Should I Apply to a job that has terrible reviews?

[charlie007]

There's a company that I've been interviewing with recently and upon further investigation

on my own of their history and culture, on onlines job boards, I saw a lot of bad reviews in the

past 6 months from current and ex-employees stating how bad management is, about how

favoritism runs rampant in the company, how they'll cut new employees within the first year if they feel like

they need to save some money, etc etc.

 

It's a pretty big company, so I was excited about the probability of getting the job but after

spending the night doing my research a lot deeper, I'm a bit disappointed. They want to see

me for one last interview later today.

Edited January 31, 2020 by charlie007

[2BGoodAgain]

the real question is... DO YOU NEED THE MONEY???

[charlie007]

20 minutes ago, 2BGoodAgain said:

the real question is... DO YOU NEED THE MONEY???

Quite honestly, yes.

The salary at this new job would be a lot more than what I currently make at my other FT job.

[d0nnivain]

People only post when there is something to complain about.  People rarely go out of their way to say how fabulous something is.  Since you don't know any of the posters you can't accurately judge their reliability.  

Who knows maybe you will be the one to reform the culture  

[Ruby Slippers]

In my experience the employee reviews online are very accurate.

I would only do it if you really need the increased income. Hating your job or the place you work is miserable. I've been there, and every day felt like an eternity.

If you can make it on your current income, I'd keep looking for something better. It's a hot job  market for workers right now, so I bet you can find something better.

[sothereiwas]

1 hour ago, charlie007 said:

There's a company that I've been interviewing with recently and upon further investigation

on my own of their history and culture, on onlines job boards, I saw a lot of bad reviews

Bad reviews by employees that didn't work out or bad reviews by long term current employees? It could just be that they have high standards, which is often nice if you can also perform at that level; it might mean you will have less deadweight to tow around. Try to read each review and consider what might have happened to motivate the reviewer to take the time to leave the review. Do this for both the positive and negative reviews. 

[charlie007]

9 minutes ago, sothereiwas said:

Bad reviews by employees that didn't work out or bad reviews by long term current employees? It could just be that they have high standards, which is often nice if you can also perform at that level; it might mean you will have less deadweight to tow around. Try to read each review and consider what might have happened to motivate the reviewer to take the time to leave the review. Do this for both the positive and negative reviews. 

Both. Most of the negative reviews say that management is terrible. They also say that the company recently got bought out last year, and since

then has become a miserable place to work. There are good reviews as well -- but a lot more bad than good. It's a multi-million dollar company.

[Ruby Slippers]

Most companies are not good and people now have the channels to complain about the poor treatment and exploitation. You have to look hard to find good companies, and no surprise, people love working there so it's not as easy to get a job there. But it's so worth it. I work for an organization that's highly reviewed on Glassdoor, and I no longer even consider a company that has poor employee reviews on that site. I get recruited all the time, and most of the companies are poorly reviewed by employees, meaning I have zero interest and turn them down. This is assuming they have more than a few reviews, enough data and info to paint a picture.

[sothereiwas]

32 minutes ago, Ruby Slippers said:

Most companies are not good and people now have the channels to complain about the poor treatment and exploitation.

Interestingly, this has not been my experience at all. In my experience most companies have been pretty good to work for. I have no explanation for the differences in our experiences. 

[Ruby Slippers]

9 minutes ago, sothereiwas said:

Interestingly, this has not been my experience at all. In my experience most companies have been pretty good to work for. I have no explanation for the differences in our experiences. 

Different standards, I suppose. I always see room for improvement, have high standards - but I never ask for anything I don't give. I ran my own small business for 5 years, and feedback from the people who worked with me was glowing. Every one of them told me it was the best job they ever had and they'd happily work with me again any day.

[sothereiwas]

12 minutes ago, Ruby Slippers said:

Different standards, I suppose.

I guess maybe. All I need would be the resources to get my job done and minimal interference. Usually any issues I've experienced were isolated turds in middle management, and it's easy to transfer away until they eventually implode so.. meh. If someone needs a lot more than the ability to get the work done unmolested and an optional full coffee pot, I guess they might see more issues?

[Ruby Slippers]

It's a matter of philosophy, I suppose. 

