 What is going on everybody? Today's a very serious topic and hopefully by the end of this video I'm going to help you identify several red flags that you should be looking out for in a job description before you actually accept an interview or accept a position so that you don't end up with something that I like to call a data analyst horror story. Now I like to think myself as a pretty positive person but there was nothing positive about this job that had about five years ago when I was first getting my foot in the door in data analytics. Looking back now when I look at the job description and the actual interviews that I had there were just a lot of red flags but I completely ignored all of them because I really was just trying to get my foot in the door and I was ecstatic about getting my very first data analyst job and so I really just ignored every red flag in the book and I just kept on going and and so about four months after I got that position I was basically applying to every data analyst job that I could possibly find because I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. It was just a very toxic work environment and something that I couldn't stay in any longer. And so in this video we're going to talk about five of the biggest red flags that you can see in job descriptions and that doesn't mean that you shouldn't apply for the job but if you actually do get an interview that might be something that you want to ask about. Now number one is the one that I think is going to be the most controversial on all the ones on the list today and that is if you see in the job description that is a series A, B or C funded startup that may be a major red flag. Now there are some great things about working at a startup. You most likely get to learn a lot. You get to build something from the ground up. You potentially have a stake in that company and so if that company does really well you could earn a lot of money. And so one of the biggest red flags about working at a startup is job security and that is pretty important for a lot of people. I mean imagine if you got this amazing job at a startup and you were super excited to go in and you're in there for about a month and all of a sudden they make the announcement that either they lost their funding and so they're going out of business or they got acquired by another company and unfortunately you just were not part of that acquisition and so you're out of a job. That happens all the time especially with series A they typically lose funding and then they go out of business because lack of revenue or with series C they're starting to grow and then they get acquired by a larger company and so that happens all the time and so that's why I think is a red flag for the vast majority of people because honestly you don't know if you're going to be working there for a month or for three years or somewhere in between and definitely has a lack of security in that job. Number two is that the job description basically has every skill data ants could possibly have and they want you to have three years experience with all of them. Did I mention that this is also a junior level position because I have seen jobs exactly like this where they are basically asking for every skill that entire analytics team may have but just for one person and honestly that's extremely unrealistic and so you're really really really setting yourself up for failure if you accept that position and they want you to do everything and maybe you want to have a junior level position when you have three years experience in all these skills but I don't think that's most people and so that's a big red flag if you're seeing all of these skills in a lot of years of experience especially for like a junior level position. Now if it has a mid-level position you know maybe they only want two or three of those skills but honestly some of these places they just expect you to be doing a ton of work for very little money. Number three is if the job description mentions flexible hours or weekend work. Now flexible hours may sound great to you you know you can set your own schedule you can work when you want to work as long as you get your work done right well not really typically that means it's flexible for them to call you whenever they need you so if a client needs something the next morning they can call you at 8 p.m. at night and say hey we need this report to be run or we need this dashboard to be created and you need to do it because you're basically on call all the time. Now I'm going to say that's a red flag for just about everyone because I don't want to work at 8 p.m. at night and I'm sure you don't as well but that does happen in those types of positions. Now there's going to be that one person in the comments who's like well I work flexible hours and I love it and it absolutely is perfect for me and that's fantastic but for most people that is not going to be the best setup especially when they call you up late at night or they want you to work weekends or something like that like I do not want to do that and I'm sure almost nobody else wants to do that but for some reason some companies still do that and they will put it in a job description. Number four is a little bit more nuanced and if you're looking at the job description you may see something like we're looking for someone who hits it out of the park who goes the extra mile who's willing to put in the extra work to get things done. Now this one may seem positive at first and honestly some companies may be viewing it that way they're you know looking for someone who's just really outgoing and optimistic about the job and willing to put in the hard work but honestly for some you know there used to be a guy named Bob who's doing basically the job with two people and that company does not want to hire two people to do that job they're expecting you to replace Bob and so now you're coming into this position and they want you to go the extra mile they want you to put in that extra work they want you to be somebody who comes in and is a rock star so that kind of language can be really tricky because genuinely they may be looking for someone who is actually going to put in the extra mile. Now this one is definitely a red flag to me but I don't think it would stop me from actually applying to the job I would just ask about this in the actual interview and say things like you know what does the actual workload look like you know how am I replacing somebody or is this a new position things like that so you can kind of get a feel for how much work they're actually looking for this individual to do and number five is one that I have seen a lot recently and it's when a job description has a lot of buzzwords like the cloud algorithms big data but they have no actual skill sets listed and so it's very very ambiguous and what they're actually looking for now why is this a major red flag well most likely this is a company who has not leveraged their data a lot in the past and so they don't know what skills you actually need and so this company is saying hey we need some data analyst or data scientists to come in and basically tell us everything we need to know about our data now no we don't have good data infrastructure or data documentation and we have no data pipelines but you know whoever we hire they're going to come in and do all of that and honestly that happens a lot especially at smaller companies where they just expect one person to do everything and you do not want to be that person because although you may try to learn it all and do it all it most likely is going to end in failure and their expectations are that you're going to come in and do all of it and most likely you won't be able to do any of it now those are all the red flags and listen you guys are very smart people you do not need me to tell you what jobs to apply for or not apply for and that is not what I'm trying to do what I am trying to do is just alert you to some of the red flags that you might see in job descriptions and ask it when you actually get into the interview ask the interview these questions so that you can know if they are just red flags or if they are actually going to turn into a data analyst horror story which I do not want you to go through what I went through I promise you it was not fun and I want you to have successful careers in places that you enjoy and places where you're going to be happy and content to work for a long time so thank you guys so much for watching this video I really appreciate it if you like this video be sure to like and subscribe below and I'll see you in the next video