Checking out a future employer: Ask the Expert
A: This is all about due diligence. Before you accept a job offer anywhere - and ideally before attending your first interview - you need to do some serious homework.
The internet is a fantastic tool. The bare minimum you must do is read the company's website in detail and do a search for press stories about them and the sector they operate in. This will tell you a lot - and give you plenty of pointers for questions to ask at interview. It's also a good idea to find out as much as possible about the people who will be interviewing you and the top management of the company - what kind of profile do they have, where did they work before and so on.
If you can't find information about the company's financial status through these methods, you can get their accounts from Companies House online (https://www.companieshouse.gov.uk). And if all of this sounds a bit daunting, go to your nearest commercial library and get them to help you.
On top of this you should ask around your whole network to get any personal experiences about the company and its senior personnel - always remembering who the source is and what particular axes they may have to grind.
Well prepared in this way, approach interviews as business meetings. They want to find out if you are the person for them, but you equally want to know if this is the right company for you. Ask questions. Find out about the position - is it a new post, if not, what happened to the previous incumbent.
If you have done all this, then the rest is just accepting that we live in a changing world and you can't know everything - especially if people are deliberately trying to mislead you. Things do change between job offers and start dates, sometimes for perfectly legitimate reasons.
"You never have perfect information until you get your feet under the table," says Linda Jackson, MD of the financial services practice of career consultancy Fairplace. Also trust your instincts, she advises. "If your gut reaction tells you something isn't right for you, then it probably isn't. Having positive relationships with the people you work with is just as important as money."
The one final thing that is worth considering is asking if you can spend a day or half a day shadowing someone in the team you would be joining. It's an unusual request, but not unheard of, and it's a great way of getting a feel of a company and its culture.
Next week's question: Can I get a professional role in finance, particularly asset management (fixed income and emerging markets really move me!) based on my ability to manage my own assets? In eight years I have turned 15,000 into 260,000, using financial instruments including equities (UK and worldwide), UK property, exchange rates, funds, fund of funds, Australian property syndicates, New Zealand debenture stocks, trading platforms etc. I'm 37 and have only a high-school education. I currently manage my own assets to make a living. Any suggestions?
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