Today, every survey indicates that money is no longer the primary motivation for American workers. Today's breed of success seeker wants challenge and autonomy, psychic recognition, and freedom to explore new ideas. Unfortunately too large a percentage of American management hasn't recognized this, and as a result fails to attract or keep the best and the brightest.
A paradox of this situation is that although millions of jobs are being lost, it is still a "buyers' market" for young men and women with considerable knowledge and skills to offer. These rising stars know that they are needed, and can afford to be choosy when it comes to accepting a job. Not too choosy, however. Seeking a "dream job" is almost invariably a tile exercise. But, within the limits of reason, don't sell yourself short. That's why it's important to save money like you are unemployed. If you don't know how to pay the rent next month, you lose your options when it comes to employment, and find yourself making decisions out of desperation, rather than being able to turn down a job that lacks many of the things that are important to you.
If you are one of these rising stars, you owe it to yourself and, by extension, to a company to be secured in your mind that if a job is offered to you, it's going to make you happy and fulfilled. It's often hard to ascertain this until you've actually been on the job for a while, but you should do everything in your power to make that determination before accepting an offer.
Ask questions. Workers years ago felt this was inappropriate, and job interviews were very much a one-way street. The company asked questions about you and made determination whether you were worthy of being employed there. Today, it is perfectly acceptable, even smart, to interview the company at the same time the company interviewing you.
To some, asking questions of a potential employer means going through a boilerplate list of inquiries about the number of vacation days, medical benefits, pension plans, and other nitty-gritty. Those kinds of questions should be asked, of course, but later-as an adjunct. Save lose questions for when you're close to being offered the job, and make them part of your salary negotiations.
Your basic line of questioning should focus upon the management philosophy under which you'll be working: the opportunities for being independent within the framework of a department's and company's goals, the reporting structure in which you'll be positioned, learning opportunities within the company, both formal and informal, and a reasonable understanding of opportunities for advancement for someone who not only does his or her job but goes beyond that.
A standard question asked of job candidates "Where do you see yourself ten years from now?" I don’t like answering a question with another question, because that usually leaves both questions unanswered, but sometimes it's reasonable for you to ask, "Where do you think can I be in this company, provided I do the sort of job I'm capable of doing?"
You will, of course, have to trust the answers given to you by the person doing the interviewing. That's understandable, because, after all, the interviewer hopefully will trust the answers you've given to his questions, and may very well verify them by reference checking. But because an interview should be a two-way street, you can apply the same intuition in judging the person with whom you're interviewing as that person is doing with you. Words of caution, however; don’t judge an entire company by one or two individuals. We've all had experiences with a rude or inept individual and ended up judging an entire company based upon one person's behavior. A rude bank teller at one branch can cause us to think poorly of the bank as an entity. A surly flight attendant causes us to brand the airline "no good." We know, of course, that this is irrational, that we shouldn't make such broad judgments based on a narrow experience, but often we do unless we remind ourselves of the folly it represents.
The person interviewing you may be an unpleasant human being, or even downright nasty. It comes on you to look beyond that; your contact with others in the company will give you a more balanced picture. Of course, if the person interviewing you will be your immediate supervisor, that lends a lot more weight to the decision you'll have to make, but even then, if the company is owing and offers excellent opportunities, the chances may be very good that you'll be able to advance beyond that supervisor and establish a wonderful career for yourself.
If the company in which you're interested is in an industry that you've been working in right along, it becomes much easier to gain insight into how the company notions and whether employees there are satisfied. Use your network again, this time to find out more about the internal workings of the company. Of course, you must know ways to filter comments and weigh the worth of them based upon your assessment of the individual giving them. Someone who was fired from a company is obviously not going to have many good things to say about it. On the other hand, someone who is disgruntled in his or her present employment with another company is likely to view the one you're seeking a position with as better than it is.
Because our world has become intensely competitive, there are corporations that oversell the advantages of working for them as they compete to hire the best and tightest available people. It's difficult to determine whether the job offered to you will prove to be as good as it has been painted by those with whom you came into contact. Again, it pays to take whatever steps are necessary to get handle on this before accepting a job. See if you can talk to the person you would be replacing, or others in the department in which you would be working. By all means ask for a tour of the facilities, especially the area in which you would be spending your days. We've come a long way since the sweatshops that brought about unionism, but it's amazing how many companies today do not understand the need to provide a pleasant, safe, and healthy work environment. I'm certainly not suggesting turning down a job because the office faces south while you would prefer windows that face west, or even because the office you'll be in doesn't have windows at all. But recognize that you will be spending the largest portion of your waking hours in that place and at that job.
If you can take a tour, be astute enough to recognize whether the people working there seem productive and happy, or whether a pervasive veil of gloom hangs over things. If management respects-and, equally importantly trusts-them, there will be a spark evident in almost everyone.
If you decide to take a job after having done your homework, and after having taken every opportunity to learn about the company, go into it with unabashed enthusiasm and the determination to succeed. However, if you have been sold a bill of goods and you find yourself an unpleasant and stagnant environment, get out of it. Again, having some savings to back you up makes the decision a lot easier, but even if you don't, recognize that to hang in may only do you harm over the long haul.
I have a friend who'd worked alone for many years. He decided he needed the stimulation of working with other people, and applied for an excellent job with a company for which he used to work, which he had left on the best of terms. He was hired, and started work on a Monday. On Friday of that week, he went to his boss and said he'd made a mistake and intended to leave. My friend told me that this was the most difficult decision he ever had to make, and one of the most awkward situations he'd ever been in. But he knew instinctively that the reasons for taking the job were wrong (he was running away from something, not seeking something better), and had to do it. It caused a great deal of rancor, especially with his immediate boss, who had just sent out a press release to all the trade magazines in that industry announcing my friend's appointment to this important position. But he stuck with his decision and was gone six weeks later, after a replacement had been found.
That might be extreme, and his circumstances certainly do not reflect those of most employees, but the message is clear. However, be realistic in evaluating your situation. While jobs today perhaps should be exciting and fulfilling, and even offer a sense of fun and challenge, every job carries with it certain tedium, some unpleasant people, and a host of other factors that may not suit you perfectly. Make sure the situation is intolerable before making a drastic decision to leave a job after only a short one.
