Company culture is becoming an increasingly important part of the recruitment world. It’s no longer enough for candidates to have the right qualifications and skills—they also need to be aligned with the company’s culture, and a great fit for the different personalities within the office.
But this goes both ways—and company culture should also be something that candidates are actively considering. A bad company culture could make a business very unpleasant to work for, and may even have an impact on your long-term career goals. So what can you learn about a company’s culture from that all-important first interview?
As a leading London recruitment agency, we aim to find the best fit for all of our candidates, so we take company culture seriously. Let’s have a look at some of the signs and signals you should watch out for…
First impressions are everything
Think back to your first interactions with a company. Did they give you the runaround when trying to set a date and time for your interview? Maybe you walked up to the front desk to announce your arrival for an interview and the receptionist was immediately rude or unpleasant to you? These are your first surefire signs that the company doesn’t have a great culture. A great culture creates happy, organised, and productive staff—not rude, scatty employees who can’t set a date for an interview. Whether you’re applying for a top London PA job, an office support role, or a manager vacancy, staff should be polite when you arrive.
Notice the atmosphere
You can tell a lot about a company’s culture with a quick stroll through the office itself. Do staff seem relaxed and happy, chatting among themselves while they work? Or do they seem tense and agitated, with a blanket of silence over the workspace? Try to pick up on these subtle clues as you head for your interview.
Too interested, or not interested enough
If the interviewer seems overly keen to hire you and doesn’t seem to be asking questions of any substance, this should be a red flag. Why aren’t they asking serious questions? Are they desperate to hire someone, anyone? Similarly, if your interviewer seems disinterested or unprepared for the interview process, you can take that as a sign that the company culture isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
There’s no clarity
Imagine you’ve been through a three-stage interview process over the course of a few weeks, and every time you were interviewed by someone totally different. There was no clear sense of who was in charge or who your superiors would be. Perhaps you were even asked some of the same questions at each interview. This creates an image of a company that doesn’t really know where it’s headed or how to get there.
For more information about finding your next opportunity, whether it’s a temporary PA job or an receptionist role, get in touch with PA recruitment agency Love Success today.
Love Success is a leading PA and secretarial recruitment agency in London.
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