Choosing an employer, which means choosing someone we want to give our time and talent to, is a complex task. That is why it’s important to find out everything we can about the places we are thinking of joining.
In deciding who to give our talent to, we can research; we can reference check with people who work there or who have left already and we can review the organization’s website and all social platforms. In this way, we start to build a picture of the place which is going to be lucky enough to get our talent.
Once we are into the screening and interviewing process, here’s what we find out:
how we are treated through the pre-employment process;
how professional the process is;
do we feel and hear a consistent culture in each touchpoint;
does the organization have an equity, diversity, and inclusivity strategy;
is the organization committed to team member growth;
are the values the organization espouses consistent with our values?
Does our gut tell us that this is a good place to work? If all these things come together, we are onto something. We have found a place that just might be a fit and aligned with us. Now we are bringing together the ingredients for success.
What if we get a gut feel that says, ‘walk away from this’ and we take the job anyway? It happens because sometimes we just need the job regardless of all signs that maybe it's not the right fit. We get into a situation where we took a job and realized we should have listened to our gut feeling, although don't worry, there are many things we can do and we will cover those in a later How to Be Amazing at Work blog.
When taking on a new role, we need to know that we are going to want to commit to and grow in the jobs we take. We must have that alignment between ourselves and the organization.
It is this lack of ability or desire to commit and achieve personal growth within an organization that makes some people buy themselves a job. Do you know how to buy a job? It means going into your own business and becoming your own employer. To do this, you pick the product or service you want to sell, you set up a company, you are your own boss, and you never have to worry again.
That’s sounds so easy that it is amazing more of us don’t do it!
In fact, it is so hard and requires a ton of attributes including passion for the product or service. The load carried may be exhilarating, but it can also be all-consuming and the run-up to financial self sufficiency is daunting. If you have chosen, or do, choose ‘business for self’, you are courageous. You are everything in your business including Chief Executive Officer, Marketing guru, Human Resources leader, Doer, Dreamer and Chief Financial Officer. You carry all the burdens for the entity you have brought to life. You also reap most, if not all, of the rewards. And that is definitely something to think about.
If creating our own business is a road we can’t or don’t want to go down, then we choose to work for someone else. We want to focus our energy on our niche within an organization and have someone else pay us for what we bring. Rather than be a start-up, we want to help someone else who started a business last year or last century, or the century before that. This means we must be “all-in” at our place of work.
Pro Tip Below:
You might be amazed to know just how much control you have at work, that's why it's so important to consider the next new role. There is no one at your work place in any role who doesn’t have a huge, vested interest in your success. The bottom line is you decide how you want to make it work. That’s control.
Suggested Career Resilience with Jann Danyluk podcasts:
Is there a topic you would like to see covered for yourself, for your friend, for your family member?
Contact me at jdanyluk@fordkeasthrc.ca.
London, Canada
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