Company Culture
How important is a company culture for you? I’d bet for most of us it’s very important.
It’s one thing to end up with a great job, benefits and find we’re really good at what we’re doing but the company culture is counter to most everything we admire or believe in. I mean, there really are core values and beliefs we live by. Life’s too short to spend your working hours with people “from Mars.”
Reading a company’s Mission Statement probably isn’t going to tell you how employees handle conflict resolution or how management treats their team. How do you find out if management will give you all the information and support you need to achieve assignments?
You can learn a lot in the interview process by asking if the company has a code of ethics, what kind of things does the company look for in an employee and how does the company recognize employee accomplishments.
How you are feeling during the process is important. Is the interviewer polite or are they mildly annoyed? Are you an honored guest or a prisoner detainee?
I had a job applicant tell me they got a strong sense of the company culture from the interview process. Not only in how they were treated but how the interviewer treated their immediate staff. The applicant told me he was in his final interview when the VP started yelling at his admin for not holding a phone call for him. Needless to say, the applicant moved on.
Best advance information about the company you can get will be from someone you know who already works there. But don’t be bashful, walking the halls of the company and asking employees can be illuminating too.
Barbara Jackson
Brava Medical Staff Reporter
