Hard to read a company's true face at interview — the harsh reality shows only after you join

A jobseeker joins, then finds the firm routinely works staff into the small hours, that the flexible hours set out in the contract are cancelled without warning, and that being seconds late earns a warning letter. Many jobseekers say it is hard, at the interview stage, to verify the real working culture of an SME — only after joining do they learn of overtime, summary dismissal and the like, and on leaving they may have their compensation docked for assorted reasons.

The core problem is the lack of a neutral, credible channel for employer reviews locally: existing recruitment platforms run mainly on job adverts, firms hold the upper hand on information, and jobseekers can only rely on scattered private word of mouth, leaving the two sides severely mismatched on information. In high-turnover fields such as IT, this opacity sends jobseekers repeatedly into roles with poor conditions, and also makes it hard for the employers who run things properly to stand out on good word of mouth.