If you are looking for a job – or – you are considering working with another company – or – if this is your first time going for a job interview, then you should know about some of the essential job interview red flags that will make you run in the other direction and rater not work for that company.
Read on to learn more about the behind-the-scenes of those red flags you must look out for during the interview process.
If the company displays any red flags, you will want to watch out and not work there – even if the pay package is too good to resist.
An Important Disclaimer
Before we get into the list, you will need to reset your mentality. Instead of wishing for companies to offer you a job, you will want to take control and make better decisions about whether a company is good enough for your career growth and your emotional, physical, and mental well-being.
If you don’t get into this mindset, you will let all those red flags go and convince yourself that everything is fine. Resultantly, you will be willing to take a job offer – despite the red flags – and before you know it – you will be surrounded by a potentially miserable, toxic environment for years.
The Use of Sarcasm
The primary red flag you will want to watch out for is sarcasm to dodge essential questions.
When it comes to sarcasm, we all know that every joke is a half-truth. So, when during an interview, if you see some sarcastic remarks coming up, you will want to look beneath the sarcastic surface and better believe that there is more to it.
For example, if you ask the question, “what are the precautionary measures that the company is integrating to safeguard their employees” if you are applying at a construction company, and your interviewer responds with sarcasm, such as “I’d like to know that too,” – you better run the other direction.
If you don’t, you might contact the best injury law firm after your first week of accepting the job. You will want to ensure that you are provided with a safe work environment – you might as well get a lawyer on board, discuss a job offer with them, and read the contract with them to ensure that your rights are granted.
Nonetheless, you will watch out for any sarcastic responses, as these are clear red flags that some strange dynamics are brewing underneath the surface.
More importantly – don’t respond to sarcasm with sarcasm. And don’t make the mistake of using sarcasm in any job interview. Believe it or not, sarcasm can make things very awkward, and you will want to avoid awkwardness at all costs.
However, if you have ever got injured during work at your current workspace, you might contact a local lawyer if your employer didn’t provide coverage for your injury. For example, if you live in Brooklyn, you can contact a work injury doctor brooklyn ny to get proper coverage.
Where Are the Questions?
Another red flag that you will want to look out for is that they won’t ask many questions during the interview.
While this can potentially be a good sign – it can also be a terrible sign. It all comes down to the context. If you have a reference or a set number of references at the company, it is perfectly fine if they don’t ask you many questions.
Usually, good CEOs value the input of their employees and instruct their interviewers to hire the reference that they have heard all the good stuff about.
Nonetheless, if you aren’t a reference and you aren’t asked many questions while the interviewer is talking the whole time – it is happening because they are trying to get you interested in the role. It is sketchy when this “selling you on the roll” occurs so much, and they really have no information about you – after multiple interviews.
They barely learn anything about you and give you a job offer. If this happens, there is a great possibility that they might have a retention problem to the point that they are into taking anyone who is applying.
Suppose you haven’t applied and the recruiter has contacted you themselves, and they aren’t asking many questions but doing all the talking. In that case, the interviewers might do this deliberately to get the candidate excited about the role.
This scenario is typical and not an issue or red flag.
Negative Mentions of Coworkers
Another red flag to look out for is if the interviewer mentions anything negative about their coworkers. This is a massive red flag; you certainly don’t want to be part of that company culture.
When an interviewer gives you information about a company, and if they say cryptic things about their coworkers – you know that deep drama is involved. You should remember that you can always ask follow-up questions and not allow the interviewer to simply be cryptic.
Another option would be to interview former and current employees to discover more about the company. At this point, you might as well want to look out for another red flag, which is a high turnover.
If you want to assess the company’s turnover rate, you can check out Glassdoor, as this is the platform where most unhappy people post, and most happy people never think about writing a review. So, anything you read on there is – of course – not total reality – but – you can ask the interviewer why the role is open to get a bit more context.
The Final Flag
The final flag you will want to watch out for is a disorder in the interview process. If you sense that your potential job role seems to change every time you speak to a person in the company, which is a strong indication of chaos.
If the hiring panel doesn’t seem to be sure about what you will do, you will more likely struggle to succeed in the role – once you get it.
Usually, this happens because the hiring managers cut corners when they jot down the job description or make a list of skills that they are looking for, which makes the hiring process challenging – not only for the company but also for the candidate as they lack a clear picture of what is expected from them.
