The days of holding criticism back are banished. Forget about it! Now, with the click of a mouse, you know the ins and outs of any company. As the user, YOU are given the ability to fully examine any company based on what’s viewable online. This could be a few corporate blogs (with spokespeople), a YouTube video, the corporate homepage, a few news articles and now through rating systems. It was only a matter of time before complete transparency overshadowed corporate spin and “cover-ups.”
Now everyone at your company has to have a good experience, even your interns.
If you remember, there were always teacher rating sites (which I also discuss in this post), that set expectations for what it would be like to be a student in their class. Based on this information, you can register for their class or not. Heck, now you can watch teachers, such as Brian Garvey (from MIT), instruct a class right in front of your eyes, without attending it!
Employee ratings – corporate brands are under attack
Glassdoor.com holds a community of people who share real-time reviews, ratings and salary details about specific jobs for specific employers (for free). These community members are employees that know first hand what it’s like to work there. It doesn’t matter if it’s the CEO or the associate, everything is spilled here.
There is no more hiding. Oh and it gets better. Everything here is anonymous, which is good and bad. Think about it, if you are a competitor and login anonymously to haze the other company, it’s biased. I’ve read many of the comments, and I don’t see this happening much though, but there could be a civil war sometime soon.
Example: “In order to succeed at Accenture, you must be willing to put in a lot of hours for a number of years. On many projects there is an unwritten assumption that the company owns your time well beyond the 40 hours a week that they are paying you for.…”
See also: There is also JobVent.com, which has a similar mission, but is less popular and structured than Glassdoor.
Internship ratings – even the least prominent positions matter
Internshipratings.com is similar to Glassdoor, except that it’s sole purpose is to exposure internship experiences. Internships are very underrated, yet critical to success after College. If I didn’t have an internship in College (I had 8), I would probably still be looking for a job (2 years later). The fact is that in order to remain competitive in today’s job market, it’s imperative that you gain experience to prove to employers that you are capable of taking a job.
Not all internships are going to give you the work experience needed though. Some may position you at an administrative desk, sharpening pencils. YOU need internships that are going to build your personal brand (leadership, technical, communication skills). College students will love this site because they won’t waste time with internships that provide no value to their careers.
See also: There is also RateInternships.com, which is a running feed of jobs rated by users.
Example: “I really enjoyed my internship. This internship was a real you get out what you put in. I was generally interested in the stories we covered and actively wanted WBZ‘s newscasts to be great! WBZ is a place of real journalism, not like some other stations in the Boston market. If you are serious about being a solid reporter or anchor, or want to work behind the scenes, BZ can really make that happen for you.”
