The beginning years in the workforce entail constant trial and error, and that often translates into a lot of turnover. Most young people take the first job thatâs offered to them, even if itâs not the best match, because they feel like having a job is more important than having the right job. Sound familiar? Think about it: You probably donât know many people two years out of school who are in the same job they took right after graduation, and that number dwindles the more years youâve been in the workforce. According to 2001 unpublished data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median length of time workers in their early twenties stay in one job has shrunk by half since 1983âfrom 2.2 years then to 1.1 now.
Like many young women starting out, Esther, 29, an architect in New York, says she was too eager to jump into her first job. After that experience she discovered the cardinal job-searching principle. âYou really have to consider yourself a good enough product to sell. That way, you will look at a lot of places and not just jump at the first offer. With my first job, I sort of jumped the gun and it wasnât the best experience. With my second job, which Iâm a lot happier at, I came to visit the office and had them show me the project they were working on. Doing my due diligence made me a lot more confident about coming in on my first day, and ultimately happier and more productive at my job.â
Making a Match
Finding the right job match is a lot easier said than done. The reality is that most people donât enjoy what they do. In a 2003 Career Builder survey, nearly one in four workers said they were dissatisfied with their job, a 20 percent increase over 2001. And six in ten workers said they planned to leave their job for other pursuits within two years. But how do you even know where to start looking? To make the best match possibleâand this sounds ridiculously obvious but is often overlookedâit helps to figure out what you are best at. The truism goes something like this: âYour learned skills augment your natural abilities.â Figuring out what you are good at and matching those skills to a specific job are going to make finding a prospect and making a match a lot easier.
Steve Jobs, the founder and president of Apple Computer, Inc., said in his commencement address to Stanfordâs class of 2005, âIâm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I didâŚ. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. If you havenât found it yet, keep looking. Donât settle. As with all matters of the heart, youâll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.â
The essence of what Jobs says is important. If you donât find a job that in some capacity makes you tick, you will be miserable or, at the very least, less productive at work. Maybe finding the right match means you will have to start out as a cube monkey at some huge corporation, but then you should make sure itâs a company where you could actually see yourself rising through the ranks. Or maybe it means that you get paid peanuts at a nonprofit, but you believe in the cause and that belief is what gets you up in the morning. Think of it this wayâyouâll work for ten thousand days of your life, and thatâs too many days to not enjoy what you do.
Bobbi Brown, founder and CEO of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, is successful for a myriad of reasons, but she attributes it largely to the fact that she found a career thatâs constantly exciting to herâin other words, a job that gets her up in the morning and motivates her to keep going through all the daily sludge and drudge. Brownâs advice to young women is that youâve got to find the thing that tickles you.
If you are an accountant and you love fashion, perhaps try working in the accounting department of a fashion company. Marla Goonan, an executive career coach in San Diego, says this is critical to anyone starting out in the workforce. As a young woman, or young person for that matter, itâs important to learn about yourselfâwhat really fires you up and how you want to spend the rest of your life. Goonan says that the question you ask yourself is âWhat can I do and look back at ninety and feel good about?â
Ask anyone who does something he or she loves and the person will tell you that itâs a lot easier to be effective if you enjoy what you are doing and social science research proves it. Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt, University of Chicago economists and best-selling authors of Freakonomics, explored this idea in a 2006 New York Times article:
Lisa Witter, the general manager of Fenton Communications, says she put in years working for little pay at not-for-profits and knows firsthand how much doing what you love can drive success. âIf you are staying late at work, or going to a networking event, youâll take more pride in what you do if you actually enjoy it. I would say that for the first five years, I was networking all the time. But I wasnât networking because I read somewhere that you have to network. I was doing it because I loved it.â Witter now, at 32, is running her office.
Landing a job youâll love is really not all that abstract and mysterious. Like forming any partnership, taking a job is a leap of faith but, if you ask the right questions, you can often ascertain if itâs going to be a good match, and it will feel like less of a leap. Also, although it may seem counterintuitive, you canât just think about the job search process as a desperate quest for someone, or anyone, to hire you; youâve got to think about it as if you are also making a hiring decisionâthat you are the chooser, not the chosen.
