Sometimes as candidates you can be faced with multiple job offers, or maybe you’re just not sure how to assess the one on offer. It’s important to look beyond the salary to see where the company is heading and whether it aligns to your values and career goals. Here are our top tips in assessing whether a role is right for you.
1. Career Progression and Company Attrition
Average employee tenure, and attrition rates demonstrate a lot about whether people enjoy working there. Nothing spells disaster more than a lot of employees leaving after a short time. To find this information, go to the company’s LinkedIn home page, you’ll see an “insights” section.
You can also click on employees’ profiles from the LinkedIn page, and see how many have progressed within the company, and what their progression paths look like.
2. Reviews
Glassdoor, Seek, and Indeed all provide reviews on what its like to work at a company. However, use these only on face value. Experience tells us that most people tend to write a review on a former employer if it is negative. This then skews the numbers and it can be a one-sided argument. There are of course some who like to share how great it was during their tenure, but that is a smaller number.
3. Management Style
Many, if not Most, people leave good companies due to their manager. Understanding their management style will help you work out if they’re a good fit for you. Crystal Knows is a free chrome extension which provides information about a person from everything written about them and by them on the web. You can view the hiring managers’ LinkedIn profile, and Crystal Knows then puts together a personality profile, and outlines their management style.
Use your best judgement here. If you’re unsure about a person after one interview, see if its possible to have another meeting with the person, just to get to know them better before deciding to join their team.
4. Technologies
What technologies a company uses says a lot about how much they focus on innovation. If they’re using older technologies (or just working off spreadsheets), they may be not investing in employee experience, and looking to innovate and increase efficiencies. Ask questions about what technology solutions they have in place and how they use them in your interview.
5. Culture and Benefits
Employee benefits will often be listed on the careers page of their website. You can also check out their Instagram page to get a feel for the culture. Look at your network on LinkedIn, is there anyone you know who used to work there? You can find this by searching in LinkedIn, selecting your 1st degree connections and filter by “past company”, and ask them what it was like to work there.
6. Alignment of Values
Working with a business that doesn’t align to your values can create job dissatisfaction. Look for businesses which sell products or services you believe add value or gives you opportunity to make an impact. Check their website for their company values and culture and see if it’s aligned to your values.
7. Salary
Before interviewing, check up salary guides to understand what the range and average is for your level role, to see where the salary discussed fits in the market. Ask questions in the interview to find out how often they have remuneration reviews and is there a bonus scheme, to assess whether your remuneration is likely to grow.
8. Career Goals
Be clear within yourself on what your career goals are and look at how you could achieve them by taking the job opportunity. Check their social media feeds and see what they share about employee success stories.
9. Organisational Growth
A business that’s growing can offer greater job security, and opportunity for progression. Look for news items about the company, on what new markets, products or services they’re expanding into.
If you’d like to understand more about how to assess your next career move, or discuss new opportunities in the energy sector, contact our team.
