hbr.org: With an offer in hand, the real decision-making starts, says Dawn Graham, the author of Switchers: How Smart Professionals Change Careers — and Seize Success. You now must weigh not only the salary and benefits but also the role’s potential to challenge and stretch you, the work-life balance it offers, and whether the company’s vibe and values match your own.
10 comments:
This article makes a good point. I feel like usually when an offer comes in, it feels like there is a rush to respond and make it clear you still want the job so you are not passed over for someone more eager. But this article says that the “power” shifts from the employer to the person being made the offer at this time, and you have some leverage you can use. After all, they offered you the job because they want you there. It’s like in Gilmore Girls when Rory is certain her whole life she wants to go to Harvard, but once she has offers from both Harvard and Yale and makes a pro and con list, she realizes Yale is actually a better fit for her. The article is absolutely right that it’s unlikely any problems or red flags you notice will work themselves later: the time to decide whether they matter to you, and to arrange for them to be fixed, is before you accept the job.
I found this article very helpful and will definitely be bookmarking it for the future. I have had a few jobs before, but had never really thought before I accepted them– as a random high schooler I would take whatever gave me money and a good schedule. But now that I am entering the more professional world and will be provided with more opportunities, it is important to consider all factors when choosing whether to accept a job or not. The part of the article that really resonated with me was “you might be so caught up in the company’s prestige or the prospect of a bigger paycheck that you disregard [red flags].” I am very much a person who gives into first impressions and status, and would definitely overlook seemingly “small” or “insignificant” details and only rely on what others had said about the job or how much money I could make. I think that in choosing a job, or really making any life choice, it should be important to look at it from all perspectives before committing, and this article reminded me of that.
This article was extremely helpful to me, and I will definitely be consulting it in the future when I am looking for a full time job as an adult. Some of these things I would never have considered asking about or doing when getting a job, like thinking about an exit strategy for long-term effects of taking this position. Another thing that I thought was very interesting to think about is opportunities to negotiate besides salary. However, while this article was extremely helpful, it made me question the American educational system and high schools. I was never given the option to enroll in a course during high school that would teach me about the interview process, or basic skills of having a job as an adult. Students were expected to learn on their own or learn in college, which is unfair considering many people do not go to college. Several of my friends went on from graduation to become electricians and HVAC technicians, and therefore did not go to a university. I think that the lack of education regarding interviews and job offers is a serious oversight by the educational system and should be changed in the future so articles like this aren’t necessary for the majority of young adults.
This was a super insightful article because I wish I had read this before a lot of my jobs that I’ve taken over the years. I have gotten myself into one too many sticky/toxic work situations in my short short life and even though the circumstances were a little different, having this guide in my head would’ve still been super helpful. I probably would’ve still taken the jobs, but it would’ve helped me prepare for what was to come if I had been able to spot some of the red flags beforehand. A lot of the things that have been said in the article resonate with me and also align with a lot of the conclusions that I have come to from the work experiences that I’ve had at these places. Although, I will say I think having these experiences so young will make me a lot more careful about approaching work and vetting jobs in the future.
I thought this article was a good outline for how to think about job offers. My initial reaction to the article was that the article stresses that you should give yourself ample time and space to self-reflect and think about the job, your values/wants/needs, these questions, and more, but in the real world it is all too often the case where you need to make pretty quick decisions when given an offer. This aside, my next thought about the article is that the questions are honestly not super helpful; it is important to think about things like “what is my prospective boss really like,” but these are not questions that you can firmly answer by just thinking about them, and often aren’t questions you can answer with a brief follow-up. I like that the article includes a question about exit strategy because it feels like something you wouldn’t think about without being prompted when you’re considering accepting a job offer, but I can see how it would be helpful to think about early on.
This article mentions many Valid points when looking for a job and considering if it's the right fit for you. there are even some questions that I have asked myself when I am looking for my own opportunities. the second one, “what's the company culture really like?” is something that is an integral question that can be hard to decipher. It makes me think about a time when I toured the National Theater, with a production manager who talked to me extensively about the company culture, the values and missions of the company, and how it stands apart from other work in the industry. Based on how the National Theater presents itself, I could have probably guessed that the company culture was incredibly inviting and welcoming, but getting the assurance from somebody within the organization was what made it that much more impressive.,
One of my morning routines is catching up on the news. Sometimes I scroll through the assortment of articles that Google's algorithm generates, and on more than one occasion I have come across similar articles to this one. However, all the articles I read would give advice on preparing for an interview. This article is uniquely separated by the fact that the author decided to focus on what you should do post-interview, which is an important step I don’t think I’ve ever heard or read much about. I have never held a job before, so the closest thing I can think of that I have experienced is the college application process, because I had to sit for an interview after the preliminary portfolio review. While I don’t have much experience with job interviews and choosing between several offers, I do see the wisdom in this article and I will save it for when I begin seeking employment.
This article contains a lot of really great information that is particularly useful to a younger generation. A lot of this you can learn from working a terrible job. A lot of younger people, especially those who are still in some kind of school are taken advantage of in their jobs as well. The added stress of balancing work and schooling in respect to scheduling can be hard enough. If they can learn to advocate for themselves before, they start working in an abusive job, it will save them a lot of trouble and needing to quit without a great reference because of their company or manager. Knowing what you want out of a job is very empowering to an employee and can stop an employer steamrolling an employee’s wants. Detailing what you want out of a job like pay, time off, experience, training, and many other aspects of a job will propel you throughout your career to the next best opportunity.
Upon first looking at the article, I was skeptical that it would hold truly good advice for this situation, but I must say that I am pleasantly surprised at the quality of the advice given in the article. What I found most interesting about the advice is that a lot of the principles located therein have a focus on individual well-being and social cohesion within the company, two key factors that will genuinely determine your experience with a job instead of just advice on how to navigate a particular offer or how to properly know your worth as an employee. The focus on the company culture and the way you interact with your future boss are key insights and will definitely be factors I look into more for future job searches. Further, I was also surprised by the last piece of advice, which is to have an exit strategy if your experience with the job doesn’t turn out well. Upon reflection this makes complete sense, but just has never fully occurred to me as I find that I go into a job optimistically or if the experience is underwhelming I find I instead wish to inspire change from within the company, but being completely practical, this is something that everyone should be doing and will definitely be something I consider for future offers.
I think this article is a great resource to have as a student. I have always had a hard time feeling like I can negotiate with job offers, and usually just take what they offer. I do always try to read am employment offer as carefully as I can, making sure that they are not purposefully omitting something in order to take advantage of me as an employee. I feel that I have been fairly lucky that every company I have worked for has not tried to do that, but these questions are great to keep in mind especially when looking into larger companies that might not have the same values as smaller companies.
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