Definitely turned down companies and avoided applying for others due to scandals and culture. Other times, peeps just can't be choosy cos food/etc is on the line.

maybe if you count hindsight;
if your client drags you, and your company doesn't do even a perfunctory investigation to verify allegations
do you blame them? or blame yourself for signing up with a company rated 2/5 by hundreds of people
and you knew they were a 2/5 when you took the interview/position

Imagine doing 40h+ of the exact same work every week, for months and years and decades. And not even for yourself, but for someone else who reaps the actual fruits of your labor.
I‘d off myself immediately, tbh.

Yes, because companies with bad reputation tend to treat employees badly too... I am not even just saying, i am software engineer and have been ignoring Amazon job offers for years because of their bad rep...

Both good and bad don't matter at all, I have family that works in a 'good' company and they were fired what I assume due to what the hr person thought was his political alignment, because all security camera footage just said there was 0 fault but they fired him on the first day of his planned christmas vacation, and it took till he was ready to sue for them to drop everything and backpay, he still works there because of age and his retirement benefits, but the place is a fucking hellscape for how they treat employes, other fun stories about how shit they treat people but how they are near universally seen as a great company are fun to find out.

on the same coin there are companies with bad reputations, the ones I know of are from machinists, essentially there is a shop near us who expects you to be competent, not 'able to do the job' but actually be good at doing the job. most people are not good, and are just able to get by so they never get better at their craft, so them expecting you to actually be good gets them a reputation of a slave driving business, they pay WELL above what most places do, but with that pay being good is not a want but a demand.

Yes! I once worked for some genuinely awful people and it taught me to be more conscious of reputation. Even now, many years later, I enjoy looking up that business on Glassdoor and seeing the amazement of the reviewers at how awful a workplace can be.

Just a little.

Knowing from an insider and the actual job terms/conditions is more important than reputation, since you never start at the top and whoever is your first boss has a big part on your impression. Reputation can be biased, especially when varios companies compete with each other. You can't blindly trust reputation, checking out the same job conditions in other companies is a must do. So, I would still apply and keep going through the process, unless I find out they clearly violate human rights.

Also, if a company is bought by another or changes their name/logo/marketing strategies, it usually affects their reputation without necessarily changing anything.

Yes. I don't care about the prestige of a company, but I do care if the company has scandals about treating their employees like crap. Same with scummy ways of doing business and so on. The company culture is also important. I don't need to be friends with my coworkers, but I don't want to feel like I'm going to war every time I go to work...

Money is important, but quality of life and peace of mind is also important. If you have the opportunity of choosing between a company that will treat you like crap, but will pay you really well and a company that will pay you decently, but treat you ok-ish, go with the company that will treat you better. Unless you want to work in a bad environment for some reason (idk, building character? understanding scummy people and their tactics?)

I voted Yes, but to be precise, it's not so much the public "reputation of the company" that matters as my own genuine opinion of the company. Up until maybe last year, Facebook was still a company in good standing with most engineers, but personally I found their anti-democracy stances absolutely despicable since at least early 2016 so I'd never in a million years work there.

Yes in the sense that if I ever hear anything about a company's reputation, it probably isn't anything good and I should probably avoid them

Well, yes.

You wouldn't want to work in a counterfeit company, would you? I know some of my friends who once worked in that kind of company. When I heard their stories, the company is a kind of living hell (one of my friends was not even paid for 3 months before he quit).

First thing first, it needs to be legit.

And it would be better if I got some honest/genuine reviews from the people who once worked in that company. Does it have a toxic enviornment? How was the coworker? The facility? The salary? Future career? I need a plus minus.

For me, the jobdesk and salary plays a big part. My current work paid less with loads and tons of jobdesks (occassionally it's also something out of the jobdesk I signed in my contract). I wouldn't want to recommend my company to other people, if I resign someday.

Yes. I would never work with a company if I didn't like the culture. No amount of money is worth waking up every morning and dreading going to work. The stress will shorten your life. It will make it harder to enjoy life outside of work too. Companies that care about their employees usually pay them better anyways.

I also care a lot about what a company sells. They should be mission-oriented and building something that makes the world better.

Never forget that a job interview is a two-way negotiation. Just as the interviewer wants to find out if you're the right fit for their culture, you should be thinking about if they're the right fit for you. Make sure you know what you want and have all the information you need before accepting a job.