7 Questions to Ask Before Pursuing a New Job
Run toward new opportunities, not away from your current situation. It’s too easy to jump from the pan into the fire.
3 must do’s before pursuing new job opportunities:
- Have a deep conversation with the person who left the position you’re considering. This option is most useful if they have left the organization.
- Evaluate the strengths and weakness of your future team. Teams are key factors in leadership success. Superstars who leave a well functioning machine often flounder in new roles.
- Argue for both options. List 5 reasons it would be better to stay. List 5 reasons it would be better to take the new opportunity. Which set of reasons reflects who you aspire to be?
Bonus: Don’t devalue current opportunities with imagined options.
7 questions to ask before accepting a new job:
- What qualities do you share with the people who are already succeeding in the prospective organization?
- What’s the worst you can think about the new option? If you can’t think of negatives, you aren’t thinking clearly.
- What do you enjoy about your current position? How much of that enjoyment will you find in a new position?
- What do trusted advisers think? Your spouse?
- Where will you sit in the pecking order? Consider real power structures compared to official hierarchy.
- What strengths do you have that others don’t? How will you stand out?
- What do current employees enjoy about work? How do the things they enjoy connect with your values? Do they talk about development opportunities or retirement plans?
Bonus: Check out the key players in the new organization on social media. How do their values align with yours?
Which questions are most useful?
What suggestions do you have for someone considering a new job opportunity?
Great ideas. May not be implementable in many cases. former incumbent … meet the team .. assess the staff at the new organization. Heck, most of the times I’ve been hired the role itself turned out to be very different from what we discussed in the interviews, let alone anything beyond that. Sometimes that was for the better, other times it wasn’t.
Thanks Douglas. You remind me that few things are guaranteed when it comes to leadership and relationships. One of the most important leadership qualities is the ability to adapt as you go.
Thanks, Dan. I found this line to be especially critical: “Where will you sit in the pecking order? Consider real power structures compared to official hierarchy.”
Sometimes the answer is good! Sometimes, it’s not. Most of the time, I’ve found, it’s in the middle — and dependent on who your advocates/allies are. What’s their future? If it’s not good, maybe yours isn’t either.
Dan I address this topic of looking at a new company and role in my book.
I suggest that people review the two key aspects of any business that you touched on in the post. They are Leadership and Culture.
Recent leaders’ background and style you can research on the internet. To understand a firm’s culture takes more digging but for public firms can again be found in business or trade journals. By understanding these elements you may be able to see how you can fit in and succeed. It’s worth the effort.
Brad
Brad James, author The Business Zoo
Hello Dan,
Catching up on your posts this weekend. I can absolutely agree with your point above, “Superstars who leave a well functioning machine often flounder in new roles.” I have seen this in my own career, both when leaving for a new organization, and even moving around in an organization, especially a large one.
The mistake I made, especially when moving around within the same organization, is that I went wherever I was asked to go. And while that is what most people do when given “opportunities” to move in the same organization (don’t want to kill your career), I think it is equally important to fully consider internal moves and your long-term goals and objectives. I slowly got moved into positions that were more and more outside where I wanted to be. Yes, I learned and was still relatively successful, but there was not the long-term interest in the area I was working. I eventually left the organization because there was no passion for the work.
Thanks for the article!
Jay