One of the last steps in searching for a job is the face-to-face interview. It's not only the time when the hiring manager finds out about you and your work, but it's also the time when you get to see the company in action.

1. Receptive Receptionist

The first impression you have about a company is that first person you see. Receptionists who are professional know how to handle their work and can effectively announce your presence to the right people. That goes a long way toward saying that this is a place that gets it right.

2. A Room With a View

Face-to-face interviews usually take place in the hiring manager's office, or a conference room. You can tell a lot about the company just from those two places. If it's a conference room, see if it's clean. The style of the furniture indicates a culture -- heavy wood conference tables with leather chairs is a lot different than cubicle-styled tables and chairs. The hiring manager's office can tell you a lot about the manager. Clutter, pictures, cleanliness and what is put where can tell you a lot about this hiring manager's working style.

3. The person hiring you should have read your resume

They often haven't. It shows that either they didn't prep for your interview or they were thrown in to interview you with little notice. Either way, it tells a story about how the business is run and the priorities of management.

4. Multiple interview appointments for the day are all kept

Nothing like prepping and then running the interview gauntlet, only to be let down by half of your interview appointments for the day due to cancellations. It sends a clear message that something obviously more important than you came up. Sure, the job market is tough out there, but that's no reason for a company's personnel to treat your time as if it doesn't matter. Your time does matter, doesn't it?

5. You are clearly informed about the next step in the process

Great managers ensure that the next step is clearly laid out, including who will be doing it and when it needs to be done. Interviews are no different. The hiring manager should clearly lay out the next steps and the timeline. If you don't find this out -- or you need to ask -- it shows a management team that perhaps doesn't know how to follow through with their people on the work. A lot of communication, it's been noted, is non-verbal. The same can be said for the job interview. The management team of the company is showing you what it values and how it runs the place. It does that through how its people perform and where they take you for your very important interview. How do you know a company gets it, when you've done a job interview with them?

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