As the economy continues to bounce back from the recession with shrinking unemployment levels, increased job offerings and higher confidence among small business owners over their prospects for hiring and expansion, many workers may be reading the signs and starting to look for new jobs. In fact, in January, 21% of full time employees reported that they were planning to change jobs in 2014. This is an exciting time both for businesses seeking to hire and employees looking to make a move.
However, while starting a new job is an exciting experience, nothing is more upsetting than realizing you made a huge mistake a couple of months down the road. This mistake also takes a major toll on the company that hired you because of their investment into your training.
So before you take the leap into a new job, take a moment to consider the following tips:
Social Media
Use social media sites like LinkedIn to not only to do general research but delve deeper into employee history and information. Find out how long current employees have been at the company and whether or not they seem to get promotions and/or new responsibilities. If career growth is important to you, avoid a company that doesn’t appear to move employees up the ladder.
Learning Opportunities
Look beyond salary and benefits to what opportunities you will have to learn. Ask the people you interview with how they will help you achieve your career goals. Find out if the company provides tuition reimbursement or lets you attend networking events or conferences in your subject area. These aren’t must-haves but it may indicate how supportive they are of helping their employees get experience both in and beyond company walls.
Job Description
Learn if there are clear job objectives and expectations to help determine if the company has put some thought into what exactly you will be evaluated on. Speaking of evaluations, you should definitely ask questions about how performance reviews are conducted. If they don’t have them, this might not be the company for you.
Overtime
If you are working at a startup or small business, you should understand that there may be other expectations not specifically mentioned in the job description, such as late nights and weekends. Inquire about workload, and make sure you’re ready to commit to a team that needs you for more than 40 hours a week.
Company Culture
Figure out if you would enjoy hanging out with the people that are interviewing you. Do they make you feel comfortable, do they seem to get along? Culture is a very important part of what makes you happy or satisfied at a job and if you can’t see yourself burning the midnight oil with these people, you might want to move on.
Hopefully these tips can help you put more thought into accepting the job that best suits your needs and skills. If its too late and you are already in a job that stinks, read your employment contract. Many states are what’s called “at-will employment” states which means employees can quit (or be fired!) with no advance notice. While the law lacks social tact, it does mean you may be able to walk with no consequence if the place you’re working at isn’t stacking up to the ideal you saw when you first started.