When seeking a new job, remember to interview the company even as they interview you, and do not simply "fall in love with the deal" Dear Bob …I’ve been reading your recent series in Keep the Joint Running, about how the best organizations are run, somewhat wistfully [see for example “Cwazy wabbits,” – Bob].[ Also on InfoWorld: “What to do when an employer insists on an irrelevant certification” | Get sage advice on IT careers and management from Bob Lewis in InfoWorld’s Advice Line newsletter. ] My situation: There is little sign of excellence in our organization, other than occasional pockets and/or flashes in the pan, and hasn’t been for the four-plus years I’ve been in it. Pre-recession, turnover was extremely high and so was the brain drain as good people came in, Observed, Oriented, Decided, and Got to Heck Out.Now turnover is suppressed, but things still suck. It’s slightly less than three or four years ago, but when I remember my days at Intel, a very “high velocity” organization that invested many tens of hours into employee training in “the Intel culture,” I realize how different, and how much better, things could be.Have you heard of the “autistic spectrum?” Posit a “dysfunctionality spectrum” or perhaps a “screwed-up index” — I think a large majority of companies are somewhere along this spectrum. They coast along and stay in business mostly because there are barriers to entry in whatever niche they happen to inhabit. My own situation and that of the very many people who look at Dilbert cartoons and say “yes, that is an accurate depiction of how it is” is that I don’t need to waste time figuring out which type of excellence path my company is on so that I can support progress along that path. Rather, I just try to keep my head down, go along to get along, put in my time, deliver the deliverables (easy to do when standards are very low), and not be the one who gets caught “out” when the music stops.No advice needed. Just a contrast to keep you grounded.– Coasting Dear Coasting … I assume you’re actively looking for alternatives?Employers, like employees, follow a bell curve of desirability. The best employers know how to select great employees. Not all employees understand that they need to expend some serious effort selecting their employer. Because it’s a bell curve, while few employers exhibit a “full Dilbert,” most have some Dilbertesque characteristics, and no company escapes them entirely.That isn’t a reason to settle. There are great companies to work for out there. The challenge is finding them because, by definition, they’re a couple of sigmas to the right of the ones you’re most likely to run into.One other point: For excellent employees, at least, the process of finding a job has a lot in common with the process of negotiation. One characteristic that’s particularly important to keep in mind is the hazard of falling in love with the deal. That very condition is one of the biggest reasons so many outsourcing relationships sour pretty quickly: Both sides fell in love with the deal, which means neither took sufficient care to structure the deal to make sure it would succeed once the contracts were signed. Falling in love with the deal is also the reason so many otherwise excellent IT professionals find themselves working for mediocre organizations (or worse). Their focus is on landing a job (and sometimes on landing a job with the best pay), which deprives them of the skepticism they need to be sure they’re landing a job worth having.– Bob IT Jobs