People share 10 small red flags at job interviews that scream 'do not work here'

Job aspirants dodging a bullet.

Most of the job aspirants have been through at least a couple of job interviews which took a turn for the worse. Maybe the interviewer was being rude or something about the whole interview experience was alarming, which made young job seekers to backtrack and not move forward with a particular job opportunity. It may not be just the demeanor of the interviewer but the websites and locations of jobs can also give a lot of hints about the work environment you can expect once you join the office. u/Firm-Discount6921 on Reddit asked the community to share some of the small "red flags" at job interviews which indicated that taking up the job offer is not worth it. Here are 10 of the most interesting experiences shared by working professionals to help young folks spot red flags in their interviews.

1. Redirect questions

I always ask the interviewer if they are happy working at the company. Most aren't ready for this question and can't lie on the spot very well. Their face and body say it all. If they are happy they relax and want to talk. If they are unhappy they lock up and deflect or are terse with their responses. u/OtherwiseGarbage01. One time a candidate asked me what's your favorite thing about working here and that really caught me off guard. I wasn't gonna tell him it's just a small but steady paycheck to get me through grad school so I can make a career change. I think I said something about it being a friendly environment, which was true though. u/MP3PlayerBroke.

2. Shady companies

If it's a company you haven't heard of, check out their website. If it's too bare, too vague, or only has content directed at potential employees, run. I interviewed for this job that sounded amazing, but before accepting I checked them out online - there was no corporate website or a way for potential customers to contact them, just a bare-bones website with vague information about what it's like to work here and a bunch of job listings. When they called me back I asked about it and they wouldn't give me any straight answers, so I declined the job offer. It was almost certainly a scam to get me into a cold-calls-type sales position by giving empty promises of advancement and participation in projects I was interested in. u/expat_mel

3. Unprofessional management

Just off the top of my head: When they want you to meet after work hours so the worker they are going to fire won’t see it coming - that is also how they will fire you. If you go to an interview during regular hours, when you walk from reception to interview, no one is talking or smiling or looking up, or the place is empty. The interviewer asks you for a salary range and then says something like ‘Oh, we can’t pay you that,’ and tells you they will revisit your pay after X amount of time. No, they won’t. u/Alternative-Boot2673

4. Mass resignation

One of the departments at my job just lost all but one full-time employee. But, none of them quit. Some transferred to a sister center closer to their homes and the rest dropped to part-time because they started school full-time. We get a lot of turnover for that reason. The job is kind of a first step into the industry. u/socinfused. I asked this very question at my last interview. The dude was so surprised at the question he ended up scrambling to answer and it was painfully obvious that there was a huge problem somewhere. They were hiring three general managers and two AGM’s for a company of eight locations. Something isn’t right there and they still have multiple job postings up on Indeed. u/zannieq

5. Salary transparency

If they aren't open about the salary of the position or its responsibilities. It usually means they want to pay you terribly and expect you to work well beyond the scope of your title. Also, group interviews, any company unprofessional enough to hold a group interview for a non-fast food or retail job is not worth working for. u/Bugaloon. I had an interview with one of the big 4 consulting firms, and they had a group interview with me and another person going for entry-level and two guys going for director positions. It was incredibly awkward following those director candidates' answers with their wealth of experience, with my minimum wage experience answers to the same questions. They're sitting there giving examples from when they led large teams where I and the other guy were just like 'Umm we didn't see that situation too often in internships.' It was incredibly bizarre to sit through. uLakers2020Champs3

6. Frequent retirements

One of the best pieces of advice I got was to ask about retirement. Not in the context of the retirement policy but more like when was the last retirement or how often someone finishes their career with this company. Related or similar questions could be about how long your coworkers have been working there. At my last plant, there were 8 maintenance positions and they couldn't think of one that opened up from a retirement. At my current plant, there are 6 maintenance positions and 5 of the last 6 slots opened up because of retirements. If the retirements are happening close to each other that's still a red flag, in my case, these were over several years. u/mjociv

7. The restroom says a lot

A poor state of the toilet room. It means a company isn't doing well and cuts its expenses wherever it can. u/0int. I remember a place I worked at about 10 years ago. In one of the bathrooms, the sink drain wasn't connected directly to the plumbing. The sink just drained out into the open air, and there was a drain on the floor. Of course, splashing your feet. It was an OLD building. u/dj112084. I was in a chemical plant recently where the bathrooms looked like a horror scene. I would have been embarrassed to tell a visitor to use them. These were large and actively used as well. u/TGrady902

8. Workplace full of drama

Quickly hired, like on the spot and any mention of drama. My experience is from my job that I’ve been TRAPPED in for years now, I’m quitting this month. They hired me pretty much on the spot and the manager mentioned that it was a family and a building full of girls so it can be catty, but it’s overall a ‘positive environment’. But I was 20, it was 2020 when everything opened and everyone needed jobs. It was my 5th or so interview so I took it as they called me hours later. It's a salon by the way. u/venus-begins

9. Your coworkers aren't your family

Everyone, including me, ended up in therapy at my last job that was 'like a family'. It took a year for me to fix my brain after that. A young healthy coworker had to go on blood pressure medication, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. It was a mess. Yes, the biggest red flag ever! So many stories but one that sticks out from the last place I worked like when my boss texted me at 6 am on a Saturday that also happened to be Christmas about something not time-sensitive at all that needed to be done at the end of January. My own actual family wouldn't even do that and they're a mess too lol. Not only was it outside of business hours (8-5 M to F), we were closed from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day. u/fakeittil_youmakeit. 

10. Too many red flags

Small red flags, eh? If you go by a different name than what's on your resume and you tell them that and they still use the wrong name throughout the interview, that's a small but real red flag. If they ask you questions trying to get answers to other questions they're not supposed to ask you ('I see you went to X high school... what year did you graduate?' to get your age or 'We like flexible scheduling; do you have any personal commitments on, say, Sunday morning that might keep you from work?' to see if you go to church) that's not great either. If they care about your grooming (facial hair, length of hair, etc.) and it's not a customer-facing position, that's not good. If they care about the car you drove up in and it's not a sales position doing customer visits, that's not good. If there's a math test that all applicants have to take regardless of position, that's not good. If they say no calculators are allowed, just walk away. u/RodeoBob