The short version
BeforeJob only works if people trust what they read here. Four rules make that possible:
- Be honest. Write about your own experience, and be fair even when you are angry.
- Talk about the workplace, not individuals. Policies, decisions and culture are fair game. People’s names are not.
- Separate fact from opinion. “I felt”, “in my team” and “I was told” make a review stronger, not weaker.
- Protect yourself. Leave out details that only you could know.
What you can share
These are the contributions that help people most. Write them in your own words.
Allowed: Honest opinions about the workplace
Pay, growth, culture, management style, work-life balance, job security. Good and bad, as you experienced them.
Example: “Appraisals felt arbitrary. Most of my team got the same 6% hike regardless of ratings.”
Allowed: Your salary and benefits
Your own pay, as accurately as you can: fixed pay, variable pay, joining bonus and stock. Round the numbers if that helps you feel safe.
Allowed: How the interview went
The rounds, the kind of questions you were asked, how long it took and how you were treated. Questions in your own words are fine.
Example: “Three rounds over two weeks: a coding test, a system design discussion and a chat with the hiring manager.”
Allowed: Criticism of leadership decisions and policies
You can criticise what leaders decided and how they communicated it, as long as you stick to the decision and not the person’s private life.
Example: “The layoffs were announced in a late-night email, with no call and no clarity on notice pay.”
Allowed: Facts that happened to you
Layoffs, notice periods, severance, delayed salaries, return-to-office rules. Say what happened and when, in months and years.
Allowed: Praise
If a team, policy or benefit is genuinely good, say so. Balanced reviews are the most useful ones.
What is not allowed
Our screening checks every contribution for these problems. If it finds one, it asks you to edit before anything is published.
Not allowed: Naming or identifying people
No names, nicknames, photos or descriptions that point to a specific colleague, manager or HR person. Say “my manager” or “a senior leader” instead. Founders and CEOs can be discussed in their public role, but never their private lives.
Not allowed: Personal information
No phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, employee ids, or anyone else’s salary.
Not allowed: Harassment, hate and threats
No abuse, slurs or threats, and nothing that attacks people for their religion, caste, gender, sexuality, disability, region or language.
Not allowed: Accusations stated as fact
Do not accuse anyone of a crime or misconduct as if it were proven. Describe what you saw and say what you believe. Serious wrongdoing belongs with the right authority: the Internal Committee under the POSH Act, a labour office or the police.
Example: “The HR head takes bribes to clear joining paperwork.”
Not allowed: Confidential business information
No unreleased financial results, product plans, client names under contract, source code, internal documents, screenshots or passwords.
Not allowed: Fake or paid contributions
No reviews of companies you never worked at, reviews written for or paid by an employer, or campaigns to push a rating up or down.
Not allowed: Content that is not yours
No copying other people’s reviews, articles or copyrighted material, and no full test papers that you agreed to keep secret.
Not allowed: Spam and advertising
No promotions, referral links, recruitment pitches or links to other sites in contributions.
Not allowed: Anything illegal
Nothing obscene, sexual or harmful to children, and nothing listed as prohibited in our terms of use under the IT Rules 2021.
Saying hard things the right way
You can be critical without naming anyone or making claims you cannot back up. A few examples:
Instead of
“My manager Rahul in the Bengaluru payments team is a bully.”
Write
“My manager often criticised people in front of the whole team, and nobody acted on complaints to HR.”
Instead of
“The founders are stealing investor money.”
Write
“Salaries were paid late three months in a row in 2026, and leadership did not explain why.”
Instead of
“I was the only woman data engineer on the Gurugram fraud team and they ignored me.”
Write
“As a woman in a mostly male team, I often felt my ideas were overlooked in planning meetings.”
Protect your own anonymity
We never show who wrote a contribution, and we hide any breakdown with fewer than 5 people. Your words can still give you away, so:
- leave out exact dates, project code names and the names of small teams;
- do not mention events only a handful of people attended;
- use a general job title if only one or two people have your exact one;
- do not tell colleagues you wrote a review;
- write in your normal style, but avoid phrases people know you for.
How moderation works
Every contribution goes through screening, a mix of automated checks and human moderators. There are four possible results:
- Approved. The contribution is scheduled. Reviews, salaries, interviews and layoff and appraisal reports go live after a random delay of 1 to 7 days, so the moment something appears cannot be matched to the moment you wrote it.
- Needs an edit. We highlight the parts that break a guideline and explain why, with a suggestion. Nothing is saved until you edit it yourself. We never rewrite your words for you.
- Held for a moderator. If the checks are unsure, a trained moderator reads the contribution before it is scheduled.
- Declined. Spam, abuse and clear breaches of the law are refused.
After publishing, anyone can report a contribution. A moderator reviews each report against these guidelines and either keeps the contribution as it is or removes it. Moderators never edit a contribution, and they never see the account behind it.
Discussions and questions
Company discussions and questions are conversations, so a post or comment goes live as soon as it passes screening, without the random delay. You appear under a pseudonym such as “Steady Heron 42”. It stays the same within one company and is different at every other company, so your activity cannot be followed across BeforeJob.
Private company channels are open only to verified current employees of that company. The same guidelines apply everywhere.
What employers can and cannot do
Employers are welcome on BeforeJob. The best ones listen and reply. They play by the same rules as everyone else.
Employers can
- reply publicly to reviews, to explain, thank or correct the record;
- dispute a contribution they believe breaks these guidelines or the law; we review it exactly like any other report;
- update their company profile, photos and benefits, and post jobs;
- run anonymous surveys and see aggregated results, never for groups smaller than 5.
Employers cannot
- remove, hide, edit, pin or reorder contributions, or change a rating;
- pay us to do any of those things; our plans buy tools, never outcomes;
- find out who wrote something, or ask employees whether they did;
- reward employees for reviews, or ask for positive ones only;
- pressure or punish anyone for contributing.
A dispute succeeds only if the contribution breaks these guidelines or the law. Disagreeing with an opinion is not enough. If an employer pressures you about BeforeJob, tell us through the grievance page.
Reporting a problem
Use the report option on any contribution and pick the reason that fits best:
- False or misleading
- Names or identifies a person
- Harassment, hate or threats
- Author never worked here
- Shares confidential business information
- Spam or advertising
- Something else
Reports are anonymous to the author. For legal complaints, privacy requests or court orders, use the grievance page, which has fixed deadlines. Our transparency report shows how many reports we receive and act on.
What happens when someone breaks the rules
- Most problems: we ask for an edit, or remove the contribution and tell the author why.
- Repeated or serious breaches: we may stop the account from contributing, or suspend it.
- Fake or edited verification documents, fake reviews, or attempts to unmask an author: we close the account, and may report it where the law requires.
- Employers who break these rules: we may suspend or close the employer account.
If you think we made a wrong call, raise a grievance and a person will look at it again. The terms of use have the full rules.