https://www.kununu.com/ - at least for german based companies
Ask HN: Tools or sites you use to scope out a workplace before taking a job?
11–20 of 169 posts
Re: Ask HN: Tools or sites you use to scope out a workplace before taking a job?
#12Since i'm in IT, DNSDumpster.
This. It gives you can (but not always) give some valuable insights to what services they use, potential security issues, etc.
Re: Ask HN: Tools or sites you use to scope out a workplace before taking a job?
#13nmap
Re: Ask HN: Tools or sites you use to scope out a workplace before taking a job?
#14If you're a software engineer (or will work closely w/ engineers), I built Key Values (https://www.keyvalues.com) to help w/ this.
Before building KV though, my research process included looking for and reading:
- the company's career and about us pages
- an active blog w/ recent posts (w/in the last 2 months)
- LinkedIn / Twitter / GitHub of founders and existing team members (I'd also look for any old blogs written by (or press written about) these folks before they joined the company)
- checking to see if the company hosts meetups or hackathons I can attend
- seeing if I know anyone who currently works there or worked there before and then reaching out
- cold emailing or Tweeting current team members
Re: Ask HN: Tools or sites you use to scope out a workplace before taking a job?
#15Don't give notice yet. Instead, take a week of vacation and start the new job during that week. Make your official decision during afternoon tea on Sunday.
I'm pretty sure there's issues with holding two jobs at the same time. Have you done this? And do you just rely on people not finding out?
I had two full time jobs for eight months.
The only issue was no leisure time
Re: Ask HN: Tools or sites you use to scope out a workplace before taking a job?
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
And do what? Just quit your old job on the spot?
Of course not. You tell the old job that you have a personal crisis and that you would love to stay on as a part-time remote consultant...
No offense, but that approach would make me not want to hire someone like that or work with someone like that. It may appear that you’re pulling one over on your previous employer, but if anything, that is probably a blessing for them to no longer have someone that operates in a shady fashion like that employed by them.
Edit: The undesirable behavior was in reference to the lying about a personal crisis. I personally believe in transparency and wouldn’t attempt to capitalize on an employer’s sympathy by lying to them.
Re: Ask HN: Tools or sites you use to scope out a workplace before taking a job?
#17Used to use Glassdoor, but it has become progressively more rude/pay-walled over the years, and they allow more paid employer astroturfing than they used to.
I suppose that's just a sign of the times, and I don't necessarily have a grudge against the company for doing so. It does however mean that the site is no longer useful to this end, at least for me.
As for directly contacting a company, I tend not to. Sometimes this works out, other times not. I thought I would hate my current job and thought I was quite unqualified, but it turned out to be pretty fantastic. Just going with the flow sometimes works out that way.
Re: Ask HN: Tools or sites you use to scope out a workplace before taking a job?
#18If you're a software engineer (or will work closely w/ engineers), I built Key Values ( https://www.keyvalues.com ) to help w/ this. Before building KV though, my research process included looking for and reading: - the company's career and about us pages - an active blog w/ recent posts (w/in the last 2 months) - LinkedIn / Twitter / GitHub of founders and existing team members (I'd also look for any old blogs writt…
Key Values is a very cool idea! Have you thought about adding a location filter?
Re: Ask HN: Tools or sites you use to scope out a workplace before taking a job?
#19If you're a software engineer (or will work closely w/ engineers), I built Key Values ( https://www.keyvalues.com ) to help w/ this. Before building KV though, my research process included looking for and reading: - the company's career and about us pages - an active blog w/ recent posts (w/in the last 2 months) - LinkedIn / Twitter / GitHub of founders and existing team members (I'd also look for any old blogs writt…
Oh, and depending on the company and their product/service, I'd also look at their other social media accounts. For example, some have active Instagram and/or YouTube accounts which can be incredibly insightful.
Ps. One lesson I've learned: never judge a company based on their marketing website.
Re: Ask HN: Tools or sites you use to scope out a workplace before taking a job?
#20Don't give notice yet. Instead, take a week of vacation and start the new job during that week. Make your official decision during afternoon tea on Sunday.
I'm pretty sure there's issues with holding two jobs at the same time. Have you done this? And do you just rely on people not finding out?
Depends on the country. Here your notice time would be 1 month, so you can't just start "trying out" another full-time job during a holiday.
Edit: mistake in duration