Is This Company Right for Me? Here’s How to Tell

Is This Company Right for Me? Here’s How to Tell

Is This Company Right for Me? Here’s How to Tell

Is This Company Right for Me? Here’s How to Tell

Backchannel’s advice columnist gives the best guide you’ll ever see on figuring out a company’s culture.

Silicon Valley’s biggest companies pay Karen Wickre for her advice—but in Help Desk, it’s free to you.

I’m currently a White House staffer, planning my departure as the Obama administration ends. I also want to advise my team looking to join the private sector. It’s a group of engineers, project managers, and others who are very good at working across organizations (and agencies). Quite a few of us plan to look at tech-related businesses for our next stop. My question: Apart from the specific requirements for a job, what should we be looking for in choosing our next workplace? What are the markers of a good company culture?

This question is particularly timely: a change in administration marks a huge turnover. Of course, you’ve known the day would come, and it sounds like you and your team are open to a lot of possibilities. That undoubtedly feels good at some moments but daunting at others. Beyond just getting a new job, you’re asking the right questions about culture and fit, which I think are at least as important for most of us as putting our hard-won skills to work in a new place.

Good work culture is like porn — you know it when you see it. I’d encourage you to look beyond that nebulous idea. There are three arenas that can help you figure out a good fit: the business’s persona, the cast of characters, and the structure. Consider this a checklist for your investigations.

There are ample public materials that can inform your research to see what a company says about itself, and what others say about it. You’ll want to understand the financial picture, market position, history of investments, and of course its revenue prospects.

What do they say about themselves?

Not all companies have a literal mission statement, but what’s their big idea? Where are they heading? Consider these mission statements: “making the world’s information universally accessible and useful” and the “earth’s most customer-centric company.” Both are certainly lofty and vague — especially considering the massive range of products and services that Google and Amazon, the respective creators of these manifestos, offer today. If your prospective employer has a mission that resonates with you, that’s a positive. Can’t find a mission? Not every company takes the time to craft one. An aspirational slogan doesn’t mean a lot by itself, of course. It’s how that idea permeates and shapes the way people approach their work from start to finish.

Another place to investigate is the company’s communications: its website, blogs, marketing campaigns, social media accounts. Is it conversational or stuffy? Boastful or humble? Authoritative or vague? Too much marketing lingo signifying not much? Does it reflect the right style for what it does? (Slack should feel different from Symantec, after all.) Whatever you find, note your reaction as one factor to consider.

What do customers say about them?

Review the product offerings — past, current, planned. Do they more or less align with the mission in a broad sense? Do they seem useful, smart, time-saving, valuable? There will always be critics, but on the whole, does the company get decent marks for what they do? (Among my job-seeking friends, a sluggish cadence for product releases, or too many critical reviews, tend to be a turn-off, and reason not to pursue an opening.) You want to see a sense of momentum and enthusiasm among customers. It’s heartening to know that people like what your future employer produces.

What does the press say about them?

Look back over the past year — longer, if the business is well-established — and see how it’s described: giant, survivor, upstart, fading star, confused? Longer profiles, which tend to be deeply reported, are especially important. Are they generally neutral, or consistently critical? Neither one is a deal-breaker, but it will help to understand their reputation — and gauge your own tolerance for working at a company that’s criticized. Alternatively, is the company invisible? That’s not necessarily bad: a young company in stealth mode, or an older one turning around, should be quiet. It’s not a good sign for a company to crave attention indiscriminately. There is such a thing as bad press!

What does the press say about the executives?

Is there an outsized personality at the helm who gets a lot of coverage? That’s normal for a startup. But as a company grows, the spotlight should broaden. As Google grew, we on the inside marveled at how observers still believed it was all about those wunderkind grad students Larry and Sergey doing it all. While they were vital to the vision (and have remained active in many aspects of the company), even at the four-year mark it wasn’t all about them. As with a presidential administration, you want to know there’s a deep bench of capable people who are in the public eye with initiatives and ideas. Read well-researched stories about the leaders, their blog posts, their social feeds. Watch their presentations. Are these people you could respect, find interesting, would like to hear more from?

What does the company say about its competitors?

Beware the claim, “We’re so unique, we have no competition!” This is never true. (Even Google faced a raft of established competitors when it launched.) You can learn a lot about a business by gauging how it relates to others in the field. Is it a fast follower in a crowded arena, or is it truly a paradigm-shifter? Some companies express their passion through relentless head-on competition: constant talk of “enemies” and office scoreboards racking up every win and loss. Is that a culture you can thrive in, or would you prefer to opt out of the war room?

External validation alone isn’t enough. Work culture is driven by a mix of core values, work styles, and the organizational setup that’s created the humans in the building. It’s the people who determine success, failure, and everything in between.

Who will you work with day to day?

A colleague recently chose one of three similarly generous offers strictly on the basis of how much he liked the team he’d be joining. Can you blame him? Whom we spend time with may end up mattering a lot more than all the rest. There’s nothing like that “we’ve been in the trenches together” feeling to build a sense of trust and synergy. Alternately, you won’t soon forget any backstabbing or assholery you have to deal with. #amirite?

