What to look for in an employer

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What to look for in an employer

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Freddie-304292 SSChasing Mays Points: 650 More actions · Answer 1

TravisDBA (7/23/2012)
Freddie-304292 (7/23/2012)
I know it sounds minor, but good cycling facilities is a big one for me nowadays. It's become my main form of exercise and I wouldn't want to give it up for a job just because there were no showers and no where to leave my bike.
Don't get the issue with the flagpoles and fishtanks. Don't see much in the way of Flagpoles in the UK, but I've worked places with Fishtanks before and they've not gone out of business.
I totally understand the need to exercise, but please remember, you are not being paid to ride a bike at work. That should be at most a secondary consideration. 😀

😀

James Stover Hall of Fame Points: 3393 More actions · Answer 2

I always try to find out if I am filling a new position or one that someone has vacated. That 's the initial fork in the road for me.

I also agree with the common courtesy items like "Did you find us OK?" or "Would you like some water?". If the interviewer hasn't even grasped the basics of politeness, then beware the sociopath.

James Stover, McDBA

jbnv SSC Eights! Points: 973 More actions · Answer 3

James Stover (7/24/2012)
I always try to find out if I am filling a new position or one that someone has vacated. That 's the initial fork in the road for me.

Which leads to other forks. If vacated, was that person fired or did they resign, and why? (A good person could be fired because of office politics. A good person could resign from a good company because of personal reasons that have nothing to do with the state of the company. Etc.)

Jay Bienvenu | http://bienv.com | http://twitter.com/jbnv

TravisDBA SSCoach Points: 15780 More actions · Answer 4

jbnv (7/24/2012)
James Stover (7/24/2012)
I always try to find out if I am filling a new position or one that someone has vacated. That 's the initial fork in the road for me.
Which leads to other forks. If vacated, was that person fired or did they resign, and why? (A good person could be fired because of office politics. A good person could resign from a good company because of personal reasons that have nothing to do with the state of the company. Etc.)

And... if any of that was really the case they probably would not tell you real reason(s) anyway. 😀

"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"

TomThomson SSC Guru Points: 104773 More actions · Answer 5

Quite a nice editorial. I guess I agree with most of it - although I agree even more with the comment Gus posted on Monday.

The flagpole idea is interesting. From that I should be able to deduce, for example, that the USMC is in decline, which would so much surprise me that I don't believe the flagpole bit. And then fish tanks. On Gower Street and Lisle Street in London a fish tank tends to be a sign of a thriving business (albeit perhaps not one which employs a DBA). 😛 Just another two well known indicators of decline that are actually nothing of the sort. 😉

On the whole, I am more interested in how the people seem to be in interviews; any firm which has such a formal interview process that there is no way to assess the personalities of their people handling the interviews is a definite no for me. I prefer it if the interviewers are interested in approaches to doing things, rather than technical stuff that can be picked up from a reference book - maybe that's because I believe in learning new things, not in repeating old things (with one exception: learning new things is an old thing which I have often repeated). In fact I want to work with people who are willing to learn new things, take on problems that they have no idea how to solve until they've done some work, as well as having great technical competence an expertise.

Tom