Interviews: 5 Red Flags And How To Manage Them

After years of speaking with candidates and clients and delivering feedback on both sides of the table I’ve come to notice a trend of certain phrases or attitudes that when you hear you know the position isn’t getting filled. Knowing what to look for is half the battle though, so I’ve put together a list of 5 red flags to look out for when interviewing and how to manage them.

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1) Poor Communication or Lack of Transparency

We’ve all seen this one. You’ve got weird vibes from the interviewer, not really sure what the job entails, where it’s going or the same for the business. The interviewer could be hesitant to give career progression details or hazy on the tech stack. Usually this is because they don’t know, haven’t thought out a progression map thoroughly or are snap hiring for a replacement as someone has left and many many other reasons.

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How to Manage: Take the initiative to ask specific questions about job responsibilities, company culture, career progression and expectations. One of the easiest ways to do this is ask questions like “what would success look like in this position”, or “what would you expect from the role in 6 months, 12 months and beyond”. If the interviewer's responses are vague, politely request clarification.

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2) High Turnover

Tech has seen a swathe of hiring, redundancy, offshoring and will go through the same boom and bust cycles again soon enough with the next hot tech trend. We saw it with the dot com boom and the post covid boom and we’ll probably see it again with AI. This one can be a bit trickier to see coming unless you are keyed into tech news but you can’t be at the bleeding edge without sometimes getting cut. What is easier to spot though is frequent high turnover within the team or department. A consistently high turnover rate may signal underlying issues with managerial styles, workplace culture, job satisfaction or broken tech.

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How to Manage: the best place to start is to ask “what may be driving the recruitment for this role” and/or questions about the team and their culture. You’ll find teams or departments that excel at this will be quick to answer as they will know the team well and all their foibles but also be defensive of bringing in new team members who don’t meet the bar for entry. Average tenure in tech roles these days is 18 months (yes really) but some teams really buck this trend, and they’ll be good reasons for it that they will happily discuss.

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Fortunately we also have tools like Glassdoor and other review sites where you could get a variety of salary, interview and company information – please take these reviews with a grain of salt and not as a reason to disregard employers, see for yourself and make your own decisions.

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3) Unrealistic Expectations

Obvious examples include needing 10 years experience in [insert technology that’s only existed for 2 years] but can also include things like 200k OTE, the salary might be 50k + bonus + RSUs or be as simple as something like remote working. The more nefarious ones though are bait and switch type deals where you may be sold a dream only to find you end up being transferred internally or working on something completely different (usually read: legacy) than you expected.

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Be wary of job postings or interview discussions that promise rapid career advancement, unrealistic salary expectations, or exaggerated job perks without providing concrete details. If the role seems too good to be true or the interviewer makes grand promises without substantiating them, it's essential to proceed with caution and seek clarification on expectations and deliverables.

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How to Manage: Questions like “do you have any examples of someone achieving in a similar way”, or “if I started tomorrow, what would I be working on”, or “what would the day to day look like”. If promises seem too good to be true, they usually are but you can try and seek concrete evidence to support them. Ask about career progression paths and performance expectations to gain a realistic understanding of the role.

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4) Bad Reputation

Its not what you know but usually who you know. The tech industry is a small world, especially if you operate in a particular niche you’ll usually get to know the movers and shakers but also those with a bad rep. Use your network to your advantage. Do you know anyone who has interviewed there before or do your friends or family know much about the business or the line manager? You’ll be really surprised who knows who!

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How to Manage: Again you can find a lot from sites like Glassdoor but if possible, network with current or former employees to gather honest insights about their experiences. Pay attention to consistent themes or patterns in their feedback. If you are confident enough you could ask the interviewer about any concerns raised by previous employees or ask about the businesses efforts to address them. I’d be considering how significant the negative feedback is vs the strength of the interviewers answers relative to my career goals and values before making a decision.

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5) Lack of Alignment with Company Values

Mission, vision and values goes much further than pool tables and bean bags, but not every company will be working on green tech or world peace and it’s your responsibly, really, to make sure the business values align with your own. Sometimes this might mean a bit of introspection on your part, but warning signs could include If the interviewer struggles to articulate the company's core values or if there is a disconnect between what they say vs their public perception.

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How to Manage: Choose roles or businesses that fit your core values first or do a bit of due diligence on clients you are being put forward to. People tend to leave bad managers and they follow good leaders. You can ask questions in the interview about the company direction, the founders and their input and more about your direct line managers management style or the values they may be building into the team or how the company values are integrated into daily operations. All of which should give you a good idea of who you are working with and where they want to go.

These are a bunch of red flags to watch out for but based on your own experience, you may have your own but whatever the metric, go in with your eyes open. These red flags do not mean that the role or the business is a non-starter, just that you may need to do a bit of digging to get the answers to the questions you might have.

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My mum always used to tell me interviewing is a two way street, and do you know what, (just like many other things) she is absolutely right. Trust your instincts and don’t hesitate to ask questions to ensure that you have all the information you need to make an informed decision

For more tips or advice on how to navigate your challenges in tech recruitment reach out to me directly or give me a call on 01527 407140 or you can find out a bit more about us here: https://www.sourceco.co.uk/it-recruitment/

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About the author:

Sam is a technical recruiter and head of the IT division at SourceCo Recruitment with extensive experience in managing end to end recruitment solutions for contract and permanent positions, who can help you get tech roles or find tech staff. ?