How to Check an Employer Before the Interview
An interview process costs you time off, preparation, and often a day of leave. Twenty minutes of research beforehand tells you whether it is worth it — and gives you better questions when you get there.
For a related Monitask resource on remote employee monitoring, see this resource.
Start with what they say about themselves
The company website. What do they actually sell, to whom, and how do they make money? If you cannot answer that after ten minutes, that is information.
The careers page. How many roles are open, and in which functions? Twelve openings in one department is either fast growth or fast turnover, and you can ask which.
Recent news and press. Funding rounds, acquisitions, layoffs, leadership changes, legal matters. A company that raised recently and a company that had layoffs six months ago present very different risks.
Their blog or social accounts. Active and specific, or abandoned two years ago?
Financial health
Public companies. Filings are available, and you do not need to read them in full. Revenue trend, profitability, and any going-concern language in the auditor's report cover most of it.
Private companies. Harder. Funding history, whether the last round was up or down, how long ago it was. A company that raised three years ago and has been quiet since may be running short.
Any company. Search the name with "layoffs" and with "lawsuit." Check for WARN notices in the states where they operate — these are public and must be filed ahead of larger layoffs.
Turnover signals
Often more revealing than financials, and easier to check.
How long do people stay? Look at current employees in the function you would join. If most tenures are under eighteen months, ask why.
Has the role been reposted repeatedly? Search the job title with the company name.
How long has the hiring manager been there? A manager who arrived three months ago may be rebuilding a team that left.
Is the whole leadership team new? Sometimes a turnaround, sometimes a warning.
Reading reviews properly
Employee review sites are useful if you read them correctly.
Look for repetition, not intensity. One furious review means someone had a bad exit. Fifteen reviews mentioning the same manager, the same understaffing, or the same broken promise is a pattern.
Weight recent reviews heavily. A company can change completely in two years.
Filter by your function and location. Engineering at a company can be excellent while sales is miserable.
Watch for review clusters. A burst of glowing five-star reviews in one week usually means someone asked staff to post.
Read the neutral ones. Three-star reviews tend to be the most honest.
Ask people
The highest-value step and the one most people skip.
Find someone who works there, or used to, through your network. Ask for fifteen minutes. Most people say yes, especially former employees.
Useful questions:
- What surprised you in the first three months?
- What is the actual working culture, not the stated one?
- Why did you leave? (for former employees — usually the most informative answer you will get)
- What is the manager like to work for?
- Is the team stable?
A former employee with no stake in your decision will tell you things nobody in the process will.
What to ask in the interview
Research gives you the questions. Use them.
- Why is this role open? New, growth, or replacement — and if replacement, what happened.
- What happened to the last person in this role?
- How long has the team been together?
- What does success look like at six months?
- What is the biggest problem facing the team right now?
- How are decisions made here?
If a question makes an interviewer visibly uncomfortable, that is information too. Reasonable employers answer all of these without difficulty.
Weigh the whole process as evidence
How a company behaves while trying to impress you is the best behaviour you will see.
- Do they respond to emails within a reasonable time?
- Are interviewers on time and prepared?
- Does the process match what they described?
- Do different people describe the role the same way?
- Do they answer direct questions about compensation directly?
A disorganised, slow, contradictory hiring process is a preview.
Proportionality
Twenty minutes before applying. An hour before a final-stage interview. That is the right scale.
Beyond that, you reach diminishing returns and start reading tea leaves. The two things that actually predict your experience are the manager and the work — and both are assessed better in conversation than in research.
PJP tells candidates who the employer is before submission, every time. Browse open positions → For broader reference, consult U.S. Department of Labor hiring resources.