Researching Companies

The careers page tells you what the company wants you to know. Your job is to find out what they do not want you to know, and what they do not even realize about themselves. Thorough company research is the difference between walking into an interview with generic answers and walking in with specific, informed questions that make the interviewer think "this person already gets it."

Beyond the Careers Page

Every company's careers page says the same things: "we're innovating," "great culture," "competitive compensation." This tells you nothing. Real research starts elsewhere.

Glassdoor

What to look for on Glassdoor:
  - Overall rating trend (is it going up or down over 2 years?)
  - Interview reviews (what questions do they actually ask?)
  - Salary data (is the posted range realistic?)
  - Pros vs. cons patterns (one bad review is noise;
    ten reviews mentioning "poor management" is signal)
  - CEO approval rating

How to read Glassdoor critically:
  - Disgruntled employees over-post (negative bias)
  - Some companies incentivize positive reviews
  - Recent reviews matter more than old ones
  - Look for SPECIFIC complaints, not vague negativity
    Specific: "On-call rotation is every other week with no comp"
    Vague: "Work-life balance could be better"

What Blind gives you that Glassdoor does not:
  - Real-time sentiment from current employees
  - Compensation data that is more current
  - Insider perspective on layoffs, reorgs, and team health
  - Unfiltered opinions (anonymous, so people are blunt)

How to use Blind effectively:
  - Search for the company name and read recent threads
  - Look for posts about specific teams you are considering
  - Pay attention to recurring themes across multiple posts
  - Filter out the noise (Blind has a lot of venting)
  - Ask specific questions if you have a verified account

Engineering Blogs & Tech Talks

The engineering blog reveals what a company actually values technically. A company that publishes detailed blog posts about their infrastructure is telling you something about their engineering culture.

What engineering blogs reveal:
  - Tech stack (languages, frameworks, infrastructure)
  - Scale of their systems (requests per second, data volume)
  - Engineering culture (do they value craft? innovation? speed?)
  - Openness (do they share problems or only successes?)
  - Investment in engineering brand (active blog = they care)

Where to find them:
  - Company engineering blog (usually at engineering.company.com)
  - Medium publications by the company
  - Conference talks on YouTube (search "Company Name" + conference)
  - Podcast appearances by engineering leaders

Red flag: A tech company with no engineering blog and no
conference talks. Either they do not invest in engineering
culture, or they have nothing interesting to share.

GitHub & Open Source

What a company's GitHub presence tells you:
  - Do they contribute to open source? (culture of sharing)
  - How active are their repos? (are they maintained or abandoned?)
  - How do they handle issues and PRs? (responsive? dismissive?)
  - What technologies do they use? (languages, tools, frameworks)
  - Code quality (look at a few files — is it clean? tested?)

Companies with strong open source presence:
  - Usually have stronger engineering cultures
  - Value transparency and community
  - Tend to attract better engineers (virtuous cycle)

No GitHub presence does not mean bad, but active presence
is a positive signal.

LinkedIn research tactics:
  - Look at the team you would join
    - How long have people been there? (high turnover = red flag)
    - Where did they come from? (strong alumni = strong team)
    - What do their titles suggest about the org structure?

  - Look at who has LEFT recently
    - Where did they go? (if many went to the same competitor, why?)
    - When did they leave? (cluster of departures = something happened)
    - How long did they stay? (average tenure under 2 years = churn)

  - Look at the hiring manager
    - What is their background?
    - How long have they been in the role?
    - Do they post content? (reveals management style and priorities)

Understanding the Tech Stack

Knowing the tech stack before your interview gives you a significant edge. You can tailor your answers to show relevant experience and ask informed questions about technical decisions.

How to discover the tech stack:
  1. Job posting (lists required technologies)
  2. Engineering blog (describes infrastructure)
  3. StackShare.io (crowdsourced tech stack data)
  4. GitHub repos (direct evidence)
  5. Conference talks (engineers discuss their systems)
  6. Blind/Reddit posts ("What's the stack at Company X?")
  7. Job postings for adjacent roles (infrastructure, DevOps)

What to do with this information:
  - Brush up on technologies you know that they use
  - Prepare to discuss how your experience maps to their stack
  - Prepare thoughtful questions about their technical decisions
  - Identify gaps where you might need to learn on the job

Evaluating Team Culture

Culture is hard to assess from the outside, but there are signals.

Positive culture signals:
  - Engineers stay 3+ years on average
  - Company invests in conferences, learning, and open source
  - Reasonable on-call expectations with compensation
  - Clear promotion criteria and career ladders
  - Diverse team at multiple levels (not just junior)
  - Engineering leadership has technical credibility
  - Product and engineering have a healthy working relationship

Negative culture signals:
  - High turnover, especially at senior levels
  - No clear engineering career ladder
  - "We're like a family" (often means boundary violations)
  - Heroics culture ("we ship on weekends when needed")
  - No documentation of on-call, deployment, or review processes
  - All leadership is non-technical
  - Constant reorgs (every 6-12 months)

Evaluating Growth Trajectory

You want to join a company that is growing (or at least stable), not one that is declining. Growth means more opportunities, more resources, and more interesting problems.

