🤫 Whisper #21: 5 minutes to avoid a toxic workplace
Find a former employee. Reach out (I'll give you a script). Get the tea. Avoid lurking landmines. The best mental health ROI of your life.
Hey, it’s 📣 Coach Erika! Welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition🔒 of The Career Whispers. Each week, I tackle reader questions about tech careers: how to get one, how to navigate them, and how to grow and thrive in your role.
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JOB SEARCH DIARIES
THE WEEKLY WHISPER
DEBUGGING YOUR JOB SEARCH
MVIP (MINIMUM VIABLE INTERVIEW PREP)
CLEVER GUERRILLA
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Let’s dive in ↓
Whisper #21
The best mental health ROI of your life: 5 steps to avoid a toxic employer.
I work with people who have been searching high and low for a new job for months, to no avail. It can be tempting to take the first offer that comes, even if you saw a red flag or two in the job description or during the interview process.
There’s a quick and easy way to get perspective from someone who’s been on the ground (and isn’t trying to actively recruit you for the company).
It takes 5 minutes to start, and less than 20 minutes total.
I promise you this will get you the kind of intel you can’t get from anyone who is currently working there.
And if you manage to discover a lurking landmine and avoid a toxic job, this will be the best mental health ROI of your life (because therapy ain’t cheap!)
a low-stakes experiment for you
1. Open LinkedIn and search for the company name