How to Read a Job Offer

Whether you are a novice eyeing to land your first job or an expert professional designing to move up your career hierarchy, the significance of a job offer can never be understated. We all agree that your job selections will impact your career in the long run, and hence, if you want a career embossed with highlights, you will have to be prudent about your job choices. No matter how apt the field of opportunity, if you are not ardent about it, you will wind up lamenting your choices. So, how do you pick the precise job without having to worry if you have made the right decision? Read on to find out how to appraise a job offer and make an informed decision.

1.     Categorize your priorities

All of us have diverse objectives, so you have to assess your status quo and regulate your priorities, depending on where you are at in your life and career. Whether you are driven by money, knowledge or are simply seeking a decent work-life balance, make sure you fathom your current priorities as you assess the job offers.

2.     Don’t be driven by the temptation of big brands

No one can deny the appeal of adding a big brand tag to their resume. However, if the role doesn’t give the exposure or the erudition that you are eyeing for, then the move can quickly boomerang, and upset your integrity as a professional. Hence, while taking up a job, you need to look beyond the appeal of the company brand and examine yourself why you want to work there. If it is learning, exposure and development that you seek, then you would do well to put aside the deliberations like remuneration or brand name, and emphasis especially on the job profile while considering a job offer.

3.     Contemplate beyond money

Adjudging a job solely on pecuniary considerations is a common slip-up among job pursuers that sets them up for fiasco in future. This is principally true for today’s job gallery where cut-throat race imposes the need to continually evolve in your job; and pick up innovative, high-end skills in your field. Mirror on the following questions before choosing a potential employer in order to understand whether the company will truly enable your growth as a professional.

•       Do you see any learning prospective?

Careers are fabricated through years of toiling and learning, and therefore, it is apparent that the prospects of learning should be the most analyzed aspect of any job. What do you stand to gain in terms of skills, knowledge and experience, should be, perhaps, the most demanding question about any potential job. While dynamics like reward, regard, or title are equally imperative, keeping them at the core of your decision-making while evaluating a job offer is the most lethal career gaffe.

•       What kind of career path does the company assure you?

Contemplate over what kind of career path you can anticipate from taking up this particular role. Is this company thoughtful about the development of its human resources? Will there be breaks to upgrade your skills and undertake stretch assignments? Will this job be a stepping stone to a higher level, or will it be just a lateral career move with a plumper salary?

•       Is there any room for evolution?

Is it a learning organization, where employees are encouraged to continuously learn and evolve? While considering your job, question yourself if this job will add something to your personal toolkit that can help you grow as an individual. Also consider what are the career trajectories and how does the company embolden its employees’ individual development?

4.     Be observant of the organizational beliefs

If your prospective employer has offered you a desirable job profile and outstanding remuneration, you, perhaps, must be wondering that you have found your fantasy job and need not fear about anything else. Well, as a matter of fact, there is one more facet of your job that you must take into reason before accepting the job offer – the environment and ethos of the organization. If you see yourself as an individual worker and enjoy structure and competition, the corporate itinerary would suit you best. However, if you want a vibrant environment and prize your freedom and autonomy, startups may work out to be a virtuous choice for you.

And so, before joining a firm, you must introspect whether it is a place where you will fit in? You have to fathom what kind of environment you would blossom in and accordingly make a choice.

5.     Long term goals

Fine, all things being alike, you must choose a company where you see yourself employed long term. Do you fancy steadiness in your career and would like to mature within the firm? Where do you see yourself in the next five years? What is your career dream for that period, and how does that align with your long term goals, say 20 years down the line? Consider each of your job choices as another rung in your career ladder, so, if you anticipate moving up the hierarchy and closer to your career goals, you have to be farsighted about the jobs you accept. Each time you change jobs, you must look at it as a career move and not simply a job change.

6.     Go with the gut

All things measured, the concluding verdict to accept or not must be left to the little voice in your head that many call instinct. Habitually, we are so overawed by the influx of facts and figures that we lose vision of what we essentially want. Your reflex knows you best – automatic reactions are often based on intangible things that your mind picks up subconsciously. Probe yourself “Do I truly want to work here?” and after serious contemplation, make your move. After all, if you devote one-third of your life at work, you must relish what you do.

Write to me at sanish@careerxperts.com to set up your next adventure!