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in reply to Biggest clue you don't want the job you're offered

A couple of other non-obvious things to screen for when interviewing:

Bureacracy. Ask people what the procedure is for buying a work-related book. Assuming that the answer isn't "we can't buy books" (bzzzt!), ask what the procedure is for being reimbursed. It's not uncommon to in Silicon Valley to have a "if you need it, go buy it and submit and expense report" or "ask me first" policy, but some places go overboard in how much time and expenese they'll incur to basically tell you "no". If a company is going to burn through an hour of administrative time to tell you that you can't spend $40 on a book that might save you 10 hours of work, they're being stupid. Life is too short to work for needlessly stupid companies.

Lighting. As your eyes get older, the effect of florescent lights + basic, low-refresh rate monitors becomes harder to live with. If you're starting to have problems, make sure you won't be living in a veal-farm of cubicles, with no direct outside light, and no way to turn off the florescents. Life is too short to go home with eyestrain headaches every day.

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Re: (dws) Re: Biggest clue you don't want the job you're offered
by mr_mischief (Monsignor) on Apr 04, 2001 at 04:11 UTC
    Eye strain? Talk to me about overall strain. Overtime is okay, but week before last I worked 72 hours.

    `No big deal' some people say. Well, I had a day off on Wednesday. The first 42 hours were on Monday and Tuesday.

    The proper staffing level of a company, so that employees aren't continually on call, means a lot.

    Chris