Don’t Trust Glassdoor: How to Tell If a Company Is the Right Fit for You

When evaluating a potential employer, many job seekers turn to Glassdoor to gauge company culture, compensation, and employee experiences. While Glassdoor can provide helpful insights, it is far from a perfect resource. Reviews are often biased, disproportionately representing either disgruntled former employees or overly positive internal marketing efforts. To truly assess if a company is the right fit for you, you need to dig deeper beyond online reviews.

Here’s how you can uncover what a workplace is really like before you accept an offer.

1. Pay Attention to the Interview Process

A company’s interview process is often a preview of its work culture. If the hiring process feels disorganized, rushed, or overly complex, it may indicate deeper operational issues.

🔹 Responsiveness & Communication: Are recruiters and hiring managers prompt and professional in their responses? If emails go unanswered for days, details are inconsistent, or you have to chase them for updates, it could be a sign of poor internal communication.

🔹 Respect for Your Time: Frequent reschedules, last-minute cancellations or long periods of silence suggest a lack of organization or that employees are overloaded and stretched too thin.

🔹 Clarity & Transparency: Do interviewers clearly articulate the role, expectations, and company culture? If answers feel scripted, vague, or avoidant, they might be hiding high turnover, unrealistic expectations, or a toxic work environment.

💡 Example: A candidate interviewing for a mid-level role at a tech company was scheduled for six rounds of interviews over several weeks, with multiple last-minute reschedules. When they asked about the hiring timeline, the recruiter gave a vague response. 

2. Research Employee Tenure & Turnover

High turnover rates or frequent job openings for the same position may suggest a toxic culture or poor leadership.

🔹 LinkedIn Investigation: Look up employees on LinkedIn. Do most employees stay for years, or is there a pattern of people leaving after 6-12 months?

🔹 Ask in the Interview: "Can you tell me about the average tenure of the team?" A hiring manager should be able to provide a candid answer.

Example: A tech company had glowing Glassdoor reviews, but when a candidate checked LinkedIn, they noticed that almost half the engineering team had left within a year. That suggested something was wrong internally.

3. Assess Leadership & Management Style

Strong leadership is critical to job satisfaction. A few ways to evaluate management:

🔹 Look Up Leaders Online: Check their LinkedIn, past job history, and any articles or interviews. Do they have a track record of success, or do they hop from company to company?

🔹 Observe Their Behavior in the Interview: Are they engaged, respectful, and knowledgeable? If they seem disengaged or dismissive, they may not prioritize employees.

Example: A candidate interviewing for a product management role noticed that the VP of Product gave vague answers about team dynamics and avoided discussing past challenges. When the candidate researched further, they found that the VP had changed companies every 12–18 months and had a pattern of leaving shortly after major product launches. This raised concerns about instability and lack of long-term vision, leading the candidate to rethink the opportunity.

4. Look for Signs of Work-Life Balance

A company that doesn’t respect boundaries will show warning signs early:

🔹 Ask Employees About Expectations: During interviews, ask: "What does a typical workweek look like here?" If they hesitate or mention "long hours," take note.

5. Investigate Growth Potential

🔹 Ask About Raises & Promotions: "What does career growth look like here? How often do employees get promoted?"

🔹 Gauge Their Reaction to Salary Negotiation: Companies that react negatively to negotiation may have rigid, outdated pay structures.

Example: A candidate asked about promotion timelines and was told: "We don’t do promotions often." That was a clear sign that growth potential was limited.

AI Twist: Smarter Ways to Vet Employers

AI-powered tools can enhance your job search by uncovering insights beyond Glassdoor reviews. Here’s how:

🔹 Analyze Company Sentiment – Platforms like Revelio Labs or Comparably use AI to track employee satisfaction trends and detect signs of burnout or instability.

🔹 Track Leadership & Hiring Patterns – AI tools like TalentInsights reveal frequent executive turnover or mass layoffs, signaling potential red flags.

🔹 Assess Work-Life Balance – Sites like Blind, Levels.fyi, or Fishbowl provide real employee discussions on workloads, while AI-driven scheduling data can show if employees work excessive hours.

💡 Example: A candidate found a company with great Glassdoor ratings, but AI tools flagged a surge in employee exits and weekend Slack activity, signaling deeper issues.

Final Thoughts: Trust, but Verify

Glassdoor is just one piece of the puzzle—real insights come from digging deeper. While companies can curate their online reputation, patterns of high turnover, poor leadership, and unrealistic expectations are harder to disguise. By paying attention to the interview process, researching leadership, tracking employee retention, and assessing work-life balance, you’ll get a much clearer picture of what it’s really like to work there.

🚀 Your career is too valuable to rely on surface-level impressions. Do your homework, trust your instincts, and make decisions based on facts—not just marketing.