When considering a job offer, how can you be sure that youre joining a good company and not a bad company?

The worst career decision I made early in my career was leaving one job that wasnt really going anywhere (it was a good company but the job was boring) to a bad company where the job ended up being worse than the one Id left.

I should have trusted my gut and listened to what it was telling me.

I ended up leaving this company after 8 weeks and shortly thereafter, I became a recruiter. So in that regard, things ended up ok but I could have saved myself some grief if Id paid more attention to what I saw during the interview process.

Here is some advice regarding how you can ensure you are joining a good company and not a bad company:

1. Trust your gut. What is your gut feeling about the company? Dont ignore glaring signs that something might be wrong that the company isnt telling you about. Dont look for bad signs that dont really exist, simply keep both eyes open and dont let your desire to change jobs overrule common sense. In the example I gave above, my first bad feeling was when I went to the first interview and found out that the company was located in a converted house which was not what I was expecting. They were supposed to be moving to a real office shortly but I overruled my gut reaction when I should have just walked away from the opportunity.

2. Listen to everyone you interview with especially anyone who isnt the hiring manager. The hiring manager isnt likely to spill the beans on anything negative about the company but other people you interview with just might. Sometimes during the interview process, you get to speak with people youd be working with if you are hired and quite often theyll shed light on things that you might not otherwise have known since theyre not the one doing the hiring and have no reason to hide anything.

3. If possible, try to find someone who used to work for the company and ask them for their honest opinion about the company. If you know someone who already works there, confidentially ask them about their experience with the company and the pros and cons of working there.

4. When you go for interviews, look around for anything out of the ordinary. Do people look like theyre happy? Does everyone appear to be rushing around stressed or do they look relaxed? How professional looking is the environment?

5. Pay attention to how the company answers your questions during the interview process. Do they answer all your questions or do they seem to avoid some of them? Does it look like they are trying to hide something? Remember to find out why the job you are interviewing for is actually open, too ie. Was the last person fired and if so, why? Is it a newly created job?

6. Remember to do as much research about the company as possible on your own well before your first interview. Look carefully over the company website, type in the companys name into various search engines and see what results come up, look for press releases related to the company, check out their financial stability through the use of financial records, etc. The more you know beforehand, the better.

Carl Mueller

My name is Carl Mueller and I'd like to thank you for learning a bit more about me!

I feel that I have numerous relevant experiences during my career that come in useful when helping people with their careers:

I know what it?s like to work internationally, having worked overseas (in New Zealand, from 1994-1998).

I've survived several corporate downsizings while many of my colleagues were being laid off.

I have also experienced being laid off twice myself during corporate downsizings.

I know what it?s like to be self-employed.

I've helped many people find better jobs. I started to work as a professional recruiter in 2000 first as an Information Technology (IT) recruiter and then in general recruitment across many industries including IT, manufacturing and marketing. Since this time, I have helped many people find their dream career and it?s a great feeling.

I experienced one of the slowest hiring periods in recent memory especially during the general hiring slowdown that followed the Y2K frenzy in 1999, the bursting of the dot com bubble in early 2000, and then the employment market bottoming out following September 11, 2001.

These were certainly not great times to be a job searcher in most industries nor was it a particularly good time to be a recruiter.

Following this, I began running the day to day operations of an Internet-based company in early 2003 that focused on developing online software and subscription-based websites for consumers. It was then that I fully realized the power, usefulness and potential of the Internet which really spurred me to set up my own website which you can view in my Personal URL section below this bio.

I?m also a Platinum Ezine Articles Expert as recognized by EzineArticles.com, one of the most visited websites on the Internet. This special designation is earned by having consistently high-quality articles published and viewed on their website. All of my submissions are related to helping you find your dream career and many of my articles get reproduced on other websites by their webmasters.

Good luck with your career and I hope I have been of assistance to you!