As part of a MBA program, most of us are either going to be looking for a new boss soon or will be a boss to some new employees. To that point, I came across an article by Alex Malley that is helpful on how to spot (and avoid) a horrible boss. This helps us not only while we are contemplating on a new position but also the pitfalls to avoid so that we don’t become one of “them”.
Alex basically talks about 5 signs to watch out for during a job interview. They are:
1) Keep an ear to the ground: Right from your first conversation, pay attention if the interviewer is actually listening to what you have to say. If they don’t in an interview, it is likely in the job they won’t too.
2) Honest eyes: The eyes often tell a different story to the voice. When in doubt, trust the eyes. See if the eyes and what they are telling is consistent.
3) If it is “I” before “we”, reconsider working with them: A natural leader will comfortably use the word “we” when discussing the workplace. Sure they may slip in occasionally, but be cautious if it is always “I” before “we”.
4) The dominator: Look for the dominant interviewer, and observe the other staff around. Do they agree to everything they say? Are they too intimidated to bring something up? If yes, then ask yourself, is this the environment you want to work in?
5) Throw in culture question: Closely follow the response to the question and assess if it is genuine. If it is genuine you should see a positive change in the body language of the responder. This will give you a real feel on how the culture of that department is.
Developing complete certainty about any job/boss is almost impossible, but following the above tips will give us a better chance of success as well as if you are the boss, avoiding these tips will not make us “that bad boss”.
http://www.thenakedceo.com/job-seeking/how-to-spot-and-avoid-a-horrible-boss/
Nice. I always wonder how to get a better feel of the true culture of the company from the interview process.
Another area that is hard for me to gauge from the interview process is how honest the recruiter/interviewer is with me about the career path of the role. I feel as if almost every opportunity that comes my way is pitched as a “expect to get promoted within 1 year,” but how often that really ends up being the case is not clear to me. Because of this, I usually don’t put much weight into these comments..
To go along with “culture questions” as you have pointed out, another test you can do is to ask how susceptible they are to new ideas. I have come across some managers that are not open to ideas at all and it really destroys the creativity within the group. It would be beneficial to discover this prior to the interview rather than dealing with it when its too late.
This is a an excellent article because in today’s work environment we not only choose jobs based on our career paths, but we choose jobs based on managers. They have a huge influence on making or breaking our careers.
One thing I thought about was the reverse role as a hiring manager. You can ensure that you are doing these techniques to be genuine about your interviewing process .