You’re in the hot seat, and you’ve just wrapped up answer 45 minutes worth of questions about your resume. The interview now opens the floor and asks you if you have any questions. You do—at least, you think you do. You’d like to know more about the company’s culture. Here’s what you should do:
- Rewind the clock, not just to the start of the interview, but to the start of the application process. To really get a sense for a company’s culture, you need to be paying attention long before the last 15 minutes of your interview. If you wait until now and then just ask a few questions, then no matter what you ask, you are going to get canned, semi-rehearsed answers. Yes, you may demonstrate your inquisitiveness and might even elicit a, “Oh, that’s a great question!” but that doesn’t mean you’ll get a great answer.
- Look at the website from a different perspective. If you’re reading this, you’re reading a blog. If I asked you to characterize the difference between my blog, Laurie Ruettimann’s, and Victorio Milian’s, I bet you could do so without much difficulty. I bet you could even draw some conclusions about our respective personalities. Well the same is true for corporate blogs. Yes, high priced firms are being paid to tighten the message and polish it, but somewhere, someone in an executive role is putting his or her blessing on the message, and that person’s decisions are impacting the culture of the firm in ways big and small. So ask yourself: is the site “safe?” Simple? Is it written for a customer or vendor? Or does it look like the bureaucrats had run of the place during the design process?
- Look at the hiring process. Does the company know what it wants? Are you being treated fairly? Do you like the people you’re dealing with? And do they seem to be enjoying their jobs? I spoke with an assistant at a bank last month to set up a call with a client. Despite the fact she was screening me, she was pleasant about it; she clearly enjoyed her job. I got the same fun vibe from the bank executive when I spoke with her—several times, she seemed to stifle a laugh in an attempt to remain more “apprpropriate.” And I got the same feeling from their head of HR. Talking with these three was part of my hiring process as an outside consultant; guess what conclusion I drew about the culture of their bank?
- Look at the people in the office. Obviously, this one only works if you make it in for an in-person interview. If you do, open your eyes and look around. What do you see? Do people move with purpose? Do they look at you when they pass you in the hall? Are they open? Cliquish? Isolated? You don’t need to be a psychologist to get a sense for a place; all you need is to have survived high school.
- Look at the physical building, inside and out. Have you ever noticed how a storefront seems to know when its tenant has gone out of business? Or how in a city, you can tell when a newly finished building becomes occupied? Maybe it’s me, because I certainly can’t explain the mechanism at work here, but physical structures seem to absorb a sense of the humanity within them, and they radiate it back out. Walk through a building and then ask yourself: did it feel more like a family room? standard-issue office? masoleum?
- Watch the flow of the interview. All the people who you’ll be working with? They went through an interview process just like the one you’re going through. What’s it like? Does it bring out your best? Is the process crushing your soul? However you feel, you can assume that many others felt the same way coming out of that interview. Which means you now know the emotional foundation upon which all your coworkers’ careers are built.
- Ask to meet other people. I saved the best for last. When you’re done with all the subtle inferences, go for the throat: ask to meet the people so you can see for yourself! You may not be granted access today—and that’s OK, especially if the interviewer is on a tight schedule—but at some point before the company asks for your final answer, they should be willing to let you talk to your future boss and coworkers. (If they’re not, that’s saying something, too!)
Good luck, and may your next job be the perfect fit!
Jason Seiden is Co-founder and CEO of Ajax Social Media, a training company that shows professionals how use social media to work more effectively.
I'm the CEO of Ajax Social Media. We're helping 1 million people shine by making their online stories better. 
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I’m a big fan of numbers 4 and 5. When I went to the first Social Recruiting Summit at the Google H.Q. those were probably the two factors that jumped out at me.
Nice building, cool toys, no one was smiling. Not a one. Nada. Well, I take that back, the security dude was pretty cool. But aside from him, the peeps were like drones.
One more item that I think is extremely important (for those of us that are actually able to review) that many people either do not realtize or are too afraid to ask about, is looking at the budgets.
For me, a company tells me a lot about its culture, values and what it deems important by where they put their money. Especially in difference between the lean and fat years.
And dude, how do you put the cool “about jason” at the bottome of each blog?
@John—Interesting… Google’s Chicago office is all beach umbrellas and Xmas lights—with people to match. It’s seriously a party. Maybe there’s some regression to the mean type thing going on here?
@Benjamin—I read your comment and did the V-8 forehead smack. Budget. Yes! Not only will that get you the information you want (if you can get it), but it will signal to the employer: “I am not afraid to go there. My balls are THAT BIG.” Which is definitely one way of standing out in an interview.
and dude, when you call me, I’ll tell you about the “about Jason” box and send you whatever code you need.
Thanks for including numbers 1 and 2! So many companies don’t think about what their career site looks/acts like and what is says about them. That’s where the applicant experience starts. I also appreciated number 7, because I recently thought of it myself as I have formerly escaped a horrible work environment and was wondering how to keep from making the same mistake again. I thought, “I know. I’ll ask to talk to three people at random (not picked by the company) about the company culture.” And I would not have thought to ask for a look at the budget, so that’s a good tip.
I’m hoping I don’t have to use your tips for a long time, but it’s nice to know them!
Here’s another tip which is especially valuable when all you are getting is positive vibes – search your networks to see if you know or can be introduced to anyone who has left the company. This may help provide the “contrary evidence” to balance out the perspectives you are gaining from insiders. Just as seeking contrary evidence is an effective technique in interviewing candidates, it can really help enhance your overall understanding of a potential employer.
@Heath—Your welcome… I wouldn’t have had it any other way! Moreover, I second your hopes that you don’t need these tips for a long time… if at all.
As far as measuring an organization culture is concerned , we need to properly analyze the work flow , time consumed by them , question asked by them and most importantly the infrastructure of that particular company.