What Job Postings Tell You About Company Culture
Red Flags, Green Flags, and Buzzwords
Employers are desperate for workers. They’re currently offering financial incentives like signing bonuses, higher hourly wages, and better benefits. But before you take the job, make sure that the company culture is worth the extra money.
Workplace culture includes things like: company values and ethics, work/life balance, communication styles, and other behaviors that direct how the company does business. One way to uncover this information is to analyze their job postings.
Where to find job postings
There are a lot of job boards where companies of all industries and sizes post job descriptions so they can fill open positions. Most of these businesses also have a careers page on their website.
Job boards aggregate open roles and make them searchable based on criteria like location, department, salary band, industry, company size, and more. If you’re on the job hunt and want to see what is out there, visit a job board.
Popular job boards include:
LinkedIn Jobs
Glassdoor
Indeed
Ziprecruiter
AngelList
Monster
Applicant Tracking Software
Companies rarely build their own applicant tracking software (ATS) these days. For large corporations, building and maintaining custom software to manage the 100s or 1000s of applications that come in each week is not sustainable. In fact, just one corporate job posting receives 250 applications alone. The ATS a company uses will usually be in the URL address and the landing page for the job posting.
Popular ATS tools include:
Lever
Greenhouse
Workday
ADP
Workable
BambooHR
Jobvite
Why you should study job postings
Job descriptions are an employer’s opportunity to put their best foot forward. At larger companies, there are whole teams dedicated to finding and securing the best talent in their industry. These postings give you clues to what kind of culture you’ll find as well as guidance on how to make your application stand out.
Company culture clues
Whether you’re struggling to find a job or just seeing what’s on the market, you shouldn’t accept an offer without some idea of how you’ll be treated. While you work to impress the employer, keep half your mind focused on whether they impress you.
Important clues include:
Health insurance and parental leave policies
Work schedule and remote work flexibility
Stipends for education, or learning opportunities at the office
Stipends for commuting or for home office equipment
Travel expectations like how often they want you on the road (bonus: find out what you’re allowed to expense, like hotels near your clients or the cheapest motel in the area).
Businesses are under intense pressure to woo talent right now. Companies that are resisting this change and are holding on to traditional, lean employment policies are telling you what their culture is upfront.
Guidance for a winning application
A generic cover letter and standardized resume may get you into the interview pile but you won't stand out in the crowd. ATS tools often search for keywords in applications to automatically filter applications before a human sees them. You have to catch the attention of the ATS and the hiring manager in your resume.
Examples of keywords you’ll find in job descriptions include:
Analytical thinker
Strong communicator
Partners well with others
Relationship builder
Sprinkle those words throughout both your resume and cover letter. Make sure you’re connecting them to real accomplishments and experience. Instead of writing, “managed four customer service reps and tracked performance,” try, “coached and mentored a team of customer service reps to meet and exceed SLA targets.”
How companies position themselves
Lots of companies include industry awards they’ve received on their job postings. Some of these accolades are important when deciding to apply but many have nothing to do with how they treat their employees. Don’t get dazzled by accomplishments that only benefit the senior leaders and bottom line.
Awards that are relevant to workplace culture
Great Place to Work by Forbes
Best Places to Work by Glassdoor
Top CEOs by Glassdoor
Awards that are not related to workplace culture
Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant, Gartner, 2020
Leader in The Forrester Wave, Forrester, 2020
Forbes Cloud 100 List, Forbes, 2020
It’s good to know your potential employer stands out in the marketplace, but that doesn’t relate to employee satisfaction. Terms like “disrupting a stagnant market” sound exciting but don't tell you anything about the culture, the pay equity, the management style, or work/life balance.
Job description buzzwords
Every industry has their own set of buzzwords. Some companies go a step further and have nicknames for their employees like, The Yelpers at Yelp, Googlers at Google, and Shopifolks at Shopify.
Don’t get too caught up in the hype before you’ve done your research – there’s a hidden meaning behind each buzzword. Even if the job sounds perfect, ask about their word choice during your interview to find out what the employer thinks those words mean.
