In my previous post, I wanted to provide the tools to help you identify the right role and that right company for you. This should narrow down the list and help you draw out what you really are good at, where your enthusiasm is and where you want to spend your working life.
In this blog, I go a little deeper. If you think you have an idea of the type of company you want to work for, apply these 5 steps to narrow down the fit even more.
Of the candidate CVs I submit, over 90% get to interview. Of those, over 80% get to Final. This is because I only put forward the right person for the right role - not just people who can do the role.
I hope this helps you with some positive thinking about why and how you are valuable!
1. How is THIS company different to the others?
It is really important that you genuinely believe that the company you want to work at is the ONLY company for you. To know this, and to articulate this, you need to research what their market offering is, how it is different to competitors and how it is organised internally to affect its value. They should be marketing this. Check out their website and social media but also any bogs/white papers written. For larger companies, their executive summary of the annual report. Merely referring to this shows you have done your research and you know why this company is the one for you. You need to know why the company you want to join is different from anyone else.
2. How is the company structured?
Is it PE backed, listed, a private Partnership, owner-led? These matter more than most realise.
For example, a PE backed company will be focussed on short-term revenue and short-term costs. Every quarter, targets must be met. This is not an environment for making decisions that will enhance the Brand nor an environment for long-term career paths. PE companies make their money by sweating their asset hard and then walking away 3-5 years later. The Leadership of the company is at the behest of the PE company.
3. Where will YOU be in 3-5 years? Will this move give you more options or fewer options when you leave?
Your career path is everything. Every day, you want to feel like you are getting more valuable, more knowledgeable, more experienced. Look at where the company thinks it will be (or ask at interview) in 3-5 years time and then work out how your career path will look within that.
4. You should take a job with the view to leaving!
I don't mean you will leave soon but if you are valuable to the market/to others, you will be valuable to your employer. Don't take a role where you won't learn, develop, grow. Always be in position where you could leave but don't want to.
5. Culture/Values
You are going to spend more of your life working than anything else. So make sure you like interacting with those around you. Make sure you love what you are doing. You can tell if you love what you are doing because you will buy books/read blogs/listen to pod costs about your job. As I mentioned in my previous post, companies want to effectively hear:
I love what I do and want to do more of it. That's why I'm here.
Through this pandemic time, I bet you are reading more. I bet you are thinking more. And I bet you are video calling instead of voice calling. Write down what you are finding refreshing and what you are finding restricting. Do you like working from home or not? Are you more productive by not travelling? Are you learning and thinking more? If these are now more valuable to you, build it in to your search. It might be that you get paid less but then again, maybe the need for a new car and expensive clothes or constant travelling to find happiness is not as acute as it was before. Maybe you have re-defined what a successful person is.
The whole purpose of me writing these posts is to help grab the positives out of all of this. To create positive thinking and to give you some tools to help you take control.
You have one life - make sure you work for the right company.