Taking a position from phone interview..

alexander77

So I interviewed for a position for a new contract that is starting up in September. The contract is more of a Linux Administrator role which would give me some experience and offers to tuition reimbursement. But I'm having doubts about taking a job without seeing the environment, people or the manager though. I was only able to speak with a program manager over the phone and though he says the environment is good and all...I'd be disappointed if I took the job and discovered I hated the co-workers or manager. Anybody take a job via phone only? Any advise on what I should do?

Trashman

Done that a couple of times as I had to relocate, but luckily with only good experience.
As you say, it's risky.

If the office is near by, you could ask if you can go for a visit just to see how things work.
Shouldn't be a problem.

Vask3n

alexander77 wrote: »

So I interviewed for a position for a new contract that is starting up in September. The contract is more of a Linux Administrator role which would give me some experience and offers to tuition reimbursement. But I'm having doubts about taking a job without seeing the environment, people or the manager though. I was only able to speak with a program manager over the phone and though he says the environment is good and all...I'd be disappointed if I took the job and discovered I hated the co-workers or manager. Anybody take a job via phone only? Any advise on what I should do?

Did you have more than one phone interview? Did you speak to more than one person on those phone interviews (was it a conference call)?

If it was just one call speaking to a recruiter or a program manager surely they will tell you that everything is good, otherwise they wouldn't be in the business of recruiting.

Honestly unless this place is really close to you I would say it's risky at best.

Preflux

If the office is located near you, definitely ask for a visit.

Not only will you get to meet the people and discover for yourself what the environment is like, it makes you look very keen and will sit well with your manager.

jibbajabba

Thought contracts are temporarily anyway ?

alexander77

It's a contract for 4 years so it's at least semi - long term. I'm going to ask to see if I can stop by the facility first. I only spoke with one person which was the program manager over the phone. I've read about both good and bad experiences on TE so I didn't want to take a chance of getting there and regretting the choice because of some unknown issue I could have probably known about had I been onsite on an interview.

--chris--

alexander77 wrote: »

So I interviewed for a position for a new contract that is starting up in September. The contract is more of a Linux Administrator role which would give me some experience and offers to tuition reimbursement. But I'm having doubts about taking a job without seeing the environment, people or the manager though. I was only able to speak with a program manager over the phone and though he says the environment is good and all...I'd be disappointed if I took the job and discovered I hated the co-workers or manager. Anybody take a job via phone only? Any advise on what I should do?

Are you unable to visit the office/site? I would try to if at all possible.

If you go on site, try to meet coworkers, bosses, leads, etc...find out what departments you will work with and then try to meet them.

I too accepted a job through a phone interview without ever stepping foot on site (or even knowing who was hiring me). It was not ideal but it was my "in" that I needed to get started in IT.

@Jibba: Contracts are usually temp (or temp to hire) but not always. Temp is a relative term...the place I just left had contract desktop support which was "temp" because the contracts were "only" 3 years. I guess some might call that temp work.

jibbajabba

I think here in the UK temp work is indeed "long term temp" whilst contractor jobs are usually 3-6 months with possible extension ..