Finding the right job can be tough, but landing a great job in a company with a culture that matches your work and life ethos can be even harder. Sure, there are lists. Lots of lists, such as Working Mother's Top 100 that Robin and I wrote about. But companies compete to win spots on those lists with applications that say what the editors and readers want to hear. The best way to know what a company is really like is to talk to employees who have worked there.

You can network, and maybe find one or two people who work at a company you're applying to. But as Stephanie Armour writes in USA Today, online job-hunting sites are providing space for former and current employees to chat about what they like and don't like about their companies.

Just as you can check out what fellow Yahoo! Tech readers like and don't like about the gadgets and gear you're considering buying on this site, former and current employees of companies are giving their two cents and then some on job sites, including Jobster, LinkedIn, and Vault.

Jobster asks questions such as, "What's the one thing you would change at (company name)?" and "What's your workspace like at ...?" In total, when you read through all the questions and answers, you get a peak into the company's culture you might not otherwise get.

There are employee surveys to check out, and social-networking tools (LinkedIn's looks especially good)  that render cheesy conference-room networking sessions more ineffectual than they already are. On Vault, people ask and answer a variety of questions about several companies.

In one example, a woman returning to work asks if it's worth her time applying to the consulting firm, Accenture: By woman-friendly, I do not mean a woman who is just out of B-school and is 28 years old. I mean someone who stopped working at age 39 and wants to go back to work at age 46. A frank answer would tell me whether I should bother at all—at this or any consulting firm.

One frank response: Even if you would be a Senior Exec, the average age of retirement is around 50. Consulting is all about being flexible—both to be able to work unpredictable,long hours and to travel up to 100 percent of the time. If you are okay with this, and probably reporting to someone about 15-20 years younger than you, then go for it.

Obviously, you have to take some of the information offered with many grains of salt. Some curmudgeonly employees may be venting. But it's one more way to find out some information about a workplace before you sign on for a stint you may regret.

Employers are using technology to vet prospective hires. It's only fair that jobseekers do the same. Don't you think?