Glassdoor reviews: how much should you care?

I've been wanting to write this post longer than this blog has been up. Since I have been working in marketing and employment branding, I regularly think about Glassdoor. For those of you unfamiliar, Glassdoor is a site that allows job seekers to view interviewee and employee reviews, salary data and job postings. Employers can use Glassdoor as a tool to tell their stories to job seekers. I'm in touch with the folks at Glassdoor fairly regularly, and I don't think they would have a problem with me sharing my opinion on how much I think you should care about what you see on Glassdoor, specifically when you are researching employers or preparing for interviews.

I'm going to do some plain-talking here and I will try to keep it PG-13 for those of you who don't know me socially. Here are my three big take-aways:

1. You should assume that a good percentage of the posts are written by opinion outliers.
2. You should assume that there is an element of truth in every post.
3. You should use what you find to ask questions, but only rarely should you use it to disqualify an employer from consideration. 

So before I go into any more detail, can we agree that with any job, at any employer, there's a certain amount of...well...crap (yeah, let's call it that), that you are going to have to deal with? Show me any employer you think is BS-free and I will show you an employee of that company who begs to differ. It's naive to assume that there are jobs that don't come with their own special variety of crap and the more honest you can be with yourself, especially during a career search, the better job you will do at picking the right employer for you. You're role, as a job-seeker, is to pick an employer with the brand of crap you find most acceptable. Glassdoor is going to help you decide. It's practically a menu of possible BS scenarios at employers. 

Aside from jobs, you know what else is potentially full-of it? Or who else, I guess? People. I'm not saying that people are trying to deceive. But we each come with our own ego and perspective, the latter often developed to protect the former. Think you're a rock star but then find out you are alone in your opinion? That shows up on Glassdoor as "this company doesn't pay well and their rewards system sucks!" The challenge with  the reviews on Glassdoor is that you don't get the context behind it and you have no idea whether the writer is someone whose opinion you should respect. People are often motivated to write a Glassdoor review when something has gone wrong, and a good part of the time, they contributed heavily to the situation themselves. Likewise with the glowing reviews - they likely come from people who have been treated extremely well and may not represent the opinion of the average employee. I guess I'd just encourage you to keep in mind that what you are seeing are the opinions of the disgruntled and, um, highly-gruntled employees (or former employees) and there's a heap of opinions somewhere in the middle that aren't showing up in the proper proportion.

Having said all that, I think you should consider that there is an element of truth in what you see. This is where I go back to the "pick your crap" mindset. For any employer, I expect to see issues described in Glassdoor reviews. If I don't, I'm suspicious. If I see someone posting about unrealistic performance expectations, I'm going to keep in mind that the company has high standards and actively manages against those standards. Yeah, so the person who posted the review might have been doing their best but they weren't a fit, they may have been a slacker or the employer may legitimately have unrealistic expectations. You just don't know. Even great companies have stuff like this that people don't like. 

As a job-seeker, I'd want to uncover what these potential issues are, as best I could. I find that the easiest way to do that is to identify themes in the reviews that are written in a really balanced way. Think about capturing these themes, especially as you are preparing to interview with a company. They will help you uncover the real scoop, they will show that you prepared, and asking about some of these things during an interview situation shows that you are also a buyer in this little hiring scenario. I mean, in demand folks have choices so of course you are going to ask some questions before you buy.

The one question I will warn you about, though (and really this is more about how you ask it and my warning could apply to many questions) is "what is the work/life balance like here?" Ah, work/life balance...such a loaded concept. Some companies or interviewers view this particular question as a red flag. Even if a company has great work/life balance (or work/life integration, if you prefer), they want people who are flexible enough to go the extra mile when needed. But it's a legitimate concern for anyone, especially folks with family commitments.  It's also a screening question for people who are clock-watchers. I really wish the question didn't raise red flags with some employers. I do recommend you ask questions to understand what kind of commitment you would really be getting yourself into. But I recommend questions that are more specific. "How many hours a week do you work?" doesn't count. Something like: "What are the expectations here around time away from the office? Do most employees log in at night?", "How much fluctuation is there in work load? Are there certain times of year that are busier than others?", "What's the company philosophy on disconnecting and are employees here good at it?"....even "How's your commute?" could give you a good idea. Obviously you will want to pick a really relevant question, but you get the point. 

So yeah, I do recommend that you use Glassdoor for research. I also recommend that you take it all with a grain of salt and do additional research where you can (like asking any people you know who work at the company what it's like).

