Ask HN: How do detect a crappy boss / toxic environment when interviewing?

Re:Ask HN: How do detect a crappy boss / toxic environment w... by chris11 on Thursday April 07, 2016 @03:17PM (#11449828)

-If a pattern exists of mistakes (forgot to call, etc), run.

Is this applicable to bigger companies? I've noticed that some companies figure out where to place entry level engineers during or after an offer is made. And then getting a good recruiter seems to come down to luck at some places. I once had an interviewer not show up for a phone interview at one place. But I wouldn't necessarily say that my boss would have been horrible, I don't even know if I was interviewing for a specific team.

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Re:Ask HN: How do detect a crappy boss / toxic environment w... by bpchaps on Thursday April 07, 2016 @06:41PM (#11451276)

Yep, the big companies especially. Maybe mistakes isn't the right word. "Constantly fucking up" might be better. The left hand almost never talks to the right hand and miscommunications happen all the time.

One example - It took one of those big companies three weeks to get the last signature of 6 to signoff on my hire. There was nothing anybody could do to push it forward. That turned out to be one of the worst jobs I've had. 6 months in, they ended up firing the NOC after forcing them to train a NOC out in Bangalore who would call me 5 times a day for unrelated issues. I complained hard. My boss, who I talked to maybe once a month responded with, "Welcome to $COMPANY." I quit two weeks later.

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Re:Ask HN: How do detect a crappy boss / toxic environment w... by wnissen on Thursday April 07, 2016 @05:59PM (#11451037)

Big or not, when they're making you an offer they are on their best behavior. I would not expect anything like that level of attention after hiring.

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