How should I do this fieldwork?

Reach out informally to anyone you know who is working at the company now or recently (a stint from 3 or 4 years ago may be outdated). (For those who care about the finer points of networking, please see my post on how to grow and manage your personal network for the long haul.) It’s fine to study sites like Glassdoor, which encourages people to rate employers anonymously, But it’s subjective. Quora may be a little better to search and post specific questions.

Who’s in charge?

It helps immensely if you feel confident about the people at the top of the company. How communicative, responsive, and savvy are they with employees? Do executive titles reflect past positions to some degree? You want a CFO to already have a solid track record in financial management; a PR leader should have a history of communication strategy. Beyond their CV, what else do they bring to the party? I’ve worked for VPs who made an annual competition for employees to donate to a food bank, raised money for cancer research, or led the team on volunteer service days. Such activities indicate human qualities that go well beyond the office. If you find that laudable, look for it. As for hot startups and youthful founders, they can be fantastic (I will forever be a fan of the early Larry and Sergey, who built something most the world could never imagine), if the organization supports them in appropriate roles.

Is it inclusive?

The makeup of the company is increasingly a priority for many job-seekers. Is there a stated position on diversity and inclusion — and more important, are there programs in place to make progress? It’s fine to get behind the sentiment or sign an industry letter, but how specifically does the company recruit, hire, promote, and track the success of its diverse candidates and employees? (Do they publicly share results that are measurable?) Whoever is in charge of these efforts is important, too. Whatever the title, there should be an effective stakeholder involved at a high level — someone who has the attention and buy-in of the whole executive team.

What about social?

Many people you encounter during your search will have some social account. Leaders, potential team members, and other employees at your target company are worth investigating on social platforms. Of course, no one should be wholly judged by what they say or show on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat. These are still mostly personal platforms, often meant to be about non-work life. But such accounts can also give you clues to how your future colleagues feel about their workplace. Photos of the corporate Gay Pride contingent (Target on Instagram) or employee volunteer days (Twitter’s #FridayForGood) shed light on how people represent the company in other settings.

What’s the growth path?

Assuming they continue to grow, some people really want to put down roots and stay a while. Big companies are better at managing employee retention with cross-team or geographical moves and training, because their interest is to keep people happy — and part of the family. Smaller companies can promise less, but it’s not unusual to send people to establish a new office or region. If this is key for you, ask how it might work.

The details of office life may seem like an afterthought, but these are the elements of a job that may end up mattering a great deal more to you than a nice mission statement or positive press clips.

What’s the workspace like?

Physical workspace says a lot about a company. I don’t mean just designer touches, though they are fine and fun (and with luck, not too expensive). If the top managers get closed-door offices, or if there’s a gray maze of high-wall cubicles, you might correctly guess you’re in a top-down culture with lots of hierarchy and politics. An open plan, so popular especially among modern tech companies, seems to indicate openness — though I guarantee power plays can also thrive in such spaces. If a company touts its physical openness as a mark of access, that’s something to hold them to.

How will I get my work done?

Your preferences matter. Is the place conducive to roaming, laptop in hand, wherever you’d like? Or is it a fixed-desk situation where you’re supposed to sit in one spot? What about expected work hours? Contemporary companies are way beyond 9–5; the current thinking is that employees are grown up enough to get their work done when and how they’d like to tackle it (although you’re expected to keep an eye on your inbox and be reachable most of the time, even away from the office). Another key element of culture: are you encouraged to question your employer’s strategy, perks — and anything in between — and get straight answers from leaders? Or is it a “need to know” place, where you get only trickle-down leadership? As for a stated or codified dress code — especially if there aren’t clear reasons for it — well, caveat emptor. In official Washington, business attire is still the standard most of the time. The trend outside that realm is much more casual.

What are the perks?

Employee benefits these days should reflect an awareness of modern needs. Look for adoption or fertility treatments, support for caretakers, reasonable paternity and maternity leave, immigration or relocation help, employee assistance programs, and so on. (All of these should of course be designed around nondiscrimination.) Does the company support affinity groups for its various communities? Depending on the company, these may include enclaves of African Americans, Hispanics, women, and LGBT workers; Google even has one for the over-40 set called Greyglers. Such groups often have an executive sponsor, a budget, and events throughout the year. For example, lots of Silicon Valley companies may celebrate Diwali in recognition of their many Indian employees or march under the company banner at the local Gay Pride parade. A company might provide kosher or halal meals, respectively, for observant Jews or Muslims. These are markers of a company that recognizes the value, and therefore the customs and needs, of people on the team who are not white and western.

I hope all of these pointers help you and your team navigate away from the White House into a world that is more confusing, messier, and less mission-driven than an administration is. Let me encourage you to reach out, gather information, and explore new prospects as much as you can before committing to the next thing.

Lots of places will want your White House experience — but a new position has to make sense for you, not just showcase you as a trophy. Don’t ignore any warning signs, and do pay attention to what makes you feel good about a place. That matters more than all the other signifiers. Good luck.

Irritated by misguided company culture and hapless co-workers? Send your professional quandaries to me via

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