Top Ten Ways to Spot a Dead-End Job

By Jessica Stillman | September 15, 2009

8 Comments

Yesterday’s post on how to get a raise in a recession ended with a little tough love from modite’s Rebecca Thorman: if you’re in a dead-end job with no hope of promotion, start polishing your resume. It’s bracing advice but sensible, but there’s one small problem. When you’re interviewing for a new position, it’s not always easy to tell a job that is going somewhere from a job that’s going exactly nowhere, especially when you’re relatively inexperienced. So how can you tell whether the gig you’re up for is going to be any better than the stagnant one you left behind?

CAREEREALISM’s Rob Taub has a top ten list for that. Just imagine a fun David Letterman style delivery as you peruse these ten ways you can tell you’re interviewing for a dead-end job:

Number 10: The position for which you are interviewing is vacant for a long time… Before letting someone go or sensing if someone wants to go, [well-run companies] will be ready with a replacement.
Number 9: When asked how the company measures its success in the market, the interviewer offers a self-constructed analysis… he’s making it up!
Number 8: Interviewer offers only vague generalizations about where the company would like to be, concluding with, “hey, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. The correct thinking: better improve it before someone else does.
Number 7: When you bring up Internet marketing or SEO, his or her eyes start to close.
Number 6: When asked who they feel are their main competitors, you’re fed the old unsubstantiated line, “we don’t have any”.
Number 5: When you ask how the position has changed over the years the response is, “it hasn’t.”
Number 4: When you ask the interviewer to tell you something about the particulars of the job you hear, “very steady work; lots of job security.”
Number 3: When you ask if the Interviewer has any tips before you leave and he or she says, “just make sure you have some fun out there.”
Number 2: When you ask your would-be boss how long he or she has been in their job, you hear, “since the company started.”
And finally, THE NUMBER 1 REASON YOU WILL KNOW IT’S A DEAD-END JOB AND SHOULD HIGH-TAIL IT TO THE DOOR … When asked if the he or she is happy with where the company is today, the interviewer replies, “hey, it pays the bills and keeps the kids in tennis lessons!”

OK, the advice isn’t delivered in the most serious of styles, but the nugget of truth remains. There are usually red flags in an interview that a position is not suited for ambitious, career-minded individuals. What warning signs do you look out for, or wish you hadn’t missed?

(Image of dead end sign by JustinLowery.com, CC 2.0)

Related Tags Job, CAREEREALISM, Recruitment & Selection, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Jessica Stillman

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RE: Top Ten Ways to Spot a Dead-End Job

When they fly you in for an interview and put you up in the Red Roof Inn.

slccom

09/15/2009 06:01 PM

RE: Top Ten Ways to Spot a Dead-End Job

when the interviewer forgets the basic etiquette of asking the women if she wishes to take the first taxi instead of rushing back to airport and imposing his urgency is much higher than yours.

When the interviewer is humble enough to show his arrogance as he works for the company which he assumes would provide job for life.

When you know company is branded for lot many good things than just few areas that you are interested in.

mohanramsujatha

09/15/2009 07:12 PM

RE: Top Ten Ways to Spot a Dead-End Job

When the interviewer speaks about his gardening skills or how he spends evenings to you in the interview.

When the interviewer focuses on your hobbies than the actual work that is being interviewed for.

When you see hell load of saliva pouring from the side of his mouth, while he meanders through all the unrelated topics hopelessly, as he explicitly appreciates himself focusing on his heights of his stupidity.

When he shines his ignorance in the bright sunlight, underestimating the your strengths.(well assuming you to be a jackass)

When he drills on your honesty, for example asking why you did not get highest score in your performance for the previous year?

When the interviewer shows explicit desire to know you on the personal grounds than professionally even in the interview.

When the interviewer offers to walk you to the gate still managing to pester you to catch up with you for a drink.

