Due Diligence on your next employer
Silicon Valley Perspective
Investors - stable, well known?
Funding round - A,B,C,D (affects equity upside) - more stable the more rounds they've done. Failure rate of A is higher than D
Founders - where are they from - have they just come from standford, or exited a few (might know what they're doing)
Equity - 'funy money' - depends on your percentage..
Outlook - are they solving a business problem? B2B, B2C? Do you value their idea?
.Competitors/Displacement - who are they competing against, you are they trying to displace
Stockmarket reports (public companies)
Public or Private
Why do company's lay-off when everything was going well? board/execs responsibility to shareholders to return ROI - if perception that revenue can stay the same with lower costs, or that revenue will decline, they are obligated to reduce costs. Separate question about why they lay people off instead of reducing exec salaries.
Equity RSU - Restricted Stock Units UAR - Options -
Burn Rate Runway
Technical practices
Diversity of board webpage
Turnover (Linked in to find if people in nework)
Find someone you trust to tell you the truth
Glassdoor - trustworthy? high noise signal
Different pockets of culture throughout the company
Interview on site - see how people are behaving
Feedback from the interviewers (but radio silence is default for legal reasons right now...)
How do they do performance reviews?
Who have last promoted and why?
What are the characteristics of someone who is successful here?
How often do you review/adjust salary bands?
% of not men & not white in engineering
Diversity stats? "We have x% women" or "we can't find women" - red flags
Whisper networks - are there known risk emp[loyees?
Are the people you're going to work with interviewing you
news.google search
what is the product what does it do (including the parent company)
supply chain - who do they rely on?
who are their customers?
ESG - environmental social & corporate governance reports
Ask your network "Would you work there?"
Are the people you're going to be working for/with aware that you're interviewing?
Does their expectation match yours?
Org chat - where do you fit in? will people be reporting to you? do they know?
Question to ask: "Do I have to prove myself to you, or do you assume I'm competent until I show you otherwise."
Talk to your manager, your team and others - e.g. product manager, BAs, QAs?
e.g. can the product manager 'say no' to their stakeholders?
Talk to juniors - what are you working on, what are you struggling with, who helps you when you're struggling?
What are the biggest one or two problems your team is struggling with - look at the delta between the different people?