Judi Perkins, who has been a job search consultant for twenty-five years and is the founder of findtheperfectjob.com, says the people who are the most successful at finding a job they love realize they have the power of choice. âPeople who end up in jobs they really like arenât afraid to walk away from something that isnât what they want.â Just because youâve received a job offer doesnât mean itâs the last job on earth. As women, we need to be particularly careful about falling into the âIâm just so lucky to have even gotten a job offerâ mode of thinking. Itâs a better approach to think about getting the right job offer.
In terms of practical, applicable things you can do to scope out the situation and make as graceful an entrance as possible, Perkins says there is essentialâand sometimes not so obvious information that everyone should find out on a job interview to determine whether or not itâs a good match.
1. Ask about job responsibilities. Job titles often provide no details about responsibilities, so be sure to ask the following questions during your interview:
- What are the priorities that will need to be addressed immediately in the position?
- Are you entering a newly created position?
- If not, was everything left running smoothly by your predecessor?
- Will you be picking up and continuing daily functions as normal, or be part of a new system within the company?
- Is there damage control that needs to be done?
- If so, is there a time line for the repair, and is it an achievable one considering your capabilities?
2. Find out about the past. Find out how long your predecessor had the job, why the person left, and if it was on good terms. This will help provide you with insight into some of the challenges of the position, and red-flag warnings as to internal problems in the corporation. In addition, scope out whether the company or department you are entering was recently restructured. A restructuring certainly doesnât mean anything bad (it happens all the time with the merging of companies) but itâs part of the organizational landscape that youâll want to have information about. If you find out there was a recent restructuring, ask why and how that will impact the position you are interviewing for.
3. Determine management style. Succeeding in your new job is often dependent upon how you are managed. By asking your interviewer questions about him/herself, youâll be able to derive valuable information about the work environment youâll be entering into.
Before you go into the interview, think about how you are best managed. Do you respond more positively to a hands-on manager, or are you comfortable and more productive when your manager is hands off? If possible, during the interview, determine the management style of your potential boss.
- By asking: âWhatâs your management style?â youâll be able to use context clues to determine if your potential boss is a micromanager or a hands-off manager.
- By asking: âHow do you bring out the best in your employees?â youâll be able to determine whether your boss provides guidance to employees in need and if he/she will make a good mentor.
4. Assess the corporate culture. Perkins says itâs important to ask questions that reveal the pervasive culture of the department, or company as a whole. Generally speaking, companiesâor departmentsâtend to be made up of similar types of people that are in harmony with the company culture and philosophy, and itâs smart to make sure you mesh well with that culture.
Therefore, itâs perfectly acceptable (and will probably score you bonus points in the interview) to ask your employer which of the following personality types are a good fit for the company:
- Detail-oriented people
- Self-starting, big-picture thinkers
- People who work well in teams or committees
- People who require specific directions and stronger managerial supervision
Once youâve gotten this information, you can assess how youâll fit in. According to Perkins, âAn entrepreneurial person wonât function well in a committee environment.â By the same token, a person who needs a lot of structure might not function well in an entrepreneurial environment.
Bottom line: Do some soul-searching about the type of person you are and find a job that fits that. If possible, donât try to fit yourself into a work environment that doesnât match with your natural abilities.
5. Look for growth opportunities. Before accepting a job offer, you want to know if you are going to be stuck in assistant hell for the foreseeable future, or if itâs possible to transition out of the position within a year or so. To find out, ask questions like:
- Is there a review after six months?
- How long was the previous person in the position before he/she got a promotion?
Another thing to pay attention to is whether both men and women have grown within the company. If the interviewer only gives you examples of men who have been promoted, you might want to think twice about taking a job there.
Red Flags
During the interview, be alert for potential problem areas about the job. For example, if your future boss comes across as a tyrant during your one-hour interview, just think what it would be like working for him/her forty-plus hours a week. Some other red flags to be on the lookout for:
- Employees are working with their heads down, there is minimal office banter, and the people you pass in the hallways look stressed or angry.
- A dearth of women in positions of power. Are most of the female employees in low-level, administrative roles?
- Your interviewer asks you personal questions, such as âDo you have a boyfriend?â âWhen do you plan on getting married?â âDo you plan to have children?â
- Your interviewer is taking calls, checking his/her BlackBerry, and paging his/her assistant, all while trying to conduct an interview. If this person canât make time for you now, it doesnât bode well for the attention youâll get once you are hired.
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