I will say you should stand up for yourself, get out of such interviews and also leave your mark so such interviewers will remember their life time. (In simpleton language, give such ******** one good slap with the sole of your shoe.) Or you must have the determination to come back as their boss's boss and show their place on planet earth.

mohanramsujatha

09/15/2009 07:43 PM

RE: Top Ten Ways to Spot a Dead-End Job

All these suggestions are ridiculous. Drool? Eyes closing? Come on, folks, these aren't realistic. And even if they do happen, all it indicates is that the interviewer is a loser, not that the job or company is a "dead end."

The people who run most companies want those companies to succeed. I think the vast majority of dead end jobs come about because the people running the companies are clueless and/or they have no long-term strategic goals. In other words, they don't know where the company is heading.

I've had a couple dead-end jobs, and the biggest red flag I've seen is when everything is an experiment. "Let's try this. Let's try that. No one really knows the answer, we're all just feeling our way around." A company with a future has a plan for progress and expansion, documented contingency plans for disasters (like not getting a big contract), and a sharp sense of what they do, how they do it, and how that's likely to change.

Another sure-fire indicator of a dead-end job is when the company engages in illegal or unethical behaviors. Unfortunately, there's no way to see that coming from an interview.

In an interview, ask what the company's plan is for xxx disaster (the xxx will obviously be different for each industry/company). I work for a government contractor. When I was interviewing, Bush was in the process of pissing off the entire globe. I asked the interviewer, "In the likely event that the Democrats take over everything and they slash defense spending, how will this company cope?" Without missing a beat, the interviewer answered my question and put my fears to rest. I knew at that point that the company had a plan for its continued existence.

As far as a position being dead end (as opposed to a company), you can determine that by asking about the future of the position and the department. You'll need to dig, though, so follow every avenue for questioning.

I was forced out of a company once because they were planning to dissolve the department. This dissolving took place a year later, but the seeds were planted long before, and they never showed their hand so the rest of the department wouldn't fly the coop. They only kept one person from the department, and let her go another 6 months down the road.

If the interviewer can't tell you about the long-term plan for the department or the position, keep digging until you can see where the position is heading.

vampirekwc

09/16/2009 03:56 AM

RE: Top Ten Ways to Spot a Dead-End Job

I should have seen it when I interviewed for my last gig. The building where the marketing department was a shambles. The office I was to work in had five people. They did not have a desk or computer ready for me. Okay so I was glazed over by the thought of going to work in the music business. In the end, it was a poor fit between GC and myself. Lessoned learned, poke around when you are interviewing, ask to see the space where you will be working and to speak with future colleagues.

DataDude1

09/16/2009 05:19 AM

RE: Top Ten Ways to Spot a Dead-End Job

When your potential managers act like they are in love with you in the interview. Although to the unexperienced, this may be flattering and give you the confidence that you know you will get the job, the fact is: if they are that happy to see you compared to the other candidates, there's probably a reason the job is attracting those kinds of "other" candidates.

Don't rely on a company's size and/or reputation. Unfortunately, being a Fortune 100 company does not preclude organizations from being a steaming cesspool of below-average crushed dreams career-wise. Nor does it preclude you from being hired into a department with posessive managers that have no clue how to manage a project or control their emotions, or even give you enough work above the level of an intern.

JohnSB

09/16/2009 07:05 AM

RE: Top Ten Ways to Spot a Dead-End Job

Unfortunately, the inverse of numbers 1 thru 10 could also spell danger. Although the article nailed it, such responses of the interviewer can also indicate a very poor interviewer or an unprepared interviewer. But, beware of the interviewer that is ultra-positive and hyper-excited about every question or comment made during an interview or every aspect of the company or job. This is often a manager or HR person who is struggling to find their own way at (or out of) a position, or worse, a company, that may be going nowhere. Look for balanced answers to balanced questions.

For example, one hiring manager told a prospective finance employee that the job was going to be dynamic and full of twist and turns and offer great opportunity for growth. In less than one year, the position was eliminated. Interviewees need to get past the superficial and ask the hard questions and never ignore the red flags.