How interview experience reviews help us to choose the best employer or company

 Company reviews are the statements of the candidate’s experiences right from the time of the interview till the present date of working in that company. These are usually written by candidates, and the present as well as previous employees of the company. These reviews are for almost all types of organizations, ranging from small companies to large corporates. You will find the company reviews written by the former and present employees on the job review websites like Glassdoor and you can find candidate experience reviews on websites like Reviewia , Kununu, etc

Knowing about the employers before going for an interview is one of the best ways to become an outstanding candidate during the hiring process and also understanding what to expect from an employer during the recruitment process. By putting on your investigative hat and knowing about the potential employer, you’ll find the details about the employer which will better prepare you for an interview. But, why should you spend time researching about the employers? The reason is that doing thorough research is the best way to learn about what the company does, what they are looking for in a candidate, and help you in choosing the best employer.

Why looking at the company reviews are important before a job search

The company reviews will help you during the job search in many ways as listed below, including making the final decision whether to go for a job or not

Choose the best one: The reviews help you to decide whether you would like to join and work in a particular company. Moreover, these reviews will also help you shortlist the names of the companies you would like to work for. Even if a company with good reviews doesn’t have any open positions, you may still send your CV across through a cold email. In addition to it, when you have multiple job offers in hand, the reviews make it easier for you to decide which one to grab.

Better understanding about a company: The reviews improve your understanding of the company and the workplace you are going to get. Usually, the job descriptions often leave out many important details like the working hours, annual pay hikes, the work-life balance, etc. The company reviews help you in getting a realistic view of all these above factors. Almost all of the review websites need the employees to assign a numerical rating to a company based on different factors like the interview experience, work culture, salary, Salary Hikes offered, etc. This helps you immensely in comparing the potential employers based on your desired goals and making the right choice.

Prepare the right CV and cover letter: Moreover, these sites help you in creating good content for the right CV and a good cover letter. You can always refer to some of the specific information you receive from a review website. It will reflect that you have done the required homework and are very serious about working for the company.

Prepares you well for the interview: You need to consider discussing some of the specific feedback which you come across on the review websites during the process of the interview. If the interviewer is unaware of it or does not respond to the query positively, it indicates that the company does not value the employees’ opinions and you need to look at some other company or a better opportunity.

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How to interpret the company reviews correctly

You need to always keep the following factors in mind when you assess a company based on the reviews:

Look at the reviews section carefully
The reviews section usually lists all the reviews of the company. As per your need, you can filter the reviews by the job title and the location. You can look at the overall star rating (out of the five stars) and the diversity score (out of 100). The diversity score reflects how positive the ratings are spread over different positions and across different departments. You can also click on the “Have a question” button if you want to learn more about the functioning of the company.

2. Look at the negative and anonymous reviews
Many people may write a review or feedback when they have something or the other to complain about. People may write about the various ways how a company is not a good fit for them. Here you need to understand which are the elements of their experience which they found negative and carefully weigh those against what you need in an employer to take the right decision.

3. Read maximum reviews possible
The more reviews you read the more it can provide you with a better understanding of the company. As people have different preferences from a workplace and the different employer elements, reading maximum reviews from a larger group of people with different backgrounds and experiences helps you understand what the company is like for most people. If your potential employer has many locations, you need to check out the reviews of the different locations and choose your location accordingly. People who occupy the leadership positions at different locations may have different perspectives too

4. Verify the dates of the reviews
You have to check the dates of the reviews very carefully. Often, the more recent reviews are more informative because they discuss what the company is like at present now. However, you can still read through the older reviews to check how the company has worked on the feedback and improved on the elements that the candidates and the employees have written about. You can also verify if some of the positive sides have further improved or not.

5. Compare the company with the competitors
This comparison strategy will help you to understand a company’s standing in the industry. You can go through their competitor’s reviews as well to see the differences in some specific areas, such as amenities, workplace setting, benefits, and leadership. In this process, you may also find out some other good employers too in the industry.

6. Look for the different patterns
You will be able to identify some common patterns when you look at both the positive and negative reviews and the different topics discussed by different reviewers. You have to use these trends to make a list of some common positives and negatives. This will help you to determine the importance and the impact of each of the things which you will possibly experience while working in the company.

7. Look at the feedback minutely
You will find the feedback here too about the job interview process. The job interviews are rated as per the interviewees’ experience, such as good or not so good. They may also rate the interview as per the difficulty from easy to difficult in addition to the length of the interview process too. Moreover, you may also find the different interview steps and the interview questions too under this section of the page.

CONCLUSION: You have to look at all the above factors very carefully before you go for an interview and choose the best company as per your career objective. There are many employer review websites like Glassdoor, Indeed, CareerBliss, Reviewia to name a few. However, only Reviewia and to an extent Kununu are sites which dedicatedly captures interview experiences