Finding the right fit: How to make sure the company fits you.

During the interview process, you are also interviewing the company, making sure that they are a fit for what you want and need now. It’s as much of an interview for you as it is for the company.

During my job search – yes, recruiters also get recruited! – I always try to make sure I am going to be happy working for that company. Which is why it is so important for me to ask a few questions during the interview and assess possible red flags on the employer’s side. I have even turned down companies after a first conversation as they did not meet my requirements for an employer.

Now, this is all very pretty, but how do make sure the company is a good fit for you? Well, I have some suggestions. To properly assess the company’s fit, I try to follow a few points:

Before the interview, research the company until you know the name of the cleaning lady.

I guess that is always a good place to start, not only will it show that you are interested in the company (giving you extra points in the HR screening interview) as it will give you a lot of information about the company. Besides the website, where you will be able to find all types of information (even references sometimes), I like to take a look at the company’s Glassdoor information as well as Teamlyzer (this is not a sponsored article). I like to see reviews of the company and recruitment process if possible.

Another important thing before the start of the recruitment process, I always pay attention to at what hours does the recruiter reach out to me. If they are working late, it shows the company will consider normal for people to work late, and that is not the type of company that – personally – I want to work for. I canceled an interview before, due to the recruiter sending me email at 10 pm. Because I am not available to be working that late.

During the interview, at the very beginning, one thing that will give you a lot of information about how the company treats people, is how you are treated at the start of the interview. Did the recruiter start the meeting on time? Because if they don’t respect your time during the process, they will likely not respect your time when you are an employee either. I have had interviewers be late for my interview, and I am not sitting on my high horse, as I, myself, have been late for interviews. Where I profusely apologize to the candidate for whatever made me late. But I have had interviewers arrive 15 minutes late to an interview (me as an interviewee) and not provide any type of explanation. Did the recruiter exchange small words to make you comfortable? Did she treat you in the second or third person? These two aspects will give you information regarding the type of culture you will find at the company. More informal companies will treat you in the second person, while more formal companies will do it in the first person.

Still during the interview pay attention to how the recruiter describes the company. Are they excited about the project and product? This will give you information regarding if the person is happy in that company if the company has a clear vision and mission and if the recruiter can easily pass this information on to you. Sometimes, recruiters will also share some information about the culture of the company while they share information regarding the training policies, remote policies and when they explain the possible structure of the teams.

At the end of the screening interview, ask all the questions! Meaning, all questions that you might have that were not clear, or that the recruiter did not talk about. For instance, the remote policy is very important to me as an employee, therefor, if the recruiter does not talk about it, I will. Now, the only exception to this is the salary. If the recruiter does not talk about it, neither should you. They might only talk about this later in the process and talking about the range might make you look more money-driven than you probably would like. There are a few questions that I like to ask in this part: 1) How is the day to day at this position, can you tell me? 2) How many people are on the team, what is the structure of the team? 3) What is your favorite part of working at Y company? 4) What is the best benefit, for your, that the company offers? These questions will give you important information, and you should also ask questions specific to the position. In my case, I usually ask about the possibility to recruit for multiple positions as well as the possibility of doing A to Z.

During the technical interview, if applicable, you might want to ask more technical information about the practices that the company uses, how the work as a team, or not, and other questions that will be important for your day to day at that company. Also, keep in mind, that often, the people interviewing you will be working with you as well, so try and see if those would be people you want to work with. I am lucky and the good practices of my profession are reflected on the first interview by the recruiter (possibly my future colleague) and in the technical interview I usually ask questions more related to technologies used and how they share knowledge and if there is a unique source of truth in the company (because I love documentation and documenting things).

These are a few suggestions to make sure that the company is a good fit for you. Keep in mind that the interview goes both ways and that you are assessing them as much as they assess you. It is important for us to be satisfied with our work and our team as it fills out a great portion of our days, and leads to a better performance. If I am happy, the company is happy, everybody is happy and I don’t have to hate Mondays and all the other days of the week.

Let’s keep on growing together.