Use the Answers You Receive for the Best Results
So, you’ve had the interview. You wore your smart suit and polished shoes, and you studied and answered all the questions you thought you would be asked. You have a great feeling that you will get the offer. Now, slow down. Take a breath and think about things.
I recommend that you should never accept a job just to have a job. Never! I don’t care how poor you are, how many student loans or car payments are due, or how bad the economy is. Don’t take any old job because someone is willing to hire you! Identify the work you’ve always wanted to do. Narrow your search of companies that you’ve always wanted to work for. Learn as much as you can about those companies. Go for a job in one of those companies.
In the process, however, if you learn some things in your research or in the interview that make you suspect of the company, back away, fast!
Suppose you learn that the company uses the Jack Welch rank and yank system of employee retention and promotion. You may not feel good about working in an environment that ranks and yanks. If so, save yourself some wasted time, heartache, and heartburn and walk away from the job offer.
Suppose you’re a woman or member of a minority and you can’t find information, either from research or interviews, which suggest an equal opportunity environment.
You scan through pictures of the company’s management team, and you see no racial or gender diversity; walk away from that job offer!
If you’d like to spend time away on family leave and your interviewer pooh poohs it, you should walk away from that company. If you’re community-minded and the organization with which you’re interviewing has no programs for involvement in the local community, walk! If the interviewer can’t give a valid reason for the departure of the person who had the job before you, do some searching to find the reason for that person’s departure.
If the company is on shaky financial ground, walk away from it. I’ve done the opposite and lived to regret it.