Here are some of the most common ones buzzwords and what they might mean:
Work hard/play hard – This company expects you to work long hours and sometimes gives you a beer at the end o f the day. Don’t get duped into working long days on a salary with no overtime pay.
Grit – and other buzzwords like hustle, scrappy, and drive. If a company is well organized and gives you the resources you need, encouraging grit can be very motivating. For other companies, grit means they want you to figure out how to succeed and excel on your own. If you miss your targets because they’re unrealistic, well you just didn’t have the grit.
Ability to adapt at a moment’s notice – Successful companies usually have a plan and time to prepare for major changes. A company that includes this phrase might scrap entire projects based on the CEOs whims or change your job description suddenly without any warning.
Have thick skin – Management would rather you deal with their abuse than learn how to lead compassionately. This is a big red flag that can lead to high stress, anxiety, and no feeling of job security.
Self-starter – like the word grit, this buzzword can mean more than one thing. For startups, this is a reasonable requirement; if you are looking for a challenge that lets you be creative, it could be a fit. But it can also mean, “we’re not going to onboard or train you in the role. Hope you know how to swim.”
Works well under pressure – Some careers are high pressure, like healthcare and infrastructure services. But most of the time, high pressure is manufactured by leadership teams. Managers might say that the competition is “eating our lunch” and expect you to work at 200% indefinitely, instead of taking the pressure on themelves.
Fast paced – a fast paced workplace can be exciting. Still, ask about this in your interview to find out if it means, “we expect you to be at full productivity all the time,” or “we have streamlined processes and can get our products to market swiftly and efficiently.”
Passionate – Look, most people aren’t that passionate about their job. It’s great if you’re super into the products your company makes but at the end of the day, it’s just a paycheck to fund your personal life.
Flexible – Definitely dig into this during your interview. Do they want someone who will take on additional work that’s not in the job description? Do they want someone who can be ethically flexible? Or are they looking for an employee who isn’t rigid in their outlook and open to new ideas?
Tight knit team – In other words, a clique. If you aren’t a perfect fit, it will feel like high school all over again. Teams should be open and collaborative.
Culture fit – Bad managers love this buzzword because they can justify any employment decision, like hiring someone who’s just like them. They can also fire someone they don’t like personally because of the culture fit.
Wear multiple hats – This is another tricky buzzword. Wearing multiple hats can be a great learning opportunity. But look out for companies that want you to do the work of three people while paying you the salary of one.
We’re a family here – No, you’re an employee who is paid for your work; this is not a labor of love. When families break up, they still have legal obligations – and your employer won’t be paying you alimony.
“We’re looking for someone that wants to go above and beyond, not someone who does their job and clocks out at the end of the day” – As a millennial worker, what I hear is, “hey, this is an opportunity to move up the career ladder fast because I’m so committed.” But that’s wrong. In reality, they want you to do extra work for no additional pay, and be thankful for it. This one is a big red flag.
What’s the salary for this job?
It’s easy to hide salary disparities when compensation plans aren't publicly available. Employers benefit from the term loyalty discount which applies to employees who have worked for the same company for years. Over time they receive small raises to compensate for inflation.
Yet new hires to their team are paid way more. Workers who leave their job for another company often see a 10-20% increase in pay. If companies post the salary range for a job on their website, current employees will know they’re severely underpaid and demand more.
Most workers don’t learn how to negotiate as part of their jobs. This suits their employers very well. Historically, employers would prohibit their staff from discussing salaries under the guise of it being rude and causing disruption. Lots of people still think that way. The more transparency there is around pay, the more prepared employees are to negotiate. Today, it’s illegal for an employer to prohibit employees from speaking about salaries and other forms of compensation.
Unfortunately, few companies post compensation on open job postings because they aren’t legally obligated. That’s where sites like Glassdoor can be super helpful for crowdsourcing information like average salaries and what benefits are offered.
Examples of good and bad culture in job postings
Recruiters are tasked with making job descriptions sound as appealing as possible without explicitly lying about the job or company. It would be great if companies were honest like, “Employees are pretty miserable here but they get paid well above market rate.” Since that will never happen, here are some examples of how companies communicate their culture, sometimes indirectly, through their job postings.
