Welcome to Edition #44 of Ask Gorick Anything. This AMA is part of Gorick's Newsletter, where Harvard career advisor and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Gorick Ng shares what they don't teach you in school about how to succeed in your career.
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→ Read time: 5 min
ASK GORICK ANYTHING
“What should I do if I see red flags in a company I just started at?”
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Subscriber’s question:
“Hi Gorick. I am a new grad and just recently started my first corporate job. I feel really lucky to even have a job right now because the job market has been really tough for new grads. However I've noticed some red flags at this company.
- It feels like everybody is afraid to challenge the CEO on anything and he is a bit of a loose cannon.
- The company is rampant with nepotism.
- We are losing a lot of market share to our competitor.
- There's also talks about a potential acquisition. I am worried that if we get acquired a lot of jobs will be cut.
I only started a couple months ago and my day to day is fine, I like my team and my direct supervisors well enough. As of now I'm planning on putting in around a year here and then I'm going to start actively looking for other roles.
Do you think these concerns are appropriate or am I overreacting? What would you do in this situation?”
—Anonymous from New York, NY
Gorick’s response:
Hi Anonymous,
Congrats on even landing a role in this tough economy—but yikes: I’m sorry to hear that there are so many red flags, so soon.
No, you’re not overreacting. I don’t like your situation at all and I would start doing 5 things:
1. Go on LinkedIn, search for the roles you’re interested in, filter for your desired location, and toggle “Get job alerts for this search” at the bottom to “On” so that you’re alerted to new and relevant job postings (here’s an example for paralegal jobs in NYC).
2. Go on Google, search for “(role) near (place),” and click “Follow” (here’s an example for FP&A Analyst jobs in San Francisco) so you are similarly alerted to relevant new postings.
3. Go to my list of 1,000+ early career employers, filter for the industries that interest you (or scroll through the entire list), click on the employers that speak to you, and consider applying to the opportunities that speak to you (assuming you’re okay taking a step back and starting in an analyst program again). (Note: If you’re reading this right now in October, now’s the time to apply and interview for opportunities with start dates in ~August 2026).
4. Start spending some of your lunchtime, evenings, and weekends reconnecting with people in your network so that they can keep you in mind for opportunities. (Check out my prior posts on how to stay in touch, how to use LinkedIn for outreach, and if you are in your mid career, check out this page and this page on how to contact recruiters/headhunters in your field.)
5. Since you have such a great working relationship with your coworkers and immediate manager, ask them for their reactions to the situation with questions like…
- “I’m still new and so am still getting the hang of how things work around here. How do you prepare for [this situation, e.g., meetings with this VP]?”
- “I noticed [this announcement] and was wondering about [this implication, e.g., layoffs]. Is this something you’re foreseeing or are worried about?”
- “I noticed that decisions often come down to [this factor, e.g., the CEO’s mood]. Have you noticed this as well and if so, what’s your advice on how to navigate similar situations in the future?”
If you want a “second second” opinion, consider contacting someone you might know or have a connection to who was in the last round of layoffs and ask them…
- “What was your experience like at [your prior company]? What were some of the highest highs and lowest lows?”
- “How did you end up in this role?”
- “I couldn’t help but notice that you left right around [the last round of layoffs]. I’m worried that we might be going through something similar again and wanted to ask: How should I best prepare?”
To clarify: I’m not saying to quit right now!
What I am saying is that it doesn’t hurt to (A) start building yourself a lifeboat and (B) understand how your trusted coworkers are approaching the situation.
The more proactive you are, the more mentally and physically ready you’ll be to jump if the situation calls for it. And if the people you respect and trust most are secretly preparing for the worst, you might want to also.
Why?
As I explain in my book, most people considering a job or career change have a People, Place, or Position problem. (This is an issue OpenAI has had, by the way—read more about it and how to diagnose your own type of workplace problem here.)
Since you seem to have a People and Place problem, you’ll want to validate:
- Are you really not convinced that you have a future at this organization? If so, there will be an end date. It’s just a matter of how soon.
- Can you grow more elsewhere? If so, maybe you’re paying a big opportunity cost by sticking around.
- Are the people you admire and trust also bearish (defined here)?
And if your answer is “yes” to all of the above, then start building that lifeboat.
Hope this helps!
See you next Tuesday for our next story and unspoken rule,
Gorick
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