Are the ~vibes~ good?
2 tips for how I evaluate the ~vibes~ of a company while interviewing for an open role, so I'm never in a shitty situation
This time last year, I was unemployed, considering going all-in on my business or looking for a full-time analytics engineering job. I had been laid off a month before and wasn’t sure what I wanted next.
Working for myself full-time felt like a lot of pressure. I always enjoyed the side income from my data hustles and didn’t want to necessarily depend on it for a living. But I also knew that I wasn’t going to settle for just any analytics engineering role.
I had to be excited about the work I was doing, and most importantly, the team itself had to feel right. I wanted to work with people who respected one another’s opinions, appreciated everyone’s unique view, and encouraged learning and autonomy.
After my previous role, I was burnt out from constantly feeling like I had to prove myself. The company looked perfect for me on paper, but something about the working style just didn’t mesh well. This new analytics engineering role had to make it easy to show up as my best self every single day.
Here are my two tips for knowing whether a data role, the team, and the company will be an experience that adds to your life, or takes away from it.
Pay attention to how people interact with you in the interview.
I distinctly remember one of my interviews with a company from which I ultimately received a final offer. It was a technical interview, and the man barely looked at me the whole 30 minutes. It was obvious that he would read off a question and then preoccupy himself while only partly listening to my answer.
There was even a moment when he muted himself and started talking to someone on the other side of his computer screen.
While it can be easy to think that the interviewer “has the power” and can “do whatever they want”, this is a clear sign of disrespect. If someone is willing to treat you this way during an interview, where you should have their undivided attention, it’s only a red flag for what working with them would be like.
❌ Someone ignoring you, talking over you, not giving you the full time of day, or belittling/tricking you to “stump” you are all red flags and not the type of person I recommend working with.
✅ Someone making eye contact, asking curiosity-driven follow-ups, and having a conversation rather than talking at you are all great signs of a good person to work with.
Learn about how the company values and works with the data team.
In many companies, it’s the rest of the business vs the data team. The data team is the workhorse, pulling numbers, creating dashboards, and modeling messy processes. They are the bottleneck and also the party poopers that often deliver the reality of a situation.
Whether we like it or not, most executives don’t respect the data teams. At least this is what I’ve found at a majority of the companies I’ve worked in. In my last role, the data team had gone through 3 managers in just a few years. This is a sure sign of a struggling relationship between the data team and high-level execs.
I get it. It’s a hard job. Data managers often feel a ton of pressure and a lack of appreciation. However, it doesn’t have to be like this. There are companies out there where the data team is widely respected and appreciated by executives and stakeholders.
When interviewers ask if you have any questions, this is always the topic I recommend digging into. Here are some questions that help:
How is the relationship between execs and data teams?
How do you typically work with stakeholders to prioritize projects?
How does the company feel about the data team?
Is the data team integral in how business teams function?
What’s the hardest part about working on this team?
All of these should help to bring out an interviewer’s true feelings. I don’t think a rocky relationship between the business and a data team is necessarily a deal breaker, but it does mean politics will be a large part of your role.
And I have to say, now that I am out of it, I am very happy to NOT have to be dealing with the politics of working in data!
This is all to say, not everyone has the luxury of being picky with the role they choose to accept. Call me woo woo but I believe we attract the vibes we put out there. If you refuse to settle and only apply for jobs that peak your interest rather than out of desperation, the right one will come your way.
When I was interviewing for my current role, every interview and conversation just felt right. I somehow intuitively knew that I would end up working there.
I genuinely enjoyed meeting and chatting with every person. It felt natural. I wasn’t being grilled or tested. We worked together and were genuinely curious.
I am blessed to have found this and I want that for you too!
Have a great week,
Madison
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