Salary Scoop
A new Web site lets you scope out companies before you apply.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall of a prospective employer's office. Aptly named Glassdoor.com, founded by the brains behind popular home-valuation Web site Zillow.com, gives you a firsthand peek at companies and how well they pay. Employees submit reviews along with salary details. To gain access, you must help build the site's database by anonymously submitting your own job info.
Glassdoor offers more insight into jobs than competing sites do. Since its June debut, the site has collected reviews or salary data for more than 11,000 companies.
By contrast, Salary.com shows salary ranges for job titles in your zip code, but job descriptions are fairly generic and may not match the position you're evaluating. Payscale.com is similar to Glassdoor in that it compiles salary data directly from users. You can see where you rank (or how much other jobs pay) compared with similar profiles, but no companies are named or reviewed.
Glassdoor takes pains to ensure data is on the level, reviewing every submission before it's posted. Suspicious content -- such as outlier salaries or multiple entries from the same user -- is thrown out.
The site's original focus was technology companies; banking and consulting listings have grown quickly, and Glassdoor is pursuing other industries.
