7 Warning Signs You Should Never Ignore When Applying for a Job

How do you detect red flags from a job description? Here are seven indicators you are going to start to see everywhere on job descriptions that will tip you off that this could be a terrible job opportunity. And stay to the end because you'll hear what they really mean when they reference pay in the job description. This is self made Millennial. I'm Madeline Mann. I am a human resources leader and job search strategist who turns job seekers into job shoppers. You may have seen me in these places New videos on Thursdays Starting us off strong of red flags to look out for in job descriptions is Number one wear many hats. If a job description says you will wear many hats, that's code for either you'll be modeling lots of headwear or more likely this role isn't well defined. Now, depending on your personality, this could be a good or a bad thing for me. I once took a leadership role at a growing startup that wore many hats and it was the highlight of my career. The CEO trusted me to define my role, figure out what needed to happen. Strategically, I was able to blossom like a caterpillar into a butterfly and absolutely slay that role. It was a blast. Now for many other people to have a company hire you and say do everything. Figure it out is your health scape. Many people like structure and need to understand what success looks like. If that's you, run hardcore in the other direction of that role because no two days will be the same and they are building the plane as it's flying right now. The next red flag to look out for on job descriptions is fast paced environment. When that is written in a job description, it is code for we are understaffed. Deadlines are flying everywhere, the team is lean and you need to pick up the slack Jack. So be sure to ask in interviews what kind of resources you'll have, namely team resources so that you aren't completely drowning. I'll also link a video on some great questions to ask in the interview and I'll put that in the comments and in the description. The third red flag to look out for in a job description is we are like a family, a.k.a. we are toxic. If you know, then you know. I've spoken about this before when I've talked about these seven red flag phrases and this one gets the most enthusiastic agreement. This work family environment often manifests where boundaries are crossed. There's politics, complex interpersonal dynamics, and there are often excuses to skirt policies. Simply put, they are like a family in that it gets really messy. You think it sounds like a good idea to join this family until you sit down at the dinner table and realize you're now a Lannister. Have you worked in a company that's like a family? Comment below the fourth red flag phrase in job descriptions to look out for is hit the ground running, which means you will get no training in this role. This job will feel like someone tossed you in a room to build a bunch of Ikea furniture, but they lost all directions. Now again, this isn't bad if you are someone who is great at learning on your own. You are very proactive when it comes to meeting people and getting your own answers. So this is a hiring process where if you really show that you're likely to beat out other candidates who might require more attention, you'll want to show your natural drive and initiative from the jump when you answer the question. Tell me about yourself. So I will link a free worksheet down below of how to craft your perfect answer to that question, and this worksheet has garnered thousands of success stories. But if you are really looking for training in your next role and a bit of handholding, which is completely reasonable, skip pursuing this opportunity when you see the statement in the job description. The fifth red flag phrase to look out for in job descriptions is unlimited PTO paid time off. Which does not mean you can go on endless vacations. It just means that they want to avoid the administrative burden of tracking paid time off and then avoid paying you out for your unused PTO when you leave the company. Working in human resources, I've managed both systems where we had set PTO and where we had unlimited pto. I will say for unlimited PTO it was nice to just leave it up to managers to approve time off and to not need HR in there. Tracking things, having our hands in it, it did relieve an administrative burden and felt a bit more like we trusted people. But the dark side of this is all about the company culture. If the culture is high performance and you feel guilty or uncomfortable taking time off, then unlimited PTO is the worst because the PTO isn't being tracked and you don't get financially rewarded for not taking pto. So they really are taking advantage of your time. A good company with unlimited PTO encourages their employees to take time off and makes it easy for them to do so. So be sure that you understand what kind of culture you're walking into when you see this. The sixth red flag phrase you should look out for in job descriptions is high performance. If they say this in a job description, you'll be working more than 40 hours a week. That is a foregone conclusion. Now, depending on your season of life, it may be a good time that you work long hours, right? You're working hard, you're learning a lot, you're making a lot of money and then you burn out. And then in a few years you'll move into your Jimmy Buffett era where you start dressing like a Trader Joe's employee and you have a slower paced job. Now I will link a video below on how to answer the question what work environment do you prefer to show that you match with a company's performance culture? Just be sure that you know what you're getting yourself into. The shiny high paying job at the top law firm, accounting firm or consultancy may sound like the right move for you, but what they are giving you is is what I have coined as expensive money. Expensive money is the idea that while yes, you'll likely get paid more than the other jobs that you have offers for, it comes at a cost of your sleep, your stress, your emotional energy and a large amount of your time. When you calculate how much your high paying job is actually paying you when you're working 80 hour weeks, you are actually making less per hour than had you taken that lower paying job. So if you're looking for job search coaching to make sure you are attracting the right roles and landing offers consistently, I'll link more information below. Lastly, the seventh phrase to look out for that is a red flag on job descriptions is when a company says competitive pay, this does not mean high pay. If it did, they would write the pay range on there. Competitive pay means we pay around what our competition pays AKA market rate. It's basically saying look, we are putting this job out here. Some of the people we will interview with will have more experience, some will have less. Depending on the skill level of the person we choose, we will ultimately come up with a salary based on market data that we think is adequate. Don't get too excited about competitive pay. It's actually kind of a lackluster sign if you ask me. So what would you add to this list? Comment below and let like this video and subscribe to this channel. If you got any value out of it, you've got this wi fi high five.