Job Interview Question?

I have an interview with a private company. Thier financials are not disclosed. Do you think asking if they are profitable is a valid question? They did post historical events whereby they secured financing. This concerns me as they may have alot of debt and are not profitable.

In thier history, they were suppose to be merged with another company but then, as they put it "mutually agreed" to terminated the merger.

On thier website they list senior management. I do not see any VP of Human Resources, which to me may seem like they may have a lack of structure within the company.

What do you think, can/should i ask about financials? What do you think?

I think you should definitely ask about the company's cash flow position and profitability when it's not readily apparent or available. The trick is in how you pose the questions and how to discipher the answers.

For a start-up, you can ask about what stage/round of venture financing they have completed or about to begin. Typical start-up nowadays go from Angel/seed funding to series A, B, and if necessary C before profitability. Occassionally there will be bridge financing for companies intending to go IPO. You can also ask about what the burn rate is (how much cash they use up each month or quarter) and when the next round of financing needs to come in.

For regular private companies, you can ask about the growth of the company and what their goal this year is. Then you can ease into the profitability question. If you do not want to ask directly, you can ask questions like "what strategies are you using to improve profitability and how effective do you think you have been (or will be)?" or "What is the greatest challenge you see for the company in the coming months?" If the company tries to dodge these questions, then you would know the answer.

As for the failed merger... that's not all that unusual. It doesn't take a lot to foil a merger. A discontent minority shareholder, a misrepresentation of financials, a clash of corporate culture, a change of economic environment...etc. I wouldn't be too hung up on it.

This also goes for VP of HR. In smaller companies, many times the C-level officers double as HR. Also, HR isn't exactly the most high profile executive officers so they aren't always listed on the company's management team.

I would defiantly ask that question. Anyone can promise you money, but you have to be employed to earn it. Also, anyone worth YOUR time would see it as a perfectly reasonable question.

Companies have credit reports, you might want to start at
Dun and Bradstreet.

http://dnd.com

Know before you go...

Robert
Resumecrazy

P.S. You can ask, the response will tell you everything.

Can you ask? Yes, you can.

Will they truthfully answer? Doubt it.

Are you currently working? If you would be leaving a "stable" job (there really is no such thing) then just tell them you would like to see their tax returns for the last couple years.

If you are not currently working, then what does it matter? Take the job and see for yourself.

And as a side note, there are very few non Fortune 500 businesses that are not suffering right now. The economy is tanking and there are fewer and fewer jobs for the middle class.

And not being top heavy in the HR department doesn't seem to be a bad thing to me, but it does sound like you want to work for a super large company and if that is the case, I say move on.

Good luck in your search