From the course: Writing a Resume

Determining fit

From the course: Writing a Resume

Determining fit

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- Do you have a friend who is always gushing about their job? The perks are great, the people are great. Their office is huge, the pay is wonderful. Okay fine, maybe I don't either, but we all have that friend who is always complaining about their job. Their boss is terrible, their coworkers are awful people and they can't wait for Fridays. If you are that person who is not happy in your job, let's discuss a few steps you can take before applying to your next job to help you identify and eliminate red flags. For this process to work, you need to have an idea of what you like, and don't like about your current and past work environments. And then apply that logic to future jobs. Ask yourself a few questions. Do you have a large or small group of friends? Have you worked for a small business or Fortune 500 company? Do you know how to work one of those fancy copy machines? Do you enjoy traveling for work? Would you relocate for a job? Do you live in a large city or a small town? Do you need a flexible schedule? These questions and many more like them help you determine what type of environment you're comfortable in. Everyone thinks they want to work for the large tech company with all of the perks, but do you really? I remember a candidate who was so sure she was the right fit for a particular company. She had all the right skills and experience and on paper, she was more than qualified for the job. However, during the interview, I asked her about her last two jobs, where she had worked for a large company and was part of a huge accounting department. Everyone was in their box and used to doing their assigned job and nothing else. The job she applied for was with a much smaller company and I asked her about her comfort level with the minutia of the job. The more I questioned her, the more she began to realize this would not be the right fit for her. She wasn't used to having to do her own billing or check the status of an account or even make copies. She had worked with accounting assistants for the past decade and not only was she unwilling to do the small things, she realized she had relied on someone else for so long that she wasn't even sure if she remembered how to do those tasks. This is an example of company size affecting fit. Not only as it relates to skills, but also comfort level. We get comfortable in our roles. If we're used to having an assistant and a large office and a mailroom, working for a company that offers none of these features will be a culture shock. Alternatively, if you have lots of different skills that you would like to use, company size will play a role in the reverse. Do you get bored easily? Do you like a lot of job responsibility? If so, taking a job with a narrow scope of responsibilities is probably not the best fit for you. Once you've made decisions about what you will and won't tolerate in your next job, don't waiver. It's easy to get caught up in the glitz of a company name without thinking through the reality of having to work there day after day after day. And they don't call it work for nothing. There's nothing worse than accepting a new job only to regret it after a week or two. Determining fit is part of a proactive job search because you have to take the time to think about what will work for you and stick to your decision, rather than accept what comes along and hope you can make it work. Once you figured it out, write it down, put it on Post-it Notes around your house so you won't forget. This way, when you get a call from that company that everyone else wants to work for, you can be confident when you say, "Thanks, but no thanks."

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