How to Make the Right Job Choice
So, you’ve crafted a pristine resume, mastered your cover letter writing skills, and spent multiple weeks going through intense interviews. Now, you’ve landed multiple job offers. Congratulations, you should be proud! As a result of all of your hard work, you’ve gotten invaluable experience and insight from interviewing with several different teams—now, they all want you to join them!
While receiving multiple job offers is a fantastic achievement, we know choosing between multiple opportunities can be a very daunting task and a big choice to have to make. When offered more than one position, it’s essential to make sure you are accepting the right job offer for the right reasons. We’re here to help you navigate this life-changing decision. Try these tools, thought starters, and tactics to ensure your career trajectory is pointed in the right direction and that you’ll be running through your new office door on day one with a big smile on your face.
While receiving multiple job offers is a fantastic achievement, we know choosing between multiple opportunities can be a very daunting task and a big choice to have to make. When offered more than one position, it’s essential to make sure you are accepting the right job offer for the right reasons. We’re here to help you navigate this life-changing decision. Try these tools, thought starters, and tactics to ensure your career trajectory is pointed in the right direction and that you’ll be running through your new office door on day one with a big smile on your face.
First, evaluate your current position.
Think hard about your current employment situation, your current job, and your current company. Get out your laptop, open a document, and start typing. Answer the questions below.- Duties of the role: Does this job still challenge you? Do you still find it interesting? Are you good at it? Is it providing an opportunity to learn and develop your skill set?
- Your supervisor: Does your boss respect and value you and your abilities? Do they give you opportunities to learn from them and develop your skill set? Are they approachable and fun or nice to be around?
- Your peers: Do your colleagues respect you? Do they want to be your friend? Do you trust them? Are they great teammates, always looking for ways to help you out with the work or emotionally, when needed? What do you like and dislike?
- Compensation: Are you earning enough to support your goals in life? Can the benefits provide support to you and your family? What about your long-term goals?
- Growth Opportunity: Is there room within the company for you to advance your career? Does the company have longevity, with longtime employees who seem happy with their positions? Does the company strive to provide training and development for current employees and pride themselves on offering promotional opportunities for staff?
- Your company’s product or service: Do you love what your company does? Is the product fun and exciting? Do they offer top-notch service with a high level of integrity?
- Company Stability: Is your company struggling financially and at risk of layoffs? Reflecting on the positive and negative aspects of your current role is key to making sure you make the right next step in your career. Look at your answers to the questions above as your parameters to help evaluate the multiple employment offers you have on the table.
- How was the hiring process? Before you make your decision, reflect on your own experience that you just had with the company and their hiring process. Was the process rushed? Did they put forth their best effort to impress you in the interview process? Did they give you an office tour? Did you have a chance to meet absolutely everyone you will be working with on a daily basis? If yes, that’s a good sign. If not, don’t be afraid to ask for a follow up on-site meeting, coffee, lunch, after work or on a weekend to get the rest of your questions answered. Most employers will respect your desire to do this and honor your request.
- What are people saying about them? Read the reviews on Glassdoor, peruse comments on Facebook, and look at employees on LinkedIn. What are they saying about working at the company? Reading comments directly from employees inside the walls is a great way to get a full view of what the company’s day-to-day work environment will be like. But, don’t be overly critical if there are a few bad reviews online. Remember, employees who had a negative experience are often more likely to write a review over positive ones.
- Who do you know that works there? Do you know someone that has worked with this company in the past or currently? Do you have a LinkedIn connection with someone who knows someone in the company? Ask them to make an introduction and offer to bring them to a coffee or lunch to pick their mind a bit. Take those findings into consideration but try to remain unbiased unless the source is very trustworthy.
- How far away is it? Test drive the commute to the office. Don’t assume you know how long it’s going to take you and that the distance will be the only factor when considering a commute that you will be making every day. Experiencing those unknown contributors that play into your commute can be enough to make it undoable, such as neighborhood traffic from school buses, parking troubles, unreliable bus schedules, and more.
- What do your family and friends think? Talk to your significant other, family members, and friends. Share your findings with them and ask them for their honest opinion on how your new position might affect both yours and their life. Seeing things from another perspective can be an invaluable resource when it comes to making decisions that are right for you.
- What resources are available to help? Utilize all the professional resources you can! Talk to your most well-respected career mentor, an old boss you admire, or your personal coach. Share with them your goals, aspirations, and personal life. Keep that person at your side throughout your career. When you keep a relationship with a trusted mentor over the years, they will have unique insights around your journey and one of a kind guidance to help you navigate future opportunities.
- How can my recruiter help? Don’t underestimate the power of knowledge in a seasoned staffing agency. Great recruiters get to know you personally and deeply understand their client’s culture, employees, and successes to make solid connections where they see fit. In turn, they will likely know with the reputation of your prospective employer from both internal and external perspectives. If they are doing their job well, they are heavily involved with similar situations to yours and their experience and countless success (and failure) stories are a free and priceless resource for a job seeker to utilize.
Next, organize your priorities.
Once you have answered all these questions about your current situation, it’s time to decide what aspects of your workplace are most important to you. Do you need to see a clear career path or are you more driven by the opportunity to try different positions? Do you prefer working independently or does working in a big team excite you? Out of all of the aspects you listed above, decide which of these are the most important to you and list them in order of priority. We all want to land that dream job—prioritizing what aspects of your job mean the most to you and making sure your future career also values those aspects brings you one step closer.Finally, evaluate your job offers against your priorities.
You have your list of what you need in a job. Now, how do your offers on the table stack up? Use the parameters you defined to evaluate the different roles, companies, and managers offering you a new position. Getting a deep understanding of how the new roles fit into your personal goals takes time, research, and reflection. Consider these things as you evaluate each role:When it’s all said and done, making the right choice in your future role is critical to your life and career success. It’s important to take your time to vet all of your options on the table. In the end, ask yourself “will I be excited to get up in the morning and head into the office one year from now?” If the answer is yes, then go for it!
Looking for advice on the next step in your career? Talk to a recruiter at VanderHouwen today!
