👀 What are some red flags that a company is a nightmare to work for that you can spot during the interview process?

I don't know if there's a precise term for it, but a red flag for me is when there seems to be inexplicable attrition. I once interviewed with a team that seemed to have no experienced people, and it was spun as being a young and lively group. That may be, but something about that made me skeptical. If there aren't any experienced people that's just an ominous sign.

If the manager says anything similar to “we’re a family”

Or if they mention doing overtime (in a salary position)

When you ask why the previous person left if the answer is not transparent that’s a big red flag

Try asking the hiring manager why the position is open. If they can't provide a clear answer, that's a bad sign.

If an interviewer makes a comment on what you’re wearing or your appearance that’s a bad sign.

If the company expects you to fly in from another city at 7am, navigate a rental car, finding parking and the building on a complex campus, staying for an all day interview without so much as a bottled water whilst requesting free help and input on a project then flying home at 7pm and pushing back on reimbursment of the flight - that is a bad sign.

If the salary offer and title are less than what was discussed during 2 months of multiple rounds of interviews that is a bad sign.

If the interviewer requires you to be on camera but is not on camera themselves that is not a good sign.

I once went to a call center to interview for a Supervisory position. The room was cold and the general mood was gloomy. As I went through the interview, the interviewer got up form his desk, went to the floor and started yelling at the workers to stop letting time between calls go [past 20 seconds. The people had looks of sheer terror on their faces. He then came back and told me, "You really have to stay on these people." At the same time, a girl came back from a bathroom break. She was 30 seconds past he "allotted bathroom break time of 2 minutes. He yelled at her, and then told her she was being written up for consistently coming back tardy from the bathroom. At that point, the red flags were flying high, so I told him thank you, but I don't think this is the way I'd like to lead your team. I turned and left. When you see/hear someone being outwardly rude and controlling down to the second, THAT is a BIG RED FLAG!

Culture. Culture. Culture.
Make sure you align with the direction of the company. Especially if you are in a people manager position where you need to sell the culture the C suite is selling.
If you don’t agree, it will be hard to hide and will affect your sanity or position unless you have Irish in you like me.

Any time they lowball you on the offer. I've done it twice, once when I was moving across the country and the day before my flight they said I'd be paid a lot less for the first three months as a trial. Extremely toxic environment with the VP regularly yelling and being so brutal as to make adults cry. I was gone after not quite two months. The other time, I aced the interview, and we'd agreed on pay and benefits. The offer letter said it would be about 1/3 of the agreed pay. I called to ask if that was an error because of what we'd agreed on, and they said no, so I passed. I later worked at that company during a recession, when it was tough to find work, and the work environment was horrible. As a result, now I won't touch anything that offers below the posted pay range, and will run anytime the offer letter is less than what we agreed on. Once I was offered well above the range we'd agreed on, and it was the best job I ever had.

How often they promote or asking about the process

Unclear/undefined success metrics for the position

The interviewer / hiring manager spends more than 60 seconds introducing themself. Gah, the worst leaders I’ve worked under had the primary goal of impressing everyone they came into contact with. Their elevator speech intro became monologues and interruptions for more monologues. I understand there are times where it is appropriate to spend more than 60 seconds introducing yourself, but that is not the right situation. I want to make sure it’s clear I’m not applying this to the person being interviewed. Unless there’s an expectation not to, I don’t think the person being interviewed should be worried about exceeding 60 seconds when first introducing one’s self and background/experiences. I also think it’s completely fine for the interviewer to spend more than 60 seconds giving the background of the company/division/group/role.
My red flag indicator is alerted specifically when people are egotistical and/or insecure to the point that they spend too much time talking about themselves when it’s not useful information.

I'm an RN and was trying to get into a different industry so I went back for a master's degree. It was tough convincing people to see me differently for about 5 months and I got a call from an outpatient clinic whose job description was dramatically different once they started talking to me. When I zoom interviewed...the interviewers didn't show up so I messaged the recruiter who got them to join the meeting.
Although I was a master's prepared nurse, they said I would also do medical assisting duties about 50% of the time!
The job description said I would be hybrid telephone triage and only go in 2 days a week but then they said it would be in-person almost every day because that's where the phone system was and might allow the occasional Friday at-home for note taking and meetings. There was also call and weekend duties when the description said it was weekdays and clinic hours (8-5) only!
Oh and the pay was about $5 less per hour!!

They called to offer me the position and I declined and said the job description differed too much.
They tried to work with me on the remote part but I declined because I didn't trust that anything I negotiated would be adhered to and I would be too busy to keep looking for another position.
Then they called me 3 more times to beg me to take the job and said they would work with me on pay and days off, etc.
The interviewers were really nice but I felt they were in over their heads at that clinic and the leadership was too weak to implement long-lasting changes.

Then the recruiter wanted feedback about why I wouldn't accept the job, etc. and I basically told her to talk more with the clinic about what their expectations are! This was part of the largest hospital system in the midwest with their own recruiters...not a small time office using boutique recruiting firms.

Went thru hell with them and was *this close* to taking it out of desperation! Weirdly, I got the best job in pharma I could have ever wished for right after that experience.