Positive company culture
This company has a high employee rating on Glassdoor. We can see why based on how they frame their open roles.
The role description talks about the value of the work, instead of a list of tasks. Partnering, building credibility, and selling on value tell me that the end result of your work is more important than following a checklist of tasks every day.
Qualifications are focused on experience, rather than certifications and degrees. If you didn’t go to college but have 5 years of sales experience behind you, you have a chance of working at this company because they want your skills, not your pedigree.
“Our investment in you” – They show you why you’ll benefit from working for this company. A clear path to promotions, education programs, coaching, mentorship, and sales training are all signs of a good culture.
Negative company culture
This company does not have consistently good reviews on Glassdoor. Employee satisfaction is not a priority in how they position an open role.
“Responsibilities include but are not limited to” – This may seem innocuous but it’s worth diving into. How often will your responsibilities increase? Can your role change at any time if they decide to re-organize your department? How much say do you have in these changes or additions?
“Being an advocate for [customers] internally when necessary” – Most companies tout themselves as “customer centric.” Not this one. In fact, your job will center around your obligations to the business, not customer success.
“Disruptive risk-takers” – What are you disrupting? What happens when a risk doesn’t pan out? Will you lose your job? Can anyone be a risk-taker, or is the leadership team the only ones who can make those decisions?
“We don’t have a traditional way of doing things” – What does this mean?? Is it about the product itself? Is it about how they run their day to day business? Is it a “get out of jail free card” when leadership behaves poorly?
“Self-starter and hungry to learn” – This buzzword means you have to be willing to do your job with little support. This is great for someone who wants a challenge. But you’ll be thrown into the deep end and if you drown, that’s on you.
Lastly, I see a huge red flag – there’s nothing in the job description about what you get out of the job. What will you learn? What are the benefits offered? Can you get promoted over time? Perhaps this employer thinks you should be grateful to work for them at all.
Likely positive company culture
This company paints a picture of a job where you have clear responsibilities, the chance to work on something exciting, and play a part in something bigger. There are some buzzwords and the benefits are not super compelling, but someone put a lot of care into the job description.
The chance to “wear multiple hats” is positioned as an opportunity. If you have an interview, ask them what this means. Being able to work on different stages of the product or collaborate with other teams could be an exciting experience. But it could also mean that the employer is not hiring enough experts for each “hat.”
Many benefits are mandated by law or widely expected, like sick leave and health insurance coverage. But benefits like maternity and paternity leave are not as common as I would like and it’s a big plus for many employees.
The other benefits are a little vague. What do they mean by educational resources? Does that mean that they will pay for you to complete an MBA program in night school? Or does it mean they will occasionally have someone come in for a speaking event? Ask these questions in your interview.
Negative company culture
This job posting combines multiple roles, even across departments, into one position – People Operations Generalist. Their Glassdoor rating is very low and we can see why.
Each of these bullets should be its own full time position:
New hire on-boarding and exiting
Benefit and compensation administration, payroll, performance management
Visa related administration: this requires an immigration lawyer, not a people operations specialist.
Office manager: catering, budgeting, trips, inventory
Employee experience: build and implement a system to support culture
HR disciplinary meetings
Events manager
I am counting at least SEVEN jobs they are trying to cram into this one role. Whoever takes on this role will be miserable and most likely, under-appreciated – because no one can do all of these jobs at once. This company doesn’t care about their employees, they are looking to squeeze every penny.
The “who we are” section is generic and slightly ominous somehow. Of course there’s a steep learning curve, this person will have to learn immigration law! And highlighting that your work will be noticeable and directly impact the business comes off threatening – You better not make a single mistake because management will notice.
What’s next?
Job descriptions tell you a lot about a company’s work culture, whether it’s intended or not. When you’re evaluating future employers, make note of anything that strikes you as vague, confusing, or questionable, and ask about it during your interview.
If you’re interested in learning more about using Glassdoor to vet potential employers for their workplace culture, check out The Ultimate Job Hunter’s Guide to Using Glassdoor.
This was so useful in helping filter my search!