Figuring Out Company Scores
Most people look at a company's star rating on Glassdoor like a review for a local shop. If it’s 4.2 stars, you think the company is great. If it’s 2.5 stars, you immediately decide not to apply. We are trained to use "Good Parts and Bad Parts" lists as a simple yes or no for our job search. This way of thinking assumes that one average number can truly tell you what your daily work will be like in one specific job, under one specific boss.
The issue is that company culture is never the same everywhere. When you trust a general average, you risk becoming blind to cultural problems. You might join a tough, stressful department that is hiding behind a high overall company score. Even worse, you could miss out on an amazing job because you rejected a great team based on bad reviews from a different office or a team you’ll never work with. Glassdoor survey data shows that 73% of job seekers say company culture matters more than salary when evaluating a role, which makes accurate culture research far more important than chasing a high score.
To find out what’s really going on, you need to stop just reading the reviews and start acting like a detective. Instead of looking for reasons to apply, you need to look for repeated issues and specific problems mentioned in the reviews. Studying the reviews carefully lets you turn vague complaints into specific questions for the recruiter. That shift (from passive reader to active investigator) is what helps you see past the company's sales pitch and find out the real work environment before you accept any job offer.
What Is Glassdoor?
Glassdoor is a job and recruiting platform where current and former employees post anonymous reviews about companies they've worked for. The site aggregates overall ratings, salary data, interview questions, and CEO approval scores, all submitted by people with real experience inside those organizations.
It's one of the most-consulted tools in any job search. Glassdoor's employer branding research shows that 86% of job seekers check company reviews and ratings before applying for a role. But a single star average rarely tells you what your specific team, manager, or daily experience will feel like. That gap is exactly what this guide teaches you to close.
Main Points to Remember
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01
Change Your Viewpoint Switch from "Just Reading" to "Smart Checking." Stop treating reviews as the final word on a company. Instead, see them as clues that help you find out the real internal culture and what the company cares about most.
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02
Change How You Act Switch from "Looking for Bad Signs" to "Creating Smart Questions." Don't just avoid companies with bad feedback. Use the repeated complaints as important background information to ask your potential manager exact questions about how they handle those specific issues.
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03
Use Information Better Switch from "Trusting Scores" to "Finding Hidden Trends." Look past the total star rating and focus on what people in your specific job or level are saying. Use these trends to confirm if the company’s current path lines up with your career goals.
Common Checks to Perform
Check #1: The Trap of the Star Rating
You use a company's total score like a report card grade, instantly skipping any company below 4.0 or instantly applying to ones with 4.5.
An average score is a made-up number that hides the real story by mixing old reviews with information from different departments that don't matter to you. A high score might be kept up by a huge sales team in another country, while the specific tech team you are joining might actually have a bad environment.
Match Recent Trends
Ignore the total number and only look at reviews from the last six to twelve months. Search for three ongoing themes in your specific department—like "decisions take too long" or "not enough help for new people"—and treat only those as the facts that matter for your decision.
Check #2: The "Good and Bad" List Check
You read the "Good Parts and Bad Parts" lists as if they are facts and use them to decide if you want the job before you even talk to anyone.
These lists are usually written when people are very emotional, so they tend to be biased rants or overly positive posts encouraged by HR. By taking these lists as truth, you stop investigating and prevent yourself from asking the hard questions that actually reveal how healthy the workplace is.
Change Complaints into Interview Questions
Take the most common complaints you see and turn them into polite, specific questions for your recruiter. For example, if reviews mention "bad work-life balance," ask the manager how the team handles sudden big project deadlines to see if their answer shows they’ve fixed the issue or if it matches the bad reviews.
Check #3: The "One Company" Mistake
You assume that the "culture" described by a marketing person in New York is the same experience you will have as a software developer in a remote team.
Big companies don't have one culture; they have many small cultures set by individual managers. If you rely on general reviews, you are judging your own daily life based on the experiences of people you will never work with.
Track People by How Long They Stay
Use review sites to find the exact job titles and locations that match yours, then check LinkedIn to see how long the current people in that specific job have stayed. If the reviews are bad and everyone on that team has been there for less than a year, you have confirmed a local problem that no company-wide "culture" effort can fix.
The Quick Research Plan
This process is made to help you stop scrolling without a goal and start gathering useful information to keep your career safe. Follow these four steps to get good at checking any company review site.
Choose Your Search Limits
Don't read anything until you set your limits. Reading reviews from five years ago is pointless because the company's leadership and mood change fast.
- Set the Time Frame: Only show reviews from the last 12 to 18 months.
- Filter by Team: Search only for your job or department (like "Software Team" or "Sales"). The culture in a factory is often different from the culture in the main office.
- Ignore the Wild Reviews: Skip the 1-star reviews that are just angry rants with no facts, and the 5-star reviews that sound too perfect and might be fake. Focus on the 2, 3, and 4-star reviews for the most honest opinions.
Notice What Comes Up Often
If one person complains about a boss, that’s just a story. If three people complain about the same way a manager acts, that’s a pattern.
