Leif Radford, Analytics Recruitment Manager at marketing recruitment agency The Candidate, explores the things jobseekers should bear in mind before jumping at that seemingly exciting offer from a potential employer.
The process of applying, interviewing for, and accepting a new role can be a challenging experience to say the least.
In the whirlwind of emotions that you go through, it often comes as such a relief to receive an offer that we accept before there’s chance for the hiring manager to change their mind.
The problem is, without giving all of the consideration we would any other major life decision, we can often rush in to accepting a new role without considering whether what we’re being offered is actually going to work for us in the long-term.
Admittedly, without an external party to prompt us, it’s often hard to take a step back when you’re caught up in the process. So, with that in mind, here are three things you might not have previously considered, but definitely should, before accepting your next offer.
Are your cultural values aligned?
From reading the job description and going through the interview process, it’s relatively straightforward to understand factors such as the location of the office, the company you’ll be working for, the salary on offer, and so on.
These are the tangible, unchanging aspects of a potential new role that you can rely upon – hopefully. What’s often much more difficult to get a grasp of is a feel for “culture fit”.
Feeling as though you’re among like-minded people and having a sense of community is often a pivotal part of how long someone will stay in a role, so it’s definitely something we should be considering before agreeing to join a new business. But if culture is relatively intangible concept, how do we identify the cultural values of a potential employer?
There are two different methods you can use.
The first is to make use of readily available information. Think about what you saw during your interview process. Check their social media presence. Ask people within the industry what they’ve heard. All this info helps to build up a picture of the cultural branding of a potential employer. The only problem with this is that it can be filtered and even biased.
The second approach is to ask your prospective employer subjective questions that will reveal glimpses of the real culture, without being as easily filtered. For example, ask: “What’s your stance on working late?” If the answer is “you’re expected to stay until you have everything finished,” it could hint that the culture is fast-paced and high-pressure.
On the other hand, if you’re told “we don’t mind how you do it, as long as you deliver your work to the agreed time scale and standard”, it would suggest that the culture is flexible, open and trusting.
Combine the information you get from both of these approaches, and you’ll get a good feel for their cultural values. All that’s left to do is to have an honest and frank think about which values are important to you, and evaluate whether the two are aligned.
