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Comment by smacktoward | Hacker News Reader

There's usually signs, if you're sufficiently attuned to see them. Another thread on HN a few days back led me to write a blog post about one reliable type of "warm up the résumé" indicator:

http://jasonlefkowitz.net/2013/05/introducing-lefkowitzs-law...

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"... if you’re in a client-services business, when you visit your clients, make sure to go with them to grab a beverage from their break room before your meeting".

So true. Another good point is to ask to use the restrooms even if you don't really have to go.

I interviewed at one place where I was told over and over how well the company was doing and how the owner loved racing his Porsches at the local road track. Then I saw the restrooms, which looked like they hadn't been updated or fixed in twenty years. I figured out where the money was going... and it wasn't to employees.

Sure enough, the offer came in and it was a lowball. That confirmed my theory.

It's interesting that you mention the Porsche thing. I've always found looking in the company car park on the way into a job interview a pretty reliable measure of how a company is doing and in particular how it treats its staff. Seeing reserved spaces for senior management full of high end executive cars and SUVs, and then a handful of unreserved spaces for everyone else full of much older vehicles without a single high-end or enthusiast model is not a good sign.

Or, even worse, a row of empty spots reserved for senior management...

Keep in mind that restrooms are often the one part of an office that a company can't upgrade because they're under the control of the landlord and not the tenant. I've worked at a number of companies where we were doing fine, but the bathrooms were terrible because the landlord never, ever updated them from the original build.

The company can move offices. His point is correct.

I guess I could have added this to the original story, but the company owned and built the building themselves. In the late 70s. And the interior apparently hasn't changed since.

That is what the bad companies will always say, even when it is not true.

Landlords will happily allow the tenant to pay the cost of renovating the bathroom. Good companies understand that certain basic creature comforts for employees are a cost of doing business, and it is very little money in the long haul. Penny-pinching here is a bad sign (unless it is a very early start up, or the company anticipates moving offices within a couple years for some reason).

Not only food, but office supplies. Very true.

But it's important that the Variation is indicative. Like if you get baller snacks for a year and lame snacks start coming in, that's a very bad sign. But if you've always had lame snacks that's not a bad sign, your company is just frugal.

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