What does the right job look like for you, and how can you tell when you’ve found a good fit? Every job seeker targets different qualities when it comes to his/her ideal role: one candidate may be thrilled to power a lean start-up while another may find the right stride with a more traditional employer.
No matter what qualities you’re seeking in your next position, though, one of the best ways to evaluate potential fit is to know what you’re targeting and to streamline your approach as you pursue it. Regard your job search as you would any other professional project. Approach it strategically, noting what you’re after and what skills, resources and contacts might help you get there.
After all, a job search is a full-body exercise. It’s both an endeavor to land a new role and a quest to discover your next chapter. So how do you ensure you’ve addressed both the logistical and the emotional dimensions of the pursuit? And how do you know if you’ve found the job that’s right for you? One word: research.
How Research Seeds Success
Using Glassdoor to inform your search not only gives you a better idea of whether or not a company is a good fit — it also distinguishes you as an informed candidate. This benefits your search, because, as Lillian Childress explains: “Informed candidates make the hiring process easier by asking smarter questions, doing the necessary research on the company and tailoring their expectations to the role they are applying for.”
This benefits candidates and interviewers alike, and can even lead to a longer tenure. Glassdoor’s Employer Retention Study reveals that hires who use Glassdoor have a more than 30 percent higher retention rate — great news for those who are tired of hopping around from position to position in search of the perfect fit. Wondering what you should research specifically? Here are a couple of ideas.
Culture
No matter what you’re targeting in your next role, the culture in which you work tremendously impacts your experience there. Glassdoor allows a glimpse into the culture of companies you’re considering; use it to get a deeper sense of what employees think of the company’s values, work/life balance, career opportunities and more.
If you’re invited to interview, this offers you and your prospective employer a chance for deeper assessment. While you want to impress the interview team, you also need to be impressed. Don’t forget that an interview goes both ways. Evaluating whether or not this culture might suit you is key when it comes to your decision about fit.
Jenny Chynoweth, Talent Acquisition Consultant at Kohr Consulting, offers this advice for evaluating culture in the space of an interview: “note your surroundings. Do people seem to genuinely like each other? When you ask an interviewer a question about the culture, is there a long pause? . . .take an objective view [of] the environment. Are employees generally respectful of one another? Do they seem happy? On the flip side, if an interviewer seems genuinely unhappy, do an internal audit on whether it is the employee that is struggling or the company itself.”
Take that emotional pulse during your interview. While you don’t want to just rely on your gut for decision-making, your instincts are informed by a lot of important observations — so pay attention.
Length of Tenure
Job searching can cause a lot of upheaval; therefore, many employees target longevity in the roles they pursue. If a company has a track record of keeping employees around for a long time, that’s generally a good sign.
Chynoweth explains: “If a candidate is truly seeking longevity, they should inquire about the tenure of the current employee population. . . Longevity is a personal choice. Some employees enjoy the challenges that come from changing a job every 2-3 years. Other candidates are looking for a 5-10 year career. It’s really up to the individual.”
Glassdoor can be used to assess length of tenure as well — if a company frequently loses new employees, it’s often mentioned in reviews.
Remember
Finding fit in your position and harmony with your employer anchors an important part of your life. Securing a balanced, happy and fulfilling professional arrangement has tremendous implications for your overall happiness. While there’s no one-size-fits-all metric to measure it, researching a company will give you a great preview.
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