people care what you think

You want to find a job. Maybe you have been offered a job. Outside of a corporate exposition from a PR agency, what is the real experience of working for a company, behind closed doors? How are you going to feel if to choose to work for them? Well, what's the impression from people who already work there? What if you could read reviews of the company?

 

This site is to be used as a resource to help you make an informed decision about your job and prospective employers. It is unique in giving you an insight into their place in the market, their background practices, the kinds of perks they offer, the sense of community, future job security (who wants to work for a company that's about to go bust?) and job referrals from people who work there, perhaps even doing your job, detailing what it actually feels like. It's not designed to put you off working somewhere - more to give you an idea or a feel for the working practices of a company, of what it is like.

 

Why?

In an ideal world, we would all have access to the employees at an organisation in which we were interested, in order to ask them about the various nuances of that particular organisation. In the real world, that simply isn’t possible. How can you know if the style, values and culture of this company will suite you?

 

For example, some people would find that a company that recognises long working hours is attractive; the same kind of culture might be a complete turn off for someone else. And, funnily enough, these things rarely come up in interviews, and never in a job advertisement! How are your efforts rewarded? How effective is communication around the business? More than that, how secure is the organisation – are they in financial trouble, or are they growing rapidly?

 

It might sound artless, but there is now a real need for this level of insight: in a stagnant jobs market, in which people are reluctant to move positions unless they have a certain degree of confidence about their future there, this information is now of paramount value. More than that, if you know a little bit more about the company in question, and are able to have that little more enthusiasm for the business, your application is far more likely to be successful.

 

And companies are also keen to encourage this kind of altruistic endeavour: the average hidden cost associated with recruiting a new employee is more than £5,000, according to a study by recruitment consultants Angela Mortimer. That cost is a painful hit if the new employee subsequently leaves after just a short while due to not liking the job. In a domain in which it might be logical to assume that companies would want to discourage this kind of broadcasting, many HR departments actually see this as a useful way of attracting the best candidates, and are actively requesting that their current employees review them.

 

whataretheyreallylike.com is the missing link in this field. It is both relevant and unique in its approach to conveying advice to the job-seeking audience: in a world accustomed to social networking, the content of the site is exclusively user generated. There is even a forums area in which users can discuss issues, share ideas, collaborate on information and even post otherwise-unpublished job opportunities.

 

How?

You are invited to give your impressions of your employer, discretely and anonymously: post job reviews of your company, describe your experiences. There is a whole community of workers here.

 

So, search reviews for companies that you are interested in, and ask advice from other people in the working community - all the better for helping you to find a job.

 

Tell people about your employer here

Search for employer reviews here.

 

We have a simplified method of using ratings for key areas of employment life, with opportunity for adding details from your career as you see fit. You can use the forums page to ask questions of people in the industry, and to post any vacancies from your own organisation (recruit a friend schemes). Have a search around.

 

 

 

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