Over 4 million people change their jobs each year in India and many more face job interviews. Most of them are anxious and unsure if the new job offer is better than their current jobs. Is there a tool that can help somebody pick the one that scores higher over the other?
What do we look for in a job?
Compensation, of course, is one of the features that is associated with most jobs. That apart, there are several factors that determine one’s thoughts about the job consciously or subconsciously. Firstly, it is the purpose, the mission and the social norm associated with the job. Be it the job of a driver, a doctor, cook, teacher, cleaning staff, engineer, plumber, accountant, content writer, salesman, software programmer, all of us want to do a job that adds value in the ecosystem that we care about. Most often, the identity of a person is linked to the profession and where one works. Hence, it is important that the job and the industry are held highly in the person’s mind.
Secondly, it is the work environment – the colleagues we work with, the bosses we report to, the empowerment that we receive, the recognition that we receive and the challenges it poses on the way. Each of us wake up to make the day more productive and satisfying. It is our workplace that helps us realize the goals for the day. Hence, we look forward to a workplace that creates energy, optimism and ignites a creative spirit in our mind.
Finally, certain aspects of the role are important for each of us. For example, working on a particular kind of equipment, tools and software is important for the person in a technical job. Similarly for someone who has significant responsibility in the family, commuting time, work hours and holidays are important considerations. Opportunities to grow along a particular career path are important for an ambitious worker. We find the job satisfying when most of these are in place and on an overall level, we feel fulfilled.
Hard and soft aspects of choice-making:
Given the above construct, one should make a list of factors under the 3 broad categories: the job, the workplace and the fine-print. Job change is an important event in one’s life and can have a huge impact on one’s future. Hence, adequate care must be taken to consider all aspects from a rational as well as emotional standpoint.
It is easy to compare two opportunities on aspects such as compensation, title, industry’s attractiveness, the level of technology in use and practice of internal promotions. However, what about the soft aspects of the workplace? As someone once said, “We get to choose neither our parents nor our boss”, it is important that you know about the culture of recognition, the colleagues that you will work with and the boss you’ll report to.
We can network with colleagues in industry, refer to various studies that rank best practices in various organizations, study what people are talking about the employer on social media and industry platforms like Glassdoor, Indeed, LinkedIn etc. We can speak to ex-employees of the company to understand about the workplace. It is not easy to do it and has to be done.
Do we have the check-list of what we look for and value?
After making up our mind about the decision factors pertaining to each of the 3 aspects i.e. job, workplace and role-specific details, one needs to list them down. Each one of these factors has to be assigned a weight on a scale of 1 – 5 where 1 indicates least significant and 5 is the most.
Then the next step is to score both opportunities on each of these decision factors and weighted score has to be arrived at. Based on the sum of the weighted score for each opportunity, one can decide which one is better. Simple, isn’t it?
Let us take an example: a software engineer is ambitious, looking for growth opportunities and a good work-life balance. The decision table could be something like this:
| Decision Factors | Decision Weight on scale of 1 – 5 | Current Job on a scale of 1 – 5 | Weighted Score for Current Job | New Job Opportunity on a scale of 1 – 5 | Weighted Score for the New Opportunity |
| Job | |||||
| 1. Compensation | 5 | 4 | 20 | 5 | 25 |
| 2. Reputation of the firm | 5 | 4 | 20 | 3 | 15 |
| 3. Opportunity to work in various industry sectors | 5 | 2 | 10 | 5 | 25 |
| Workplace | |||||
| 4. Well-qualified Colleagues | 4 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 20 |
| 5. Supportive boss | 5 | 4 | 20 | 3 | 15 |
| 6. Recognition for the work done | 3 | 4 | 12 | 5 | 15 |
| 7. Opportunities to learn | 4 | 4 | 16 | 5 | 20 |
| 8. Challenging work | 4 | 3 | 12 | 5 | 20 |
| Role-related Specifics | |||||
| 9. Commuting from work | 5 | 5 | 25 | 2 | 10 |
| 10. Work hours | 5 | 5 | 25 | 3 | 15 |
| 11. Leadership opportunities | 5 | 3 | 15 | 5 | 25 |
| 12. Impact on the organization | 5 | 2 | 10 | 5 | 25 |
193 | 230 |
This tool helps one identify all the soft and hard aspects of decision making, consider them holistically and take the ultimate decision. It makes our life simpler and organized. Let’s go for it!
