The famous American poet Robert Frost once described the typical life dilemma in one of his most known poems, The Road Not Taken, which starts with “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood”. Indeed, we face such decision points all the time, especially throughout our respective careers. However, when we need to make one decision among several options in career, unlike what Frost indicated in his work, we can’t intuitively choose “the one less traveled by”; and making side-to-side comparisons between offers is evidently necessary. This has never been a simple process, as there seem to be numerous metrics or factors to consider, let alone we could be easily swayed by our emotion or intinction.
For talent who has nailed multiple interviews and received several job offers, we have summed up four critical questions that you must consider and prepared our insights to help you deal with the sweet dilemma of choosing a job offer. Hopefully, the offer that you accept would allow you to stay happy for your next career chapter.
Question 1: Does the offer align with your long-term goal?
Let’s be honest: every professional looks for more, beyond salaries and perks, so don’t confine yourself only to how much money and resources you can get from a potential job. Always remember to assess how much a job offer aligns with your own life plan, because if they are not coherent, you wouldn’t be very motivated in work, and even what seems to be attractive welfare wouldn’t be continuously uplifting. Ask yourself what you aim to achieve in your life and how much your next job can contribute to it. Don’t be afraid of hard questions like this - it is definitely better for you to think about these in advance than turning regretful afterwards.
Question 2: How do you think of your perspective boss and reporting line?
The majority of professionals would agree that your line manager matters the most, because it determines what to do and how you feel in a straight-forward way. Try to review and reflect on impressions left by your perspective manager and other interviewers in the potential reporting line. What have your found - signals that indicate good leadership, collaboration and communication, or just on the contrary? Are they managers that you want to follow or quit? Have they shown any dictator trait or brought up how they would help you transit into your own role? Write down answers of these detailed questions to draw rough portraits for your potential managers, and consult the more experienced if you feel not sure about your personal judgments.
Question 3: How can the offer benefit your personal growth?
While employers ask for your hard and soft skills, you should ask back - how a company can help you grow through daily professional practices and opportunities? This is very important, because it impacts your future career trajectory. Nobody would like to waste several years, or even months, in a workplace that doesn’t nurture people or push them for better growth. Evaluate how far an employer can go to help you grow, and consider asking the employers the growth-related questions if you don’t feel convinced based on what has been mentioned in the interview.
Question 4: How is the company culture?
Toxic company culture kills creativity and productivity. Before jumping right into a workplace, you really need to consider how the company culture is, based on your own observations and findings from the interviews and online researching. Is the company culture positive, embracing and talent-centric? What have your interviewers introduced about their company culture and missions? Comparatively, what “intelligence” have you collected on recruiting websites or communities of professionals? What have former employees commented on certain companies? Remember that although culture is very hard to be precisely measured, it is directly sensed and felt. Take culture-related official explanations and other people’s feedback into your own consideration, and try to score a target company for your own good.
Having multiple job offers at hand is something that deserves a celebration. You should be totally proud of yourself in many different ways, as you must have worked really hard for all that you have. The four questions above never intend to put you into a harder position though they look challenging, instead, they are just tools that you can leverage to sort things out. Don’t be afraid to eliminate less solid options, because after your careful scrutinization, what is left on the table would prove to be the best fit for you. If you think you need some extra help on this, don’t hesitate to contact us - our professional career consultants will help you clear your doubts and uncertainty.
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