Programming

I generally assume their ratings are gamed, especially for smaller shops. I know I've been asked recently (in the last year) to review the company I'm currently working at on glassdoor by a superior. As you can imagine, I gave the place a good review.

A year later, they've laid me and all but 1 dev (the CEOs buddy) off and failed to do basic shit like send COBRA info and agreed upon severance payments, but their glassdoor doesn't reflect that, because glassdoor doesn't make it possible to edit reviews past 30 days. I suppose I could go delete the review at least

Purely anecdotal, but I worked for a small software company that were truly awful. I left a review on leaving that was honest, but factual. Weeks later, a competing review was left up that countered all of my points as positives - often hilariously so, shit like "we don't unit test because we aim to be right first time".

My review was then removed from Glassdoor. Knowing the rumours, I used an old eMail address that would be hard to link back to me. A little while after, the COO complained on LinkedIn about fake reviews on Glassdoor, pasting my email address that I had used to register.

I trust the negative reviews on that site, but not the positive ones. I also don't trust Glassdoor as a company to do what it says it'll do...

I have gotten a job through glassdoor. My first actually.

It's just a job posting site and most tech jobs go through an internal portal anyway.

90% of any "easyapply" services on any job finding platform will do nothing at all

As far as a company reviewer, it is a shitshow. I was looking for a job last year, tons of 2-4 star companies with fully mixed/negative feedback I was browsing again a few weeks ago and a lot of those companies have positions open. Almost every one of them were now "unreviewed" companies with 0 reviews. All of those reviews were purged.

There are no companies (that I have been coming across in my field) in my country now that have below 3.5 stars. A company that I KNOW had 2.5 stars when I was looking for a job 2 years ago. They are a contracting company with a lot of temporary employees, mediocre salary, no progression, etc... All of the sudden it is 4 stars now.

Not to mention that now in the app, clicking the "rating" tab no longer brings up company rating and reviews. It brings up the exact same information page as the company puts as their "about us" with founded, size, headquarters, etc...

Glassdoor is not a company review site anymore. It is a mediocre job posting board.

I like Blind for tech companies personally, you have to make an account, but if you work at a place you can have a verified account and the accounts I don't think can be taken down, reviews seem more candid there IMO

I treat it like Yelp.

Most people who use Yelp are there to be Karen's and whine about things. But enough people are whining about the same thing, it's up to you to verify during the interview. And HR at the companies I worked at definitely look at Glassdoor reviews for feedback.

For example: I don't like working more than 40 hours and I especially don't want anybody to call me on the phone. It's a non-negotiable.

If I notice that in glass door reviews, I bring it up. Maybe that phone policy was for another dept. Or it was a shithead manager who got canned.

I always assume all the reviews are from plants or axe grinders. You can sort of detect elements of truth if you read between the lines, but salt is required.

I've applied to jobs from Glassdoor before. I don't recall if I got jobs through it though. But basically every job I've worked I've found on some job board of some sort.