Dear Annie:Is there any way to figure out, in a job interview, what a company is really like to work for? I’m job hunting right now, and it’s important to me to find a place where I’d be a good cultural fit, because where I work now is driving me crazy.

    When I came here a couple of years ago, interviewers told me the culture was “innovative” and “entrepreneurial,” but it’s really the opposite—a huge bureaucracy where new ideas are seen as suspect, decision-making is slow, and every little thing has to get approval from so many different people that no individual is ever responsible for anything. Most of my coworkers seem perfectly content, but I can’t wait to get out of here. How can I make sure I get the “fit” right this time? —Square Peg in a Round Hole

    Dear Square Peg:Great question, and one that Jason Hanold spends lots of time pondering. As CEO of boutique headhunters Hanold Associates, he has recruited top talent for Nike, eBay, Amazon, McKinsey, Xerox, and many others. Hanold regards the right fit as so essential to success (not to mention happiness) that “we do sometimes tell people, ‘No, you’re not right for XYZ Corp.’ or vice versa,” he says. No matter how lucrative the offer, “if there’s no appetite there for what you’re best at, it’s the wrong culture.”

    The trouble, of course, is that corporate culture is complicated, encompassing everything from office décor and dress code, to history and tradition, to a whole range of unwritten (and mostly unspoken) rules that add up to how work gets done day to day.

    Then there’s employer branding, which is the image a company hopes to project to the marketplace of potential employees, and what Hanold calls “aspirational” culture, which is the culture a company wishes it had or is striving toward, rather than the one it has. Those managers who interviewed you probably weren’t trying to mislead you, Hanold says, but buzzwords like “entrepreneurial” and “innovative” can sometimes mean that the person speaking “has got the employer brand, or the aspirational culture, confused with the real thing.”

    So how can you be sure you don’t make the same mistake? Over the years, Hanold has come up with a list of five questions he asks client companies to make sure the candidates he brings them aren’t cultural misfits. You can, and should, ask these questions too.

    1. How would you describe your organizational culture?“You want to see how quickly they respond. Do they struggle with the question?” says Hanold. “If so, that might mean the company doesn’t have a strong culture, or that different groups are running in different directions.”

    Let’s say the answer you get is “entrepreneurial.” Ask for an example or two. “If that’s really true, the interviewer should instantly be able to tell you, not just one, but many anecdotes about speed, flexibility, the autonomy of different individuals and teams, and so on.” If not, well, that says a lot.

    亲爱的安妮：在面试的时候，有没有什么方法可以弄清楚，在一家公司工作到底是什么样子？我现在正在求职，我希望找到一家与我在文化上比较契合的公司，这对我很重要，因为我现在工作的公司都快把我逼疯了。

    几年前来这家公司求职时，当时公司的面试官告诉我，这家公司的文化是“鼓励创新”和“有创业精神”，但事实却截然相反——公司内官僚主义横行，新的想法被视为不信任他人，决策过程缓慢，每一件小事都要得到许多人的批准，但最后却没有人对事情负责。我的大多数同事看上去对这种现状都非常满意，但我恨不得马上从这里蒸发。这一次，我该如何确保找到真正“在文化上契合”的雇主？——格格不入的方木钉

    亲爱的方木钉：很好的问题，贾森•哈罗德花了很长时间来思考这个问题。作为著名猎头公司Hanold Associates的CEO，他曾为耐克（Nike）、eBay、亚马逊（Amazon）、麦肯锡（McKinsey）、施乐（Xerox）等公司招聘过高级人才。哈罗德认为，文化合拍是职场成功（更不用说幸福）的关键所在，因此“我们有时候会告诉别人：‘不，你不适合XYZ公司。’或者说相反的话。”不论对方开出的条件多么诱人，“如果他们对你最擅长的东西没有兴趣，那便是不合适的文化。”

    当然，问题在于公司文化非常复杂，包含了方方面面，比如从办公室装饰到着装规定，从历史到传统，以及各种不成文的规定（而且大多数是潜规则），员工的日常工作方式正是由所有这些因素合力促成的。

    此外就是雇主的品牌，即一家公司希望在潜在员工市场中展现的形象，哈罗德称其为“梦寐以求的”文化，也就是说公司希望拥有，或者正在为之努力的一种文化，但肯定不是公司现有的文化。哈罗德认为，对你进行面试的管理者可能并不是故意误导你，而“有创业精神”和“鼓励创新”等词汇，有时候意味着说这些话的人“将雇主品牌或梦寐以求的文化与真实情况混为一谈。”

    那么，如何保证自己不会犯同样的错误？经过多年研究，哈罗德总结出向客户公司提出的五个问题，以确保他为客户寻找的候选人不会与客户公司的文化格格不入。你也可以并且应该问一下这些问题。

    1. 你如何形容你们的组织文化？哈罗德说道：“你要注意他们回答问题的速度。他们在这个问题上是否有所犹豫？如果是，这可能意味着该公司没有深厚的文化，或者不同部门自行其是。”

    假如你得到的回答是“有创业精神”。要求对方举一两个例子。“如果这确实是公司的文化，面试官会立刻告诉你不同的人和团队在速度、灵活性和自主权等方面的趣闻轶事。”如果不是这样，那就足以说明许多问题了。

    2. When you think about the stars here, the most distinctive talents at all levels of the company, are there three or four traits that most of them share? A big chunk of culture is “what a company values and rewards most in its employees,” Hanold notes. “Those traits will tell you the skills and behaviors the organization wants more of.” If an interviewer describes stars as great at collaborating with a team to come up with new ideas, for instance, and you’re better at working on projects alone, the fit may not be a good one.

