Below are two lists that you can use as you consider accepting a new job. Hopefully you have done the introspection to know what you want before you get to the acceptance stage. Credentials – yours or the companies – have never been enough to accept a job offer. There’s more to consider.
Does this sound like you?
In counseling a candidate client recently who has had a miserable transition period, I heard all of the typical comments. They had just lost out on another opportunity. It was a personal failure. Transition, is a sales situation; it is not personal. Many candidates cannot get past the personal rejection syndrome.
Remember that just as in any sales situation; one cannot rely on one client for your livelihood. So too, can we not rely on one company for your transition future; when looking for a new opportunity.
Like many long-term transition players, my candidate was beginning to or has already begun to “see” themselves in any position, any opportunity, regardless of his abilities, training, the company’s market space, or relative strength. No job is too much of a stretch.
Just let me get a job, any job!
Nothing is too far a field, too unreachable or too unreasonable. Realistic assessment has given way to the Alter of Good Hope. The ability to project a non-emotional assessment of an opportunity as a sales pro, has given way to hope, prayer and an unrealistic desire to join a company, any company. Just as you need to know when to fold them and move on in a sales opportunity, so too must you be able to read the “truths” about an opportunity and back away when it is not appropriate.
The lists below forces you to keep yourself on track, to be realistic, and know when to move on. Yes, just as in sales, some you will win, some you will not.
12 Steps for Accepting a New Job
- Accept a position with a firm doing what you want.
- Accept a position doing what you enjoy; or least find intellectually and emotionally challenging.
- Accept a position after doing your due diligence: about the company, space, product, management, competitors, market, etc.
- Accept a position that you can emotionally accept when you are alone, in your car, with the radio off and when you are stuck at an airport at 1:00AM.
- Accept a position with a base and total compensation that will make you feel comfortable; but remember the mortgage company does not take promissory notes.
- Accept a position working with a client base that you can respect.
- Accept a position that will allow you each day that sense of personal success.
- Accept a position that allows for personal and professional growth.
- Accept a position that will allow you to go to work each day with a sense of urgency.
- Accept a position that may give you a sense of fulfillment!
- Accept a position that your “extended family,” friends, and potential clients can and will support and accept.
- Accept a position knowing that most careers now are series of part-time jobs.
Decision to Accept New Opportunity
To minimize your risk, the new opportunity must, or at least should meet as many of the 12 criteria above and below as is possible. It is also imperative that you define prior to any interview situation an acceptable quotient for your job search.
THE FIVE – Accepting a Position
- Must present a real opportunity, for personal and professional growth, increased income, career expanding experiences, industry exposure, or new skills.
- Must have “good chemistry” with the other people in the firm, especially, managers, executives, and client base. All the talk on our website and in this book about risk/reward, accomplishments, competencies and potentials are merely a mechanism to get you in front of a Hiring Authority (HA). Chemistry is what gets you in a position of making a decision. As we have said above you can have a demonstrable affect on chemistry, if you prepare properly.
- This next statement has two meanings. One is the company’s product; the other is you as the product. Product… Must have a product that works, that you can respect and that is or could be needed in the market place. Not the promise of a product, but an actual product in the “can.”
- Must have ability to promise a good income: base, “at plan”, options, vacations, trips, bennies, etc.
- You must fit in with the management style of the firm: micro, macro, laissez faire and other.
If an opportunity sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
If you won’t even hire YOU, why should someone else?
Successful TRANSITION is a numbers game.
Deal Breakers:
When thinking of what will break a “deal” here are some thoughts to contemplate. These are the results from over 20 years of recruiting and outplacement. I often share these with my HA’s.
The “Deal Breakers” (after base salary issues) when negotiating an offer package are:
- Inadequate Performance Bonuses
- Overly Aggressive and Unrealistic Goals or Quotas
- Inadequate Paid Relocation offer
- Skimpy Vacation Benefits
- Lack of Severance Package, Guaranteed
- Vague or Confusing Contract Language
- Lack of Interesting Stock/Equity Program
- Missing Retention Bonus
- Lack of or Inadequate Signing Bonus
- Non Determined Review Period Length
- Inadequate Benefit Program
- Poorly organized or ineffectual Office Staff
- Lack of obvious Support Staff
- Poor Advertising Peripherals
- Inadequate Reception During Interview Cycle
- Timeliness of Interview Cycle
- Poor Communications Between Departments
- Poor product reputation
- Limited market share
We hope this has helped in making a decision to accept a position. Our tag-line is the premise of our system: “Tasks are normally dismissed, measurable accomplishments are always recognized!” To read more, please see our prior articles on this site. For more information please visit our website. We hope our unique definition of an offer has helped clarify your goal in how “get THAT NEXT job!” Our goal for these enotes is to demonstrate how you can “Move from the Herd to be Heard” in today’s job market place.
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