How to assess growth trajectory:
  Public companies:
  - Revenue growth rate (10-Q filings, earnings calls)
  - Headcount growth (LinkedIn data, job postings volume)
  - Stock price trend (not just current, but 2-year trajectory)
  - Market position vs. competitors

  Private companies:
  - Recent funding rounds (amount and valuation)
  - Customer growth (press releases, case studies)
  - Headcount growth (LinkedIn employee count over time)
  - Industry analyst reports (Gartner, Forrester)
  - Competitors that have gone public (validates the market)

  Startups:
  - Burn rate vs. runway (how long until they need more money?)
  - Revenue growth vs. user growth (revenue is harder to fake)
  - Founders' track record (serial founders vs. first-time)
  - Investor quality (top-tier VCs do more due diligence)

Red Flags & Green Flags

Red Flags

Organizational red flags:
  - Multiple rounds of layoffs in the past 2 years
  - CTO or VP Engineering departure without clear succession
  - Glassdoor rating below 3.0 with consistent themes
  - Acqui-hires that dissolved (team left after acquisition)
  - Constant job postings for the same roles (cannot retain)

Technical red flags:
  - Legacy tech stack with no migration plan
  - No CI/CD pipeline
  - Deployment requires manual approval from a single person
  - No automated testing
  - Engineering blog has not been updated in 2+ years

Process red flags:
  - Interview process is disorganized (reschedules, ghosting)
  - Recruiter cannot answer basic questions about the team
  - No clear job description for the role
  - "We'll figure out your role once you join"

Green Flags

Organizational green flags:
  - Long average tenure (3+ years)
  - Internal promotions are common (not just external hires for leads)
  - Clear engineering levels and compensation bands
  - Investment in developer experience and tooling
  - Active diversity and inclusion initiatives with measurable results

Technical green flags:
  - Modern, well-maintained tech stack
  - Strong testing and deployment practices
  - Engineers write about technical challenges publicly
  - Open source contributions
  - Dedicated platform/infrastructure team

Process green flags:
  - Smooth, well-organized interview process
  - Interviewers are prepared and engaged
  - Recruiter is responsive and transparent
  - Clear timeline communicated at every stage
  - Post-interview feedback (even if it is a rejection)

What the Recruiter Will Not Tell You

Recruiters are sales people. Their job is to fill the role. They will not lie, but they will omit.

What recruiters omit:
  - The team has had 3 managers in 2 years
  - The project you would work on might be cancelled
  - The role was created because someone just quit
  - The team is understaffed and you will be thrown in immediately
  - The "competitive compensation" is below the 25th percentile
  - The "flexible work" policy is about to be reversed

How to discover what they omit:
  - Ask specific questions: "How many managers has this team
    had in the past 2 years?"
  - Talk to current or former employees (LinkedIn messages)
  - Ask the hiring manager directly during the interview
  - Read between the lines of Glassdoor reviews
  - Notice what they dodge or redirect when asked directly

Questions That Reveal the Truth

Questions that recruiters find hard to spin:
  "What is the average tenure on this team?"
  "Why is this role open?"
  "What happened to the person who had this role before?"
  "What does the on-call rotation look like?"
  "How often do priorities change on this team?"
  "What is the promotion rate for engineers at this level?"
  "Can I speak with someone on the team before making a decision?"

If they cannot or will not answer these questions clearly,
that is itself an answer.

Common Pitfalls

Only reading the careers page — it is marketing, not research; dig deeper with Glassdoor, Blind, LinkedIn, and engineering blogs
Ignoring turnover data — a team with 50% annual turnover has a problem regardless of how good the technology is
Falling for brand prestige — a well-known company name does not guarantee a good team, good management, or good growth opportunities
Not researching the specific team — a great company can have terrible teams and vice versa; research the team, not just the company
Skipping the engineering blog — it is the most honest signal of what the company actually values technically
Not talking to current or former employees — no amount of online research replaces a 15-minute conversation with someone who works there
Accepting vague answers — "competitive pay" and "flexible culture" mean nothing without specifics

Key Takeaways

Research goes far beyond the careers page: use Glassdoor, Blind, LinkedIn, engineering blogs, GitHub, and direct conversations
Understand the tech stack before your interview so you can tailor your experience and ask informed questions
Evaluate culture through tenure data, turnover patterns, engineering investment, and interview process quality
Assess growth trajectory through revenue, funding, headcount trends, and market position
Identify red flags early (high turnover, disorganized process, vague answers) so you do not waste time on bad opportunities
Ask specific, hard-to-spin questions to uncover what the recruiter will not volunteer
The 30 minutes you spend researching a company before an interview will pay off in every conversation you have during the process