Red Flags to Look Out for During Your Job Interview
The job-hunting process has never been a fun experience for me. Everything from submitting a resume, anxiously awaiting a response, and sitting through awkward interviews is a time-consuming process, so ensuring you’re doing your due diligence to get the most out of it is essential. That includes looking for warning signs that might lead you down the wrong career choice.
The interview process is a two-way street. As much as the company is interviewing them, you as the candidate should also be interviewing them to see if you two would be a match. Below are six red flags to look out for during your job interview.
High turnover
One of my favorite things to hint at during an interview is employee turnover. Unless it’s a growing company, finding numerous open positions can often give you a clue that the company has a high turnover. If you’re comfortable, ask your interviewer how long people stay at the job, or what their employee retention looks like. High turnover is usually a sign that people are unhappy or undervalued there, keep that in mind during your interview.
Vague answers or descriptions
Candidates are often allowed to ask questions at the end of the interview. Use this time wisely. Ask questions you care about and would help you decide if offered the job. If you get vague answers to your questions, take this as a red flag. The interviewer is probably trying to hide something. The same goes for descriptions of the role or work environments. Vague = red flag.
Unprepared or distracted interviewer
Nothing is more uncomfortable during an already nerve-wracking interview than sitting across from an interviewer who is distracted or unprepared (or both). You can assume that the interviewer is either overworked and didn’t have time to prepare for the interview, or they simply don’t care about the position and have bigger things to attend to. Think about whether that would be an environment you would be OK entering.
Disorganized process
Was the entire recruitment process a chaotic mess? Unless you’re applying at a small business, where HR is oftentimes also the CEO and marketing manager, then the company should have a streamlined process for hiring a team. If you’re interviewing with a big company that can’t seem to get its recruitment process in order, then you should be cautious of what the rest of the work environment might be like. Could every department be a chaotic mess?
