The best job offer is not always obvious. It is not always the offer with the highest salary. Since job hunting is a highly emotional process, you must be careful that your decisions about your job offers are logical and objective. To that end, implement the following methodology.
The objective of this method is to maximize your job satisfaction by evaluating all of your job options in high of your critical criteria. Your job options include your current job as well as your new job offers, because staying where you are is a definite option if none of the new job offers is a significant improvement. A first screening question is, ''Is this option consistent with my grand goal?" A second screening question is, "Does this option make use of my Special Ingredient?" A positive response results in a plus sign in the matrix for that option and a negative response yields a minus sign. Each option must answer both screening questions positively for that option to be eligible for further consideration. If any option answers either question negatively, it is immediately eliminated as a viable option.
Accepting a job that violates either condition would be counterproductive. You would be taking a job that either is not one logical step closer to your goal or ignores your special ingredient, the most important factor in your ultimate job satisfaction.
Now you must decide which of your remaining options. Job offer or your current job rates highest in your most important criterion, responsibility. If you decide that job offers more responsibility than your current job. Next, suppose you decide that your current job poses more of a challenge than job offer.
However, what if the highest rated Job Offer and your current job were tied in Job Satisfaction Ratings, or were very close? Which option do you choose then? As a rule of thumb, the Job Satisfaction Rating of any new job offer must exceed that of your old job by at least 20 percent, for you to accept it and that job option must also have been awarded the points for the most important of your critical criteria. If not, keep looking for another job.
While some jobs are better than others, no job is perfect. Each job has its own advantages and disadvantages. Even the best job option will not be rated highest for every criterion. What is important is the bottom line estimation of the relative advantages and disadvantages. That bottom line is the Job Satisfaction Rating of that job offer. Such a rating takes the emotion and guesswork out of a difficult and heretofore subjective decision. Most importantly, this approach ensures that you maximize your total job satisfaction.
