I had had many jobs in many different companies, working under the authority of many bosses and with many different people. After years and years of company switching and freelancing, I had developped a kind of sixth sense to discover if a company is worth working for or not.

I found myself gifted for finding out the little things they will never tell you at the recruitment interview. Things that really make the difference when you are inside.

Here is a short memento of what you should check if you get a proposal from a firm :

1.Find out who the real boss is
In many places, the highest ranking guy is rarely the real leader. There is always a sergeant that runs the place and will make your life looks like hell if you forget to pledge for allegiance. You have to know whose feet your are going to kiss before entering the arena.

2.Discover how much money the firm is playing with
Are they truly solvent or not ? Will they be able to give you a raise regurlarly or will it be painful to get a few cents more every five years ?

3.Spy out if there is a comfortable sofa somewhere
You definetly need a place to take your naps.

4.Count how many sexy colleagues you will have
It's more pleasant to work with attractive people than with ugly goblins. The more you have, the less quick you will get bored to get to work. And the more overtime you will do (which is good both for income and reputation)

That's why the finding of the sofa is also of great importance.

5. Find out how the food tastes
You will eat half your meals in the canteen or the nearby restaurants, you had better no poison yourself every lunch

6. Investigate wether your friends will be impressed by you working in this company or not
No matter what your job effectively is or what the company really does, will they think you are a lucky top gun or a pure stupid looser ?

If you want to keep some people coming for diner from time to time, you'd better choose the first option

7. Discover what the real working time slot is
Is ok to go at 5, or will you have to stay till 2 in the morning to pretend to be effective ?

It's better to know in advance if you have to cancel your subscription to the public library.

8. Search out what newspapers are available at the company
You have to know what you are going to read in the toilets. Some readings are really constipating.

9. Find out if the internet connection is restricted in some kind.
As some firms have the strange habit to limit the use of the network, believing it prevents their employees to waste their precious time surfing incongruous websites, it coud be good to have a hacker among your friends to recover a full freedom of surf.

10. Try to find how festive the company is
Do they organize parties and benders ? Well, if you have to get drunk because of your work, it's still better not to have to pay for the booze.