Have been interviewing at start-ups and the thing that I run into constantly is "the position is available because the last x people didn't work out/have the grit/put in the effort/understand the product etc."

I always ask them what the organization has adjusted to position themselves to be successful with their next hire. Some of them are dumb-founded by this question and some of them offer real actions that have been undertaken (but also tend to point fingers at former employees.)

I have no interest in going to work for a broken company -- or one that lacks PMF or a reasonable demand.

I do believe there are sales people that suck at their job. And maybe they didn't pay enough, made the wrong hire, or had a poor strategy in place. Maybe management was wrong.

But I feel like I could get a better feel for this if I reached out to former AEs. They are easy to find via LinkedIn. The question is -- is this ethical? Should I ask the hiring company for permission to do so?

Is it ethical to reach out to former employees during the interview process?

Figure It Out