Yup. It takes a while to see the abstract pattern underlying their behaviour. Once you see it, its very clear. But for a long time you're distracted by the details of day-to-day events and you think they're just another co-worker with some annoying habits.

I'm confused why so many commenters are quick to shout "B.S" on this article (are they BSers in hiding?) but maybe he is oversimplifying too much. True S-W types are pretty rare and are probably evidence of some extreme psychological disorder. (E.g., malignant narcissism or sociopathy. Robert Hare is a researcher in criminal psychology and wrote a book on such people: https://www.amazon.com/Snakes-Suits-When-Psychopaths-Work/dp...).

People that rank on the Hare scale of psycopathy are over-represented (relative to prevalence in broader society) in corporate C-suites, controlling for age, gender, race, etc...[0] I am not sure what the representation of MBAs is in the C-suite but I assume it is also fairly high. I do not believe the book examines the representation amongst MBAs specifically, though.

[0] http://www.amazon.com/Snakes-Suits-When-Psychopaths-Work/dp/...

You will probably find the book "Snakes in Suits" enlightening:

http://www.amazon.com/Snakes-Suits-When-Psychopaths-Work/dp/...

You know those charmingly manipulative psychopathic serial killers? It turns out many people like that just aren't violent. Instead, they like money and power.

A person like this probably feels just fine about what they did. "Psychopaths are without conscience and incapable of empathy, guilt, or loyalty to anyone but themselves."

No no no,

That guy looks like a textbook sociopath. You should read this to really understand on what's going on: http://www.amazon.com/Snakes-Suits-When-Psychopaths-Work/dp/...

People like him leave a scorched earth approach to anything, and at the end they end up being damaging to the companies where they work.

He doesn't make friends. He acts as a 'friend' to people to get ahead, while simultaneously backstabbing them.

We are not talking just simple "outdo the master" type of manoeuvrings. We are talking about lying, maliciously spreading rumors, destroying other people's careers, while keeping a "friendly and smiling face", and dropping people like a rock once done with them.

You will never understand what hit you, until it is too late.

Just beware.

Generally, you should ask questions to help YOU decide if the place is a good (or not) place to work at. Many people use the Joel Test as a guideline. As time goes by, you'll add your own questions to find things that went wrong/right at previous places.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html

Since some questions aren't approprite, such as "do you have any psychopaths working here?" then you'll have to find some proxy questions that will help you decide if you're going to end up in a mental wood chipper at this place.

http://www.amazon.com/Snakes-Suits-When-Psychopaths-Work/dp/...