Don’t Leave Your Interview Without Doing This One Thing
You’ve been there before: It’s the end of the job interview and the HR representative or hiring manager asks you if you have any questions for him or her. You look down at your notes and rattle off some questions about the company culture, why your interviewer likes working there, and about the next steps in the hiring process. Questions answered, you part ways, confident that the job and company are a good match for you.
But you probably don’t know that for sure because you forgot to ask one important question. You didn’t ask for a tour of the building/workspace. Taking a tour of the building/workspace will help you form a more complete and accurate picture of the company in three ways:
1. You’ll get to meet potential co-workers. Wouldn’t you like to know who you are going to be working with, or near, if you decide to join the organization? Your job isn’t just about work. It’s also about relationships. Having the opportunity to observe, or meet with, current employees provides you insight into their personalities, energy, behavior, and emotions, which you can use to determine relationship fit and alignment. In addition, the way in which the tour guide describes what you’re seeing, and how the people you interact with treat the tour guide, will also provide you insight into the company culture.
2. You’ll get to see the physical environment. Wouldn’t you like to see where you are going to be working before joining the organization? Is the building or workspace clean and free of clutter or dirty and strewn with hazards and debris? Is it well-lit with natural light or dark and gloomy? How is the air quality? Workplace physical spaces are widely understood to affect employee health, wellness, and productivity. You want to put yourself in a comfortable environment where you can do your best work. A tour can help determine if that is awaiting you.
3. You’ll determine if the interviewer was truthful. Wouldn’t you like to know that you are being told the truth during the interview? Taking a tour can either confirm that the interviewer’s description of the company and its people are accurate (yay) or highlight a disconnect between espoused and actual components of company culture (yikes).
You (hopefully) wouldn’t rent an apartment or buy a house without taking a tour of it. You (hopefully) toured your college’s campus before enrolling. If you’re going to be spending upwards of 40 hours per week at work, you should feel comfortable about the physical place you’ll be working at and the people with which you’ll be working. You need a more complete and accurate picture of the company and you can get that, in part, by taking a tour of the building/workspace. Don’t rely on a company’s marketing or human resources department to tell you how wonderful it is to work there. And don’t rely on anonymous online reviews. See, hear, and feel it for yourself.
Ask. For. A. Tour.
[Originally publish on LinkedIn on December 10, 2020: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dont-leave-your-interview-without-doing-one-thing-bill-leonard-mhrm/]