    3. Has anyone with those characteristics ever failed here anyway? If so, why? One of Hanold’s clients told him about a star manager who had all the traits needed for success—he was “fast-moving, results-oriented, and a great problem-solver—but had flamed out anyway, because he was “so arrogant and controlling that no one liked working for him,” Hanold says. “That was an important indication of what kind of personality works in that culture.”

    4. If you could change one thing about the culture here, what would it be? “Often, a hiring manager will personalize this and refer to his or her own situation,” Hanold notes. “If he or she says, ‘I wish I had more autonomy to make decisions’ or ‘I wish I didn’t have to operate on such a tight budget,’ that implies a great deal about what it’s like to work there.”

    Hanold recommends posing all of these questions to each manager you meet during the interviewing process to see whether the answers you get are consistent—“versus the views of one or two eloquent people who sound good, but who may not be describing a common perspective.”

    5. Could I meet some of the people I’d be working with? You’ll most likely be introduced to a few prospective peers during two or three rounds of interviews, but if not, ask if you can get together with some of them for lunch or a cup of coffee. Candidates sometimes hesitate to make this request, Hanold says, but most employers welcome it, because “it shows that you’re doing due diligence, and you’re being selective about your next job. Never forget, you’re interviewing the company every bit as much as they are interviewing you.”

    The only situation in which an employer might balk at this idea, he adds, is if you’re interviewing for a job that’s currently held by someone who doesn’t yet know that he’ll be leaving. “Then, of course, there are concerns about keeping you confidential,” Hanold says. “But that’s only the case in about 25% of the searches we do.”

    It’s also smart to check out career sites like Vault.com and Glassdoor.com to see what you can glean about the culture from the comments there. “The employer brand and how that same company is actually perceived from within might be quite different, or it might be the same,” says Hanold. “But if you see a big gap between the two, and especially if there is a pattern of a lot of negative comments about one particular aspect of the culture, you can certainly ask interviewers about it.”

    If this seems like a lot of questions, it is. But, says Hanold, “interviewers like candidates who ask a lot of honest questions. It’s a sign that you’ve put some thought into it.” Good luck.

    Talkback:What aspects of a company’s culture are most important to you? Have you ever taken a job that turned out to be a bad cultural fit? Leave a comment below.

    2. 就公司所有层级最优秀的明星员工而言，大多数人共同具备的三到四种品质是什么？哈罗德说道，公司文化很大一部分在于“公司最重视、最鼓励的员工品质”。“这些品质会告诉你，这家公司最需要的技能和行为。”例如，如果面试官形容明星员工擅长与团队合作，提出新的创意，而你却更擅长独自完成任务，这或许意味着你并不适合对方。

    3. 是否曾有具备这些品质的人在此遭遇过失败？如果有，为什么？哈罗德的一位客户给他讲了一位明星管理者的故事，他拥有成功所需要的所有品质——他“行动迅速，以结果为导向，非常善于解决问题”——但他却逐渐走向低谷，因为他“非常傲慢，控制欲强，以至于没有人喜欢与他共事，”哈罗德说道。“这是一个重要的暗示，可以告诉你哪一种性格适合公司的文化。”

    4. 如果你们能对公司文化做一点改变，会是什么？哈罗德说道：“通常情况下，招聘经理会将这个问题个人化，并且提到自己的情况。如果他或她说：‘我希望能有更多决策自主权’或者‘我希望预算不会这么紧张’你可以从中得出大量信息，帮你了解在那家公司工作的情形。

    哈罗德建议求职者向面试过程中遇到的每一位管理者提出这些问题，看看得到的答案是否一致——“不能只听信一两位口若悬河的人发表的观点，他们说得天花乱坠，但可能并不代表公司管理层的普遍认知。”

    5. 我能跟即将在一起共事的人见个面吗？你最有可能在两轮或三轮面试的过程中，被介绍给几位很有前途的同事，但如果没有，可以询问一下，能否与他们共用午餐或一起喝咖啡。哈罗德说道，求职者有时候不敢提出这样的请求，但大多数雇主其实欢迎求职者这么做，因为“这表明你在做尽职调查，你对下一份工作是非常挑剔的。不要忘了，公司在对你进行面试的时候，你也在面试这家公司。”

    他补充道，雇主可能回避这种请求的唯一一种情况，是你所面试的职位目前尚未空缺，而且目前从事这份工作的人并不知道他将要离职。哈罗德说道：“当然，公司会担心保密问题。但在我们所做的调查中，这种情况仅占25%。”

    还有一种明智的做法是，在Valut.com和Glassdoor.com等求职网站上，通过相关的评论收集与公司文化有关的信息。哈罗德说道：“雇主的品牌和员工对公司的实际感觉可能存在较大区别，或者可能是一致的。如果两者之间存在巨大差异，尤其是对于文化的某个方面，网站上有大量负面评论，你可以在面试的时候向面试官求证。”

    5个问题看起来不少，确实如此。但哈罗德说道：“面试官喜欢求职者提出一些诚实的问题。因为这表明你有一些自己的想法。”祝你好运。

    反馈：公司文化的哪些方面对你最为重要？你是否曾经从事过某份工作，结果却证明你与公司在文化上并不匹配？欢迎评论。（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