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> It was also the first place I ever worked where it was normal for people to get fired in their first year. Not sure how you ask about that in an interview though, lol.

There is a way, actually.

One of the things you want to ask when joining a non-tiny company is about the overall retention figures. Average/median tenure is a good start, especially coupled with a question on what the company does with their exit interview data. You could also ask for a rough bucketing on the tenure: how many people stay beyond 1y/3y/5y.

It's going to be a rare company who can (or will) share even semi-accurate figures, but you should be able to get a decent grip on the fractions. Also, if those in the company who are supposed to know this are evasive about the question, that's a red flag all on its own right.

I hope all people start asking such questions. It will bring more accountability and will make it difficult for toxic companies to hide their issues.

Maybe candidates can start asking for a company's "resume"?

By the time I joined, I discovered that on my team of 5: - manager had joined weeks before interviewing me, replacing the long time team lead who had been fired - 2 guys were being fired & I was to take on their responsibilities along with the other guy they just hired

This happened to me at the last job, and I've commented something similar once: the interview experience and the first couple of month experiences were so different I've got no qualms saying it straight up: I felt lied to.

On top of joining a team that felt completely bootstrapped and thrown together for my arrival and included ZERO engineers with domain knowledge or familiarity on the system they had just been pulled off of systems they'd built and maintained for the last several years to this new team I was hired into, two people left within the first two months, another got fired due to ongoing and apparently continued behavioral issues, and a third appeared on my team out of nowhere. Got pulled into a zoom call one day "So and so works for you now" and that was it.

All of this after an interview process where I was assured: "these guys have been working on this since inception".

The place was absolutely bonkers compared to the interview, and I thought I had done a pretty decent job peeling the layers of filibustering answers when I would inquire about things like turnover, team sizes, promotions and firings, open positions/how long they'd been open et al. Or at least the recruiter I worked with leading up to getting an offer letter was more than forthcoming and transparent about this stuff....

...except THAT person ended up quitting two weeks before I did.

I was interviewed at a place we all have heard of, talked first to the hiring manager over the phone. It went well, so we scheduled an in person interview a week later. When I got there, I asked hey where is the hiring manager that I talked to? The answer was: well he got into a disagreement with the CEO (whose name rhymes with Dion) and he no longer works here. What a first red flag!

There’s tournament model and then there’s just straight up dysfunctional.