My favorite advice for job seekers [Video]

If you ask, “What’s your company culture like?” in a job interview, chances are you’ll get a generic answer.

“Our team is really collaborative,” the recruiter might say. “We’re like a family here. We place a strong emphasis on open communication and working together towards a shared goal.”

The problem is that these responses can feel canned or rote. They don’t end up giving you the information you need.

“My favorite advice to job seekers and career switchers is, Don’t just ask people to describe the culture, because you tend to get a lot of platitudes and cliches,” Wharton psychologist Adam Grant says. “What you want to do is anchor more in people’s day to day experiences. And the easiest way to do that is to ask, ‘Can you tell me a story about something that happens here but would not elsewhere?'”

Grant, who’s a bestselling author and Glassdoor’s “Chief …