Glassdoor adds new section for interviews

Glassdoor is an online community where people can post reviews and share salaries at companies they are working for, or have previously worked for. It was founded in 2008 to “bring transparency to the workplace so that everyone has the information needed to make better career decisions”. 

The site has three sections: salaries, reviews and interviews.  The interview section is new this month and currently has about 2000 questions from 1000 companies. 

a) Salaries

There are currently 126,000 salaries listed in the GlassDoor database.  Of these, 3,500 are in the UK and the majority of the others are in the United States.  You can search by location (eg US or international) then by all UK or UK city.  You can also search the database by occupation, industry or company.  For instance, searching on IBM in the UK brings back 95 individual salaries for 32 job titles.

b) Reviews

Search by company and location to find what present and past employees think of a company.  For each company there is an overall employer rating and a localised CEO approval statistic.  Each individual review includes pros, cons and advice to senior management.  Reviews are moderated to ensure that each one is objective and not highly biased or retaliatory.

c)  Interviews

This is the most recent section and includes search options for job title, company and a tag cloud of topics (eg ethics, behavioural).  So for instance, a search on Accenture brings up 42 interview reviews which have been posted by people who have interviewed at Accenture.  You can view all reviews or further refine the search by location.  The details of each “interview” include questions asked, techniques, duration, style and feedback.  Many people leave very detailed reviews which can be very helpful for preparation for a specific company or role.  However, it’s also useful simply to browse the questions or tags to test yourself with live questions.

Glassdoor is free to access but to view all the content you need to contribute. For salaries you simply need to share a salary (current or historic) and for interviews and reviews you need to submit a review.  These are completely anonymous and you do not need to give enough information to be personally identified.

Sector predictions for the FTSE 350 in 2009

We are often asked to reference sources which predict which sectors are likely to be strong performers in the coming months.  With the FTSE plummeting over the last year and the likelihood of rising unemployment in 2009, this question has rarely been more important for investors – and job seekers.

Last month, the Investors Chronicle published a detailed survey of every sector classification in the FTSE.  For each sector they analyse the constituent companies and provide key financial data on each company (share price, market value, PE ratio, dividend yield and the latest IC recommendation).  This is accompanied by a summary of the prospects for the sector with statistical and market data.  The reports cover the FTSE 350 companies.

The introduction and index to the sector reports can be found on the Investors Chronicle website.