What is the single most important piece of due diligence you should do before accepting a job offer?
IMHO it’s this:
đź’ˇTalk to other employees who report to the person you will report to.
And do it one-on-one. That is the only way to get candid responses.
Ask open ended questions like:
- “What is X’s work style?”
- “What does it take to be successful here?”
- “What is the best way to work with X?”
- “What are some of the biggest challenges facing Y [company/organization/firm/agency]
- “How does X typically give feedback—formally, informally, frequently?”
- “What’s something people misunderstand about working with X?”
- “How are decisions typically made here?”
- “Are there opportunities for learning, mentoring, or trying new things?”
- “What’s something you wish you knew about Y before you joined?”
- “What keeps people here—and what causes people to leave?”
You should adapt these questions to your own style. And it is unlikely that you will ask all of them. You might even have others.
The point is, if you only talk to the hiring manager, you may be missing important information that informs whether this is the right job/company/environment for you.
If you keep your questions relatively open ended and don’t ask leading questions, you are likely to get invaluable information that may save you heartache in the future.
The lawyers I coach are sometimes reluctant to ask these questions. They feel risky. But once you have the offer in hand, there is little downside in asking (and identifying the people you would like to speak to).