There are some great places to work for, those who will invest in the employees, help them to progress, and you’ll leave them better than you started.
And there are some that you’ll end up the same or less than you stat, usually less.
The places for your career are the first ones, of course.
How can you define in which you’re going to work?
Usually, I use 4-factor criteria to check for a place before I choose to work for,
Social
Am I going to work with experts?
Expert companies attract expert employees, The more a company holds experts from the industry, the more likely you are to have someone to study.
To find that, you need to check the online company assets,
Are the employee’s published articles? Give talks at events? Publish or support open source products? got a professional blog?
How to check it?
You can take professional event speakers and check which companies they work for. That’s a good starting point.
Or google the name of the company and see what pops up.
Technical
What is the working style in the company? Do they have clear procedures?
How do they measure the working quality?
For a good position, you need to have a clear path. Working in a place that the path is clear make everything flow easier
And the work habits you’ll get in a good place will follow you the rest of your career.
How to check it?
Just ask, take the question list to the interview and ask, If the place has clear procedures, the interviewer would be happy to talk about it. In places that don’t, you’ll get an explanation that maybe it’s essential, but they don’t use it because of reasons.
Training
What is the training policy in the place? Do they supply continuous training? What is the policy about online training?
Does the company send the employees to conferences and events?
A company that encourages employees development will invest in you also.