- Find Three Bad Things: Look for three negative points that show up in several reviews (like "too much checking up," "no chance to advance," or "working unpaid hours").
- Find Three Good Things: Look for three good points that are mentioned often (like "good health insurance," "flexible work from home," or "good guidance from mentors").
- Check the "Advice to Leaders" Part: This is often the most truthful section. See what employees repeatedly suggest the company should change.
Confirm What You Found
Glassdoor is only one source of information. You must check your findings on at least two other websites to make sure the information is true.
- The Indeed/LinkedIn Check: Search the company on Indeed or LinkedIn's "Life" pages. See if the "Good Parts" you found on Glassdoor are also mentioned there.
- The Anonymous Forum Search: Search for the company on anonymous sites like Fishbowl or in specific Reddit threads (like for developers or salespeople). These places often have the "real" talk that doesn't make it onto Glassdoor.
- Compare the Feeling: If Glassdoor is very positive but Reddit is terrible, it’s a sign that the company might be working hard to make their official reviews look better than they are.
If you’re targeting remote positions, the review landscape shifts. Our guide to navigating remote job boards effectively covers which platforms give you the most honest signal for distributed teams.
Use Your Research for Power in Interviews
Turn your research into an advantage during your interview. Never tell the recruiter, "I saw a bad review." Instead, use the patterns you found to ask specific questions to the hiring manager.
- Write Three "Pattern" Questions: If reviews mentioned issues with "work-life balance," write down: "When the team is very busy, how does the leader make sure people don't get completely burned out?"
- Write One "Growth" Question: If reviews mentioned "not enough chances to move up," write down: "Can you show me the typical path someone in this role takes over the next two years here?"
- The Final Decision: If the repeated issues you found are things you absolutely cannot deal with (like needing remote work but reviews say everyone must be in the office), stop looking at that company now and move to the next one.
A tiered application strategy prevents you from spending an hour on Glassdoor research for positions you're unlikely to pursue seriously. Match your research effort to how promising each opportunity actually is.
How Cruit Helps You Find the Right Culture Faster
Looking Past the Score
Career ExplorationHelps you look past general scores by carefully checking your past experience to see where your skills fit best.
Understanding the "Culture" Idea
Career Guidance ToolWorks like a quick helper to guide you through confusing parts, asking you the important questions you might have missed.
Turning Reviews into Actions
Interview Prep ToolHelps you change common complaints into professional, direct questions to ask your hiring manager using proven ways to talk about things.
Common Questions
How do I spot fake or HR-prompted Glassdoor reviews?
Fake or prompted reviews tend to cluster. A burst of five-star reviews posted within the same two-to-four week window almost always signals an HR-coordinated "review push."
The content itself is a giveaway too. If the "Good Parts" are all vague perks like "free coffee" or "nice office," while the "Bad Parts" are suspiciously minimal, those positive reviews were probably written to order. Real reviews, especially the honest three-star ones, describe specific situations, name particular friction points, and include details no HR template would ever suggest.
What if there are no reviews for my exact role?
Look for patterns across similar roles and locations first. If multiple departments all cite the same communication breakdowns or lack of support, that problem likely runs through the company’s culture and will touch your team too. When Glassdoor data is too thin, shift to LinkedIn’s "Life" pages, Fishbowl, and role-specific Reddit communities. Peer conversations on those forums are often more candid than anything a moderated review platform allows.
Should I avoid companies with low Glassdoor ratings?
Not automatically. The goal isn’t to find a perfect company. It’s to avoid surprises.
A low overall rating in one division doesn’t mean every team suffers. When you find repeated issues in reviews, use them as direct interview questions. If the hiring manager gives an honest, well-thought-out answer about how they handle those specific problems, that’s a stronger positive signal than a polished 4.2-star average at a company where nobody can explain what’s really happening day to day. Learn how to deliver those questions with the right rhythm in our guide to using pauses effectively during interviews.
How many reviews should I read before deciding?
Research suggests candidates form a meaningful impression after reading at least six reviews, but that’s a starting floor, not a stopping point. Aim for 15 to 20 reviews filtered by your target role and location within the past 12 to 18 months. Once you see the same three or four themes appearing repeatedly across independent reviews, you’ve found the signal. Anything beyond that usually just confirms what you already know.
Can employers remove negative Glassdoor reviews?
Employers cannot directly delete reviews. Only Glassdoor can remove content, and only after flagging a review as fraudulent and completing their moderation process. What employers can do is respond publicly to any review, and they can run coordinated campaigns encouraging satisfied employees to post positive reviews. This doesn’t remove the negative content, but it buries it under a wave of new five-star ratings. That’s exactly the clustering pattern to watch for when you spot a sudden influx of glowing feedback.
Stop letting one score decide your future.
Stop letting one simple average rating guide your career choices. When you trust a basic average, you become "culture blind," where you either miss warning signs or lose out on great teams because of a score that doesn’t apply to your specific job.
Shifting from passive reader to active investigator protects you from the trap of a simple "yes or no" filter. Use what you research to look behind the company’s marketing and find out what your real day-to-day life will be like.
Take charge of your next job move and start checking those reviews carefully today.
