A Great Place to Work... Until You Work There
Certifications sell culture. They don't always reflect it.You know those workplace awards that get splashed across company websites and LinkedIn? 🏆 Best Place to Work 🏆 Top Employer for Women 🏆 Bomb.com Workplace They sound amazing, especially when you're burnt out and desperate for a change. I used to trust them, too. I was excited to work for a company that achieved one of these awards. Hell, I even filtered job boards based on who had a badge. It felt like a shortcut to safety. A guarantee that the culture wouldn't break me. But most workplace awards are branding. Not proof. This week's podcast episode unpacks the disconnect between award-winning culture and actual lived experience. I'm also talking about how those "Best Place to Work" badges can cloud our judgment when we're trying to make career moves that are supposed to feel safer.
So, how do you vet a company's culture when all you have is a job description and a careers page? Ask "when," not just "if." Don't just ask if a company values feedback... ask when they've last responded to hard feedback. Ask what happened after an employee made a mistake. Specifics tell you everything. Here are some questions you can ask:
Talk to someone not in recruiting. If possible, reach out to someone who's on the team you'd be working with. You're more likely to get real talk about team dynamics, manager support, and day-to-day stress levels. Pay attention to how you feel in the process. Do you find yourself overexplaining in the interview? Minimizing your needs? Already bracing to prove your worth? That's data. Look for patterns, not perfection. No workplace is flawless. But healthy ones can name their growing edges, show you how they handle tension, and give examples of real (not performative) support. Culture isn't built on buzzwords and branding. It's built in the daily patterns, the hard conversations, and how people are treated when no one's watching. Let's make sure your next role gets that right. -Tara |