Career resource: The Muse

You might be looking for some online resources, especially if it's been a few years since you've written a resume, answered the dreaded networking question "Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?", or went through a full day of interviews.

Over at the Muse, they've got a collection of career resources that might be helpful. There are classes, videos and guides on different aspects of finding a career and growing in one.

Being the word-nerd that I am, I especially appreciate "185 Action Verbs for Your Resume". I also recommend skipping the one on resume templates. Many of them look pretty but break the rules of a good resume. Columns and graphics are a big no-no if you are sharing your resume with recruiters.

Drill down on your vocab and then circle back (The words you use matter - part 2)

If you find it hard to have a work conversation without using any of these words or phrases, you've worked at Microsoft. I asked my Facebook friends, many of whom are alumni or currently employed by Microsoft, to share the grating phrases that are rendered borderline-meaningless due to over-use. Now that I'm looking at this, I'm wondering how "low hanging fruit" didn't make it's way in. An oldie but goodie.

I have to admit that some of these phrases still make their way into my vocabulary, even 3 years after I left. In my defense, I am one of those people that starts picking up the local accent immediately upon landing in a new state or country. And I have woken up the last several days with this ear worm:



I guess I'm just a highly suggestible person. If you are too, be careful because you might go into an interview and explain how you deep dived and operationalized. You know, like in a really planful way.

My point is, it's good to check yourself so you don't go overboard with this Micro-speak business. And in all fairness to Microsoft, a lot of this stuff is perpetuated by other companies too. But at Microsoft, it's practically an art form.

The first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem.

When people leave Microsoft, they go to...

Image courtesy of Seattle Times

I've used LinkedIn throughout my career to not only connect with other people, but to conduct research.It's super helpful when you want to understand the make-up of a pool of people that you can isolate with an advanced search.

Today, I thought I'd go in and look at the companies Microsoft folks go to when they leave the mothership. I ran a search of people with the key word "Microsoft" on their profile and listing Microsoft as a past employer. Then I used the filters to identify the top companies people currently work at. This doesn't account for interim moves (because it's only pulling their current employer), but I think it gives some good insight into places where Microsoft alumni might find a happy career home.

My search yielded 209,337 profile matches. I should make clear that LinkedIn does not require any kind of employer authentication. So someone saying they are a former Microsoft employee could be a former contractor, a past employee or completely full of it. So assume that numbers aren't exact but more of an indicator of likely career paths. The search also delivered profile matches of people who list Microsoft as their current employer and it's unclear whether they left and came back or whether they entered consecutive roles at Microsoft as separate positions. All that aside, of the 209K results...


Google - 2652
Amazon - 2281
Oracle - 1154
IBM - 1092
HP - 1090
Cisco - 815
Facebook - 786
Apple - 757
SAP - 660
Dell - 649
Expedia - 577
Accenture - 540
EMC - 520
Intel - 515

That's quite a list of companies that might have an interest in your skills! I then changed the search to filter down to only the profiles of folks in the Seattle area so those people who were impacted in the Redmond-area can see the best local employers for their skills. This is what I got:

Amazon - 1730
Gogle - 500
Expedia - 491
T-Mobile - 416
Boeing - 310
AT&T - 302
UW - 285
Starbucks - 206
Tableau Software - 196 (What? Interesting!)
Facebook - 187
AWS - 167 (that would bring the Amazon total to over 2300...not sure why AWS is listed separately)
Avanade - 149
Nordstrom - 143
F5 Networks - 128

I've got recruiters at most of these companies in my network, so I'll repeat my offer to help you get your resume out to some of these folks. I have already reached out to several of them and will continue to engage more.

I hope this information inspires you to consider some of these companies. Where other smart Microsofties go, there might also be a place for you.

Have a great weekend!

The words you use matter - Part 1

Most of us feel like some kind of nerd. My brand: word nerdery. I love words when they are used well. I get a thrill when I know I've constructed a well written something; website copy, messaging framework, Facebook status update. The flip side of that is that I sometime agonize over words. Sometimes they don't flow as easily as I'd like them to and I struggle over constructing a page, paragraph or sentence.

I once read that it's best to save creative tasks like writing for the end of the day, when you're a little tired. Your brain doesn't have the energy to put up all those intellectual roadblocks. I've tested this hypothesis and I find that I definitely write better at night. But if I have a glass of wine in my hand, I have about a 30 minute window to get my writing done. Because wine does not improve my writing. Fact.

