Don’t Pick Your Next Job Without These 3 Essentials

Having left my previous job in June earlier this year, I began my job hunting and before I knew it, it turned out to be a 4 months-long journey. During these 4 months, it was a mundane process every single day of logging into LinkedIn, scrolling job vacancy websites (Jobstreet, MyCareersFuture, etc.), and waiting for my phone to ring hoping it’s a recruiter or company telling me I’m being shortlisted for a job. It was certainly a period of highs and lows because you can get 7 interviews in a single week and 0 interview throughout the whole month (due to the pandemic I guess).

It certainly didn’t help when I met up with my friends and they talked about how lucky it is to be still employed during this pandemic period when companies are retrenching or even closing down, and yet, I chose to reject the offers of companies. Yes, I was offered a contract of employment by 5 companies which I successfully passed all their interviews and technical tests but I rejected 4 of them solely because I know what are the things I am looking out for in my job.

1. Passion — Is it a job I don’t mind waking up on Monday mornings for?

I’m a data science postgraduate and both my previous two full-time employment revolved around data analytics where I got to play with numbers to derive meaningful insights for my stakeholders. This is one of the factors I look out for while looking out for a new job because being able to spend more than 40 hours per week on the thing I enjoy doing is more important than doing something that gives me lots of money. I once had a colleague that told me she didn’t enjoy what she was doing at work despite being employed for more than 3 years already, and the thing that kept her going was the money. Of course, at the end of the day, everyone prioritizes different things and most of us tend to choose money over passion because our passion might not be something that yields decent rewards monetarily. It’s lucky for me where my passion is also high in demand currently as the world has already moved into the world of big data and artificial intelligence, which is why I can continue to pursue it in my career. There was a job offer I received that offered me 30% higher than my previous salary but I rejected it because I felt the job scope was not in line with what I wanted to do. Nonetheless, what I feel is that if the situation allows, pursue your passion in your career as it gives you this sense of motivation to wake up for work on a Monday morning and pushes you on further.

“If you are not passionate in what you do, or cannot find it with you to be passionate about your current job, either change your attitude or change your job.” — Byron Pulsifer

2. Company Culture — Is the company promoting work-life balance? Will your colleagues be supportive and helpful?

I’m confident that most of us are guilty when it comes to choosing to apply for companies that are big in names. All tech enthusiasts will like to work in big tech companies like Google, Facebook, or Amazon and likewise, all auditing professionals in the Big 4 (Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers). It’s also a “boastful” thing to mention to our peers when we tell them we work for these companies, but seriously, should we choose a company just because of its brand name? Thanks to the world moving into the digital aspect, we have websites like Glassdoor or Indeed for jobseekers to read up on to get a more accurate sense of how is the culture in their potential employer. Another source of truth is through your peers who are currently working in a company where they can tell you accurately how is the work culture there. Work-life balance, casual working environment, supportive colleagues, and management with clear directions are a few things I look out for in terms of the company culture, and on the other hand, knowing what you do not want is also important. I know from my previous job that I’m not suitable to work in a start-up firm because of the way how things and processes can change overnight as they are still in the exploratory phase of developing the ways to do things, which was why when I was headhunted by Tencent and Tiktok, I knew right from the start it’s a big no-no! (sorry Tencent and Tiktok, you guys are doing awesome stuff though!)

“Culture is what motivates and retains talented employees.” — Betty Thompson

3. Direct Reporting Officer — Will he/she micromanages? Does he/she wants the best for me in terms of my career development?

This is one of the hardest things to gauge, though you can get a general sense of your direct reporting officer when you are going through the job interview with him/her. I’m someone who appreciates a boss who does not micromanage his/her subordinates especially on the time they reach/leave the office or how long they went for their lunch breaks. This nitty-gritty act can be frustrating at times as it shows that the boss does not trust the employees. In my first job upon graduation from my degree, I was really lucky to have a boss who wanted the best for me in terms of my career development as she would sit down with me for one hour every two weeks to understand how I’m coping and challenged me to think further in terms of what I want in my career over the next few years. It shows that she really cared for me and didn’t just saw me as an employee who was there to just complete whatever tasks on hand and full stop. During my interviews over the past 4 months, I had the chance to speak to a myriad of reporting officers, and of course, there were good ones and really bad ones. One advice I can give to job seekers who feel this aspect is something they should look out for is to ask questions at the end of the interviews. Often, we can get a sense of how the reporting officer is like judging from the way he/she answers the questions you posted to them. And lastly, on this point, there’s this common saying that there’s a difference between a leader and a boss. Know the difference and as much as possible, follow a leader and be a leader yourself.

“Remember the difference between a boss and a leader; a boss says go, but a leader says let’s go!” — E.M Kelly

Ending Note

There are a lot more aspects in a job that you can or you should look out for and ultimately it’s up to the individual to rank what is important to them in their career. The above three points I’ve shared might not be your top priorities but I do hope by sharing them with you, it can give you a little more perspective when you sit down and jot down the things to look out for. If you realize, these are the things that recruiters or the HR team usually ask too in the preliminary screening before they know whether you are suitable for their companies.

Not sure if you remember that I mentioned I rejected 4 job offers with one being the reason that the job scope wasn’t in line with my passion, what about the other 3? Having attended the interviews conducted by that three companies and doing my little bit of research, I felt that I might face the possibility of work burnout as I did in my previous job which is not something I would want to battle again. If you are curious about my struggles with work burnout previously, you can read this post I’ve written on the 5 things I wish I told myself earlier while experiencing work burnout.

And last but not least, I mentioned I received 5 job offers and having rejected 4 of them, I’m left with the last one which I gladly signed on it! Yeap, I’ve finally found a job after 4 months of job hunting and next Monday is the start of this new journey! To those still hunting for opportunities amidst this pandemic season, don’t worry too much, I’m sure the right opportunity will arrive when the time is right!