By Peter Weddle -- One of the most important aspects of a successful job search is good consumer behavior. You have to shop smart for an employer. Now, I know that’s easier said than done, but it’s worth the effort. Why? Because research shows that the number one reason a person doesn’t work out when he or she joins a new organization is not that they can’t do the work. It’s that they don’t fit in. Their personality and values do not align with the culture and values of the employer. If that happens to you, you can’t do your best work, and when you don’t do your best work, your job security is at risk.
So, how do you shop smart for an employer? Simple. You take exactly the same steps you use when shopping for a product or service, but you take them in a different way. For example, when you’re looking to purchase a new car, you:
determine the single best car for you given your financial situation, driving needs and personal preferences.
When you shop for an employer, you take the same steps, but perform them differently. The changes you must make are relatively straightforward. To determine which employer is best for you, you must:
determine the single best job for you given your financial situation, career objectives and personal preferences.
Given their familiarity from car, TV and cell phone shopping, I suspect that all of these tasks seem reasonable. There is, however, a problem. One of the steps cannot be accomplished as described. As you may have noticed, test driving an employer is simply not a feasible course of action. Except in rare situations, such as internships and temp-to-perm staffing assignments, employers do not permit prospective hires to sample their workday experience. Yet, confirming a vendor’s claims—whether the vendor is selling tires or offering you a job—is a critical component of good consumerism.
What should you do? I suggest you adopt a surrogate. Use the employer’s recruiting process to evaluate its employment culture and values. The way it treats candidates is almost always an accurate gauge of the way it treats employees, so you can use your experience as an applicant to assess the way it will treat you once you are hired.
From the moment you are first contacted through your various interactions with recruiters and other employees to the final outcome (positive or otherwise), look at the organization’s:
caliber of leadership (e.g., the vision with which the organization is guided, the resources that are provided to enhance the candidate’s experience).
While most of us are familiar with a structured decision-making process and use it effectively to make important product or service decisions, far fewer of us do so when making critical career decisions. And unfortunately, bad career decisions have lasting consequences. Accepting a job with the wrong employer not only causes you to under-perform and thus risk termination, but it short circuits your search for the right job—a dream position with the best employer for you. In effect, you set yourself up for short term failure and deny yourself the prospect of long term success.
So, remember your basic rule of consumerism: Caveat Emptor. Buyer beware. The next time you look for a new or better job, shop smart. Select the employer that will enable you to do your best work.
