A job interview is often seen as a test you have to pass, when it's just as much a chance to test whether a company fits you. You can't read company culture from a vacancy full of words like “informal atmosphere” and “flat organisation”; they say little. You spot it in a handful of concrete signals during the conversation itself.
Can you really judge company culture in one thirty-minute interview?
Not completely, but partially. You won't get a full picture, but you'll get signals: how people talk about colleagues, how they react to a critical question, whether it's a conversation or a one-sided interrogation. Those signals give more information than the marketing language on a website.
What concrete signals should you look for during the interview?
- Does the interviewer talk about the team with genuine enthusiasm, or mostly in general, rehearsed terms?
- Do they describe what a normal working day or week looks like, or does it stay at abstract words like “dynamic”?
- Is there room for your questions, or does the conversation feel one-sided?
- Does the interviewer respond calmly to a critical question, or evasively?
What questions get you past the standard answers?
Don't ask “what's the culture like here”, because that almost always gets a rehearsed answer. Ask something concrete: “What did the last working student here actually do in their first month?” or “Can you tell me about a time something didn't go to plan, and how the team handled it?”. Concrete questions force concrete answers instead of marketing lines.
What does it mean if a company can't give a concrete answer?
A company that has really thought through a working-student role can tell you what the first month looks like, who the point of contact is and what a normal working week involves. If the answer stays vague, the role may not be properly thought through yet. Ask follow-up questions before you sign.
How much weight should an interview carry against reviews or word of mouth?
Combine them. An interview gives you a direct impression, reviews give you a pattern over time, and someone who works or has worked there gives you the most honest picture. None of the three is complete, but together they paint a far more realistic picture than the vacancy alone.
How VOIDS gets to know companies
At VOIDS, recruitment starts with an intake in which we go through the company's role, culture and growth stage [1]. That way a candidate has a more realistic picture beforehand.
Sources
- VOIDS: Werving & selectie (incl. cases), accessed 11 October 2026.
Transparency: VOIDS connects working students with organisations and therefore has an interest in this topic. We back up facts with sources and connect research and trends to our own experience from practice.
