Comments on: Corporate culture fluff http://www.istartedsomething.com/20060808/corporate-culture-fluff/ All the stuff about Microsoft and technology you haven't read anywhere else. Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:45:44 +1100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Paul Woods » Opening the can of worms that is Corporate Culture http://www.istartedsomething.com/20060808/corporate-culture-fluff/#comment-1037 Paul Woods » Opening the can of worms that is Corporate Culture Sun, 20 Aug 2006 10:32:41 +0000 http://www.istartedsomething.com/20060808/corporate-culture-fluff/#comment-1037 [...] Thanks Long for taking the time to post your perspective on the issue I raised around corporate culture… and how to articulate or assess it.  Here is Long’s post on how to assess corporate culture, using an example close to my heart… Microsoft: Lets take Microsoft for example. At first, I would use Wikipedia to get a rough picture of the company. I choose Wikipedia because it is easily accessible and fairly unbiased, however it is still mostly an external viewpoint from people outside of Microsoft so it�s not in-depth enough alone. [...] [...] Thanks Long for taking the time to post your perspective on the issue I raised around corporate culture… and how to articulate or assess it.  Here is Long’s post on how to assess corporate culture, using an example close to my heart… Microsoft: Lets take Microsoft for example. At first, I would use Wikipedia to get a rough picture of the company. I choose Wikipedia because it is easily accessible and fairly unbiased, however it is still mostly an external viewpoint from people outside of Microsoft so it�s not in-depth enough alone. [...]

]]> By: Luke Dawson http://www.istartedsomething.com/20060808/corporate-culture-fluff/#comment-799 Luke Dawson Wed, 09 Aug 2006 12:07:49 +0000 http://www.istartedsomething.com/20060808/corporate-culture-fluff/#comment-799 Wikipedia unbiased? Now that's pretty funny. That's like saying the Register is a consistently reliable source of news. How do you assess corporate culture? For many companies, you can't, at least, not 100% accurately. Even the corporate blogs should be taken with a pinch of salt; there have already been a few cases of people being fired for saying things in blogs their employer didn't take kindly to. So people are hardly going to bitch about their workplace on the company blog. Obviously, getting in touch with people who work, or have worked there is always a good way, but it's not always possible. But really, assessing company culture should be part of the interview process. Remember, you get to ask questions too, and it may be an idea to ask the receptionist what he/she thinks of the place before you even set foot in the interview room. Wikipedia unbiased? Now that’s pretty funny. That’s like saying the Register is a consistently reliable source of news.

How do you assess corporate culture? For many companies, you can’t, at least, not 100% accurately. Even the corporate blogs should be taken with a pinch of salt; there have already been a few cases of people being fired for saying things in blogs their employer didn’t take kindly to. So people are hardly going to bitch about their workplace on the company blog. Obviously, getting in touch with people who work, or have worked there is always a good way, but it’s not always possible. But really, assessing company culture should be part of the interview process. Remember, you get to ask questions too, and it may be an idea to ask the receptionist what he/she thinks of the place before you even set foot in the interview room.

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