Glassdoor

Glassdoor is one of the biggest job sites on the internet, and certainly one of the most well-known, but it’s not just a job site. Instead, Glassdoor collects reviews and salary information from more than a million different companies to deliver transparency and honesty about how much people earn and which organizations are good or bad employers.

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The site has become enormously successful, and so the numbers involved are huge. As well as having more than a million different companies listed, you’ll routinely find more than nine million job listings on the site, and there are seventy million reviews of companies available to read.

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Glassdoor offers a wealth of information for job seekers to learn more about potential employers (Image credit: Glassdoor)

Features

Glassdoor’s focus on company reviews and salary information adds a different and important perspective to your job hunt. You’re able to get a better picture of whether a company is a good or bad employer, and you can find out more about their culture. Combine those factors with all of the salary information on the site and you’re able to build a far better picture about the companies you want to work for – and which ones you’d like to avoid.

Glassdoor's anonymous company reviews can be very helpful but you'll need to contribute first to view them (Image credit: Glassdoor)

The anonymous reviews available on the site allow job seekers to discover inside information about a company, but please take them with a pinch of salt, too. While most reviews on Glassdoor are legitimate, you’re bound to encounter some that are written by disgruntled ex-employees or workers with an axe to grind.

Glassdoor's job listings contain far more information than other job sites (Image credit: Glassdoor)

Glassdoor’s broad remit and extensive transparency means a vast amount of data is available during a job search. Load a job advert and you’ll be able to see the company’s overall rating alongside detailed scores for salary, culture, career progression and work/life balance, all sourced from Glassdoor’s anonymous reviews and rating systems. You can see the size, industry and age of each company, and read individual reviews.

You can also filter Glassdoor's annual list of the best places to work by country and company size (Image credit: Glassdoor)

You can also see if a company appears on Glassdoor’s annual lists of the best employers. The filtering options are great, too: you can sift through jobs based on salary ranges, the job type, the location, and the company’s overall rating. You can even specify remote jobs or pick companies in certain industries or at a certain size. There’s a huge amount of versatility here, and more than you’ll find on most rival sites.

Find out if a job offer is competitive with Glassdoor's salary calculator (Image credit: Glassdoor)

Glassdoor’s huge job and company database is further bolstered by some helpful features elsewhere. Some company pages have extra information about the interview process, so you can find out what to expect before starting the application process. You can use the salary calculator to get a better idea of what you should be earning, and the site can analyze your job offers to see if you’re being lowballed.

You can upload your CV to your Glassdoor profile, and that’s used for job applications. You can also add your company preferences, and employers can view these – so they can see if you’re likely to be a good fit, too.

Ease of use

There’s no denying that Glassdoor serves up loads of data and features, but its wealth of information means that it’s not the simplest site to use.

The job-search interface is too busy, with loads of positions, rankings, and data all thrown at you immediately. If you’re not used to Glassdoor’s system then it can be overwhelming.

Applications aren’t necessarily the easiest on Glassdoor, either. Some companies use the site’s Easy Apply system that allows job-seekers to apply without leaving Glassdoor, but other jobs simply redirect to third-party sites. That takes up more time and means you’ll have to learn and log-in to another site.

Final verdict

Once you’ve learned how to use Glassdoor’s range of features, though, you’ll unlock one of the most powerful job-hunting resources available today.

Glassdoor’s company reviews and profiles deliver unparalleled insight into a company before you apply for a job, and its huge database of salary data allows you to see what you’re really worth. Combine this with the millions of job adverts and you’ve got more data than any rival can offer, even if it does take a little time to make the most out of the site.

Glassdoor is usually seen as a website for checking up on companies, but it’s a powerful job-hunting tool. If you want to make sure that your next workplace is the right one, Glassdoor is crucial.

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