Hacker News Reader

Comment by DeWilde | Hacker News Reader

Glassdoor does it for me. Most reviews have a bias towards negativity (those with hard feelings will usually take the time to let everyone know), so if the reviews are extra negative it is a good sign to steer clear.

Reddit and HackerNews for more larger companies.

Also, recently discovered a Chinese language forum 1point3acrees where there is some real candid talk about the larger/FAANG companies and their offices around the world.

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The last place I worked at had some serious issues going on internally. A couple hundred people but a basically non functioning HR department. People being yelled at by managers without repercussion. Also just bad engineering culture - top down directives that didn't make sense to be spending time on.

About once a month there'd be an extremely negative review show up on glassdoor highlighting what it was actually like. Directors go into crisis mode then a few days later the review is gone. Apparently if you pay Glassdoor you can have reviews removed by just telling them it's not factual. So unfortunately it just can't be trusted.

Nowadays I talk to someone that works there off the record, outside of the interview process. Ideally a friend of a friend.

Glassdoor can be amazing at finding dirt on a company. ALWAYS sort by new. Many companies (unfortunately) incentivize their employees to write five star reviews. Those will show up first if sorted by Best.

Glassdoor is super useful & also just great entertainment

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