing, but a very demanding job that needs you to work round the clock is.
That is what many hiring managers do as well as engineers but you do not really need that kind of work life. You still have to make time for yourself, and you will not have that kind of luxury if your boss wants you to report to the workplace any time he or she wants.
The company low-balls its offer.
They post an attractive salary offer for an engineer only to lower it down during the job interview. That’s manipulation. Of course this is a red flag.
Source: Glassdoor
