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6 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Accepting a Job Offer
If you are an ambitious professional and want to achieve long term career success, you have to be careful about the career and job offer decisions you make. So what questions should you ask yourself before accepting a job offer?
Do I Like The People
The fact is we spend more time at work than we do mist other things in life. As a result the people that you work with make a huge difference. While you might only meet a handful of people through the selection process you want to be considering whether you will get on with people.
Does It Feel Like The Type Of Environment Where People Have Drive
If you are ambitious you are going to get pretty frustrated pretty quickly if you are surrounded by people who are just treading water. In any organisation you need people who enjoy routine and do it well. At the same time you don’t want to be part of an organisation that lacks drive.
Is There A Track Record Of Progression
One way of finding this out is to ask what has happened to the past 2 or 3 post holders. Have they gone into more senior roles and if so how many of them have done this without leaving the organisation.
What Development Is Being Offered
Continuing professional development is becoming more and more important. In tough times it is really easy for organisations to cut back or stop this as an easy option. While you are not looking for perfection, you are certainly looking for commitment. Good organisations don’t just eliminate development but look for different ways of helping people grow like secondments or special projects.
How Does The Role Fit With Your Longer Term Plans
To move up the career ladder you are going to have to keep getting new skills, experience and knowledge. When taking decisions think about how the current offer fits in with your longer term plans and aspirations.
Does It Feel Right
People often talk about having a hunch or gut feel about a role. In truth this hunch or gut feeling (sometimes referred to as intuition) is often pretty spot on. So don’t just discount it and always look for rational reasons.
The Bottom Line: If you are serious about achieving success in your career, it’s important to be strategic and not just accepting every offer that you receive.
Duncan Brodie helps accountants and other professionals to achieve more career success. Learn more here
About the Author Duncan Brodie
Since 2006 I’ve worked with in excess of 8,000 accountants and professionals in workshops, seminars and one to one helping them land their next jobs and become better leaders, presenters and business partners. Before that I spent 25 years in accountancy climbing the career ladder from Payments Clerk to FD. I’m a CIMA Fellow, Certified Professional Coach and Team Coach Facilitator.