I was thinking about this as it relates to resume-writing because I've been speaking with a number of you going through the resume writing process. If I haven't mentioned it already, everybody hates resume writing. Every. One. My last rev on my resume, I had the benefit of having had someone interview my clients to get feedback about the value I provide. Call it a little voice-of-the-customer research. I identified themes and then made sure that those themes were reinforced throughout my document. Without hiring a marketing consultant, I think you can do a little version of this by looking back at your performance reviews, that kudos folder you have saved somewhere or even by asking people that you worked with. "What is my brand? When you worked with me, what is it that you came to expect? How did it impact you? How did it impact our business?".

Just taking the time to think about this will, I believe, help you create a much better resume than if you focus on listing tasks, bullet-style. All those words next to those bullets need to add up to something that your future employer (or client) really wants.

Be a Pollyanna for a day to figure out your next career move

Having gone through a career transition myself (staffing programs to marketing), and being the introverted over-thinker I am, I have some thoughts on how to go about deciding where you want to be next. I'm not a Pollyanna; I don't even think I'd call myself an optimist. But now is the perfect...PERFECT opportunity to step back and really think about what's important to you in your next role. Be the change you want to see in your career. OK, that doesn't make sense but still.

Here's a little exercise for you: get out a piece of paper or start a new word doc and think back over your life to the times you were really happy. Think about the work that made you happiest, but don't limit your list to just work. For the sake of illustration, I'll use an example: my college years (man, that was fun).

Once you have come up with a few of these happy memories (it can be something that took place over years, something that was momentary or an in-between situation like a special project), think about what it was during each of those times that made you happy. So for me in college, it was learning new things, lots of choices around how to spend my time and the freedom to decide for myself, and great weather. I am over-simplifying, but you get the point. So you'll end up with a list of things that have impacted your happiness in the past and you'll start to see some trends. In my case, the need to learn, try new things and direct my own time were/are a really good fit for consulting (and even though I wouldn't call the weather in Seattle "great", it beats the heck outta those Chicago winters I just couldn't stand anymore). Everyones list is different though so spend some time on this. Ask your S.O. to participate (if you need someone really tuned in to when you were happy).

Then brainstorm what your future, most-happy-making scenario is and what the step is right now that can get you a bit closer. Think of this as a journey toward the ideal situation (because it's extra challenging to make a significant career change between companies, much easier to make one within a company). If you are an SDET and want to work in development on larger scale, more complex projects and you loved a previous job you didn't have to commute to, start to think about nearby employers that operate at significant scale and have good reputations for career development, job-shadowing and internal movement.

This kind of thinking seems obvious, not that we are talking about it, right? But have you ever actually taken some quiet time to think about it in this way?

If you want to get all nerdy and mind-map some of this stuff, I like XMind - you can download it for free. I also like free.

When it comes to resume-writing, spell-check is something but it's not enough

I can't tell you how many resumes I've looked at in my career. My guess would be tens of thousands. At least. I've received a paper resume with cute stickers on it. I've received two versions of the same persons resume with completely different dates of employment. I've seen lots and lots of unnecessary head shots. And I've seen many people make the same mistakes over and over again.

I have no doubt that in most cases, people would be mortified if they knew they were making mistakes on the one document intended to communicate their professional accomplishment (and attention to detail) to a prospective employer. But I think many of these mistakes escape notice until the resume is in front of a recruiter. I'm not sure why, but I could always spot the word "manger" on a resume, where the candidate meant "manager".

Back when we were kids, we had different activities where we were assigned a buddy. We looked out for each other, right? We need resume buddies. I recommend that you get one; someone to read your resume for word selection and grammar issues, and for clarity. Someone to stop you from using all those acronyms that became your native tongue while working at Microsoft. Cease and desist, I insist.

Another thing to keep in mind: there's a good chance the search-able version of your resume is going to lose its formatting, as resumes are converted to ASCII for storage. It's unfortunate that the beautiful layout you took hours to create is not visible in this version. The best case scenario is that your resume looks plain. The worst case: it it's completely unreadable because you used some wingding-type business. This "for dummies" page has some of the things you should avoid when creating a resume. Cliffs Notes version: no fancy characters or formatting and everything must read from left to right.

And if you don't mind me giving you a little resume pep-talk...

Everyone hates writing a resume, everyone feels like they are bad at it. I've always said that the best resume writers are the people that keep needing to find a new job. If your resume does a good job of representing your skills but your formatting looks like everyone else's, you're doing just fine.