Deciding Whether To Apply |
Job-hunting can be an emotional roller coaster.
Sometimes you can spot an advert that gets you excited. But bear in mind, that's what they're designed to do: to stimulate the interest and curiosity of talented candidates.
You may have spent weeks polishing your CV, going to interviews, passing assessment centres and eventually get a job offer.
Congratulations!
But then you realise the job isn't really what you want. It's missing vital elements that are important to you and your career. So you turn it down.
Wouldn't it have been better to be able to filter out the job, before you even applied for it? |
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If you've got a good idea about what you want from a job, there's a great way to prioritise things, to help you decide objectively whether you want to spend time and effort applying for an advertised position.
There will always be a subjective element in job-hunting, but the more you can take a step back and make objective decisions, the more targeted and effective your applications will be. You will also find it useful when you get that job offer, to help you decide whether or not to accept the employer's proposal.
The next exercise builds on your thinking so far, to help make sure you don't get sucked into applying for the wrong jobs. It's also great preparation for answering those tricky "what do you want" interview questions and even salary negotiation. |
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Exercise 6: Deciding Whether To Apply |
This process is great for:
- Helping you decide which jobs to apply for and eventually accept.
- Making you feel more confident when negotiating a package, because you know what is critical for you in your next role.
By being specific about what you're looking for, you're much more likely to find it. People who only have a vague idea of what they might want tend to end up in jobs that only partially meet their needs.
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Click here for a blank form
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Step 1 - Write a paragraph describing your next, ideal job.
What will your team be like?
What role will you play?
What will your rewards be?
What will you see?
What will you hear?
What will you feel?
These last 3 questions might seem a bit strange, but they're highly effective for clarifying your thoughts. Make sure you really get into the frame of mind you'd be in if you had the job.
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Let's follow Jude for this example.
What will my team be like?
At least 20 of us - big enough to get the job done - not just 2 or 3 people in a tiny company. With 20 there'll be plenty of opportunity for socialising, but there aren't so many people that you get lost in anonymity.
What role will I play?
I'd like to do something that involves working with the media agencies and advertising teams. Not too much pressure. Probably a Brand Manager role, so I'm responsible for decisions and strategy, but without having to manage too many people.
What will my rewards be?
Good pay and possibly bonus scheme. I guess my preferred reward would actually be recognition for my achievements.
What will I see?
Hmm. Not sure I understand this one. Ok, let's give it a go. I'll see smart, bright, airy modern offices; fairly open plan; lots of people smiling; clutter-free environment
What will I hear?
Phones ringing; people laughing; keyboards typing; coffee machine spluttering away
What will I feel?
Well, I'd like to feel confident and self-assured. I'd like to feel relaxed, but slightly excited. So probably enough of a challenge that I have to think, but not so much that I stress about it.
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Step 2 - Pull out the key elements from Step 1. Write them in the table below.
They might include:
- Whether you want to manage direct reports
- The size of team you want to manage (or not)
- Working hours, flexitime
- Level of responsibility
- Working environment
- Training
- Basic salary range
- Paid overtime
- Other benefits
- Holiday entitlement
- Career opportunities
- Location (national - would you need to relocate; local - consider your journey to work)
- Amount of travelling
- Which of your key skills you most want to use / develop
- Which of your main values should be met
Then split them into one of three categories:
Essential
These are things that are so important to you that you next job must deliver them. Without these, you would reject a job offer.
These items effectively provide your worst case scenario, when deciding whether to accept a job and negotiating a salary. Be careful not to put too many things in this category, or you'll notice you find it really hard to get a job that meets your requirements.
Important
Important, but negotiable. These are things that you want, but would be prepared to sacrifice, if you had to.
Nice to have
The icing on the cake. These are things that would be a real bonus for you - they might make the critical difference between two jobs. When you're deciding whether to accept a job offer, beware choosing your "nice to have" items instead of your "important" items.
The nice to have section is really about things you'd like to aim for, but wouldn't miss too much, if you didn't get them.
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Essential |
Important, but negotiable |
Nice to have |
Managing a team of 2+ |
Ability to take unpaid leave if children are ill |
Health insurance |
Bright, airy office with good parking & access to healthy lunches |
Flexible working hours |
Company car |
Other mothers in the team – so people understand the challenges |
Support next level of study for Chartered Institute of Marketing |
Option to work 4 days a week |
Salary enough to cover at least twice the cost of childcare, to make it worth working |
Minimal international travel |
Time off in lieu for overtime |
Responsible for decisions on a minor brand |
Good pension scheme |
Bonus scheme |
Responsible for sign-off of all aspects of the advertising campaigns |
Opportunity to use my foreign languages |
Company-organised social events for teams & their partners |
Recognition of achievements – formal scheme |
Annual pay review scheme |
Flowers and plants in the offices |
25+ days’ vacation |
27 days’ vacation |
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The most important column is "essential".
You should check every potential job against this list. What you are saying with these items is that, if a job doesn't offer these (or equivalent), then you will choose not to apply for it and will reject the job offer.
That's a tough decision, but it makes job hunting much easier, because it saves you applying for unsuitable positions.
The list of essential items is something you should check out before you apply for a job - even if it means phoning the recruiter, to find out more.
Review these lists regularly, as you learn more about the roles and packages available.
Make sure you revisit the list when it comes to negotiating your final salary and package.
As a final check, it's worth spending five minutes doing the following visualisation exercise, to make sure that you really would be happy if you took a job that only fulfilled your "essential" criteria.
This will prove to you whether this is what you really want, or whether some of your "important" items need to shift up a notch.
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Exercise 7: Visualisation |
- Imagine you accepted the offer of a job, which fulfilled your "essential" criteria, but few of your "important" ones and none of the "nice to haves". Then pretend you could float 5 years into the future.
What is your life like?
What would you see?
What would you hear?
What would you feel?
- Is that what you really want?
- If not, what would have to change, for your future to be what you want?
- Go back and make the necessary changes to the table in exercise 6.
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Let's continue with Jude's example:
Ok, so let's imagine I got a job that meets my essentials list," she thought, as she began to daydream about what that would be like, "and let's drift into the future.
It's hard to imagine 5 years, so I'm just going as far ahead as I can. Actually, I quite liked what I can see. That would be fun. Ok, so let's check if there's anything missing.
That's an interesting experience.
I've just realised that some of answers are more important than I had thought. Some form of flexitime is going to need to move onto my essentials list. I really to be able to get home as early as possible, to be there for the kids, even if it means my husband taking them to school.
I also want to work for a company that took families seriously, so the family-based social events needs to move up to being at least important. I just don't think I'd be comfortable any more, working for a company that didn't care about the outside-work aspects of their employees' lives.
And maybe the Chartered Institute of Marketing stuff is more of a nice to have?
So how do you turn all this into a decision about whether or not to apply?
Simple.
Every job you apply for must meet your essentials column. Otherwise you'd turn it down, anyway, if you were offered it. Wouldn't you?
But, being realistic, job ads are designed to be catchy, so they might not include all the information you need. So what can you do?
The next section covers the five things you should find out before you apply and how to go about getting answers to your questions.
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Next: The Job Looks Great - What's The Catch?
Don't get caught out by clever marketing in the job advert! |
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