I've learned that most restaurants with a lot of Google reviews rated 4.0 or lower are meh. I prefer 4.5 or higher. Sure, some people skew the data with a very good or bad fluke experience, but when you have hundreds of reviews, the numbers don't lie.

Anything below 3.0 on Glassdoor - assuming many reviews, so sufficient data - is an absolute no-go. 3.5+ is preferred, 4.0+ is great.

[charlie007]

1 hour ago, Ruby Slippers said:

 I get recruited all the time, and most of the companies are poorly reviewed by employees, meaning I have zero interest and turn them down. This is assuming they have more than a few reviews, enough data and info to paint a picture.

Hmm... This is how my whole experience started, a recruiter found me and offered this job. In fact, the company rating on Glassdoor is 2.9

In all honesty, this is the first time I've been approached by a recruiter. I just re-entered the job market a few months ago after 10 years.

I wonder if it's the "norm" for crappy companies go through a recruitment company.

Ugh. I think I'll still go through with it and see what happens until they actually OFFER a job. I could use it as a stepping stone since it's

in a field I'd like to venture more into in the next 10 years.

Edited January 31, 2020 by charlie007

[sothereiwas]

33 minutes ago, Ruby Slippers said:

Anything below 3.0 on Glassdoor - assuming many reviews, so sufficient data - is an absolute no-go. 3.5+ is preferred, 4.0+ is great.

I never really checked before, but he last 3 places I've worked, which covers over 10 years of history, were rated 4.8. 3.7, and 4.6 so I guess I just worked at great places? They all had mixed reviews of course. 

[Ruby Slippers]

1 hour ago, charlie007 said:

Hmm... This is how my whole experience started, a recruiter found me and offered this job. In fact, the company rating on Glassdoor is 2.9

In all honesty, this is the first time I've been approached by a recruiter. I just re-entered the job market a few months ago after 10 years.

I wonder if it's the "norm" for crappy companies go through a recruitment company.

Ugh. I think I'll still go through with it and see what happens until they actually OFFER a job. I could use it as a stepping stone since it's

in a field I'd like to venture more into in the next 10 years.

My experience was similar! I was powering down my business and this corporate recruiter basically handed me a job. I did great work for them, made them millions of dollars, but I hated the environment.

A year and a half in, my current employer recruited me, and this place is 1,000 times better than the old place.

So yes, it was a stepping stone. My one tip is to make it all business, try not to let their negativity bog you down, don't complain about them to others. Just take it for what it is and get out when you can. Good luck!

[Ruby Slippers]

1 hour ago, sothereiwas said:

I never really checked before, but he last 3 places I've worked, which covers over 10 years of history, were rated 4.8. 3.7, and 4.6 so I guess I just worked at great places? They all had mixed reviews of course. 

That's great, a reflection on your own quality. Most places are below 4.0, so anything above that is very good.

[sothereiwas]

6 minutes ago, Ruby Slippers said:

That's great, a reflection on your own quality.

Maybe, probably has something to do with the industry in general too. I suppose some sectors trend higher than others. 

 

1 hour ago, charlie007 said:

I think I'll still go through with it and see what happens until they actually OFFER a job. I could use it as a stepping stone since it's

in a field I'd like to venture more into in the next 10 years.

Not a bad plan, sometimes sucking it up to grow into the area you're interested in can pay off. 

[K.K.]

I read the reviews about my job before I went there. Yea, a lot of them were bad and mostly the same things said about your potential job. But dotted in there were some really, really good ones. Like “best job ever” ones. 

So I went and yea, I can see where the bad reviews came from. But it’s worth putting up with the irritations for the good money, benefits and extra bonus crap that we have. The people that love it look at it like that. They ignore the rest. I’m not one of those people so I bitch about it every day. 😂 

BUT I’m glad I didn’t take the reviews to heart because it’s worth it for me and really not so bad. I wouldn’t not go to an interview based on other people’s opinions. 

Nobody likes it when their company changes hands. It’s easy for them to reminisce that it was better before. So they’re gonna write that in the reviews. But you won’t have any previous management to compare it to so who cares. Just go to the interview and see what happens and how it feels and decide if you could stand it there or not.