Job Hunting? Five questions to ask before accepting an offer!

Recently I embarked on two significant undertakings, both completely foreign at first. One, I learned how to ride a motorcycle. I’m happy to report that I’m now licensed, riding regularly and still alive (despite being hit by one car), so success!  Two, I went through a recruitment process as a candidate for only the second time in my life and for the first time in 12 years. While no stranger to recruitment, it was refreshing and an eye opener to gain hands-on experience dealing with multiple recruitment agencies from the other side of the desk.

For context, I’m a career recruiter so was looking to continue within recruitment. As such, my following questions concern what you would ask an employer and not your recruiter (a future blog for sure).

What helped me distinguish between similar opportunities at face value, boiled down to five questions that provided the most insight beyond talk of just the job, duties and figures. 

In no particular order:

What’s the plan?

It sounds simple, but asking a potential employer to explain what the master plan is can result in some eye-opening revelations. I spent a lot of time probing my potential employers about “the plan.”

What was their plan for the business? Where did they want to be in 5 years, how did they want to position themselves in the market and what did they see as their necessary steps to get there. How far along this journey were they and what was the next major challenge/opportunity? 

What was the plan for me? I know we are here to talk about a job, but where does it lead and how do I fit in? I’m looking for a career and not just a job, so being part of the plan is extremely important. Was my hire by design and with a longer-term vision or merely taking advantage of the fact I am available and had a good skill set relevant to the business (not that there’s anything wrong with that per say). 

What does success look like? 

This conversation gave me insight into business operations and management ethos in every instance. Of the businesses I met, they generally fell into one of two camps. Camp One: Numbers/KPI driven businesses. Some defined success in numbers ….. so many calls, so many meetings, so much in billings. If this was success, I pretty much knew how I was going to be managed in any of those businesses. Camp Two: people/feedback driven businesses.  The others defined success in a broader context, almost always with people at the centre. These conversations sounded more like ‘if you are happy, fulfilled and contributing and the clients are happy, benefiting and providing positive feedback then we are mutually successful’. Numbers were not explicitly discussed. Don’t get me wrong, the latter still had an undercurrent of results being expected and for sure KPI’s would be involved, but they were not front and centre. In my experience these businesses across the board tended to have better and more clearly defined benefits and rewards in addition to a well articulated learning and development platform beyond ‘on-the-job’ training.

Going back to the question ‘what’s the plan?’ my camp two prospects left me with a sense of having a ‘career plan’ over having a job.

What are your values?

…..Is not really the question I wanted to ask, but the question that then got me to: How do you employ these values on a daily basis to move the business forward? What examples can you give me from today, this week, this month?

Now this question was illuminating. With one prospective employer, I knew the five values on paper as listed on their website, whereas my interviewer knew only two off the top of his head. I did however get great examples for both, so kudos.  I found this topic very revealing, especially in the context of the recruitment industry. This was essentially my “do you practice what you preach” question. We all know the difference between having corporate values as nothing more than a marketing statement versus embodying those values to drive business and create differentiation. It was personally very important, as I’ve found many in the industry tend to preach their values externally but not all practice them internally.  

What was the last significant change or shakeup in the business?

It’s a little left of centre and was always the least expected question I would ask; but I asked. I, like everyone have been in environments where big changes, welcome or not, happened. Like individuals, not all businesses manage it well. I’ve seen people work in 2018 with a 2008 (or 1998) skill set because they could not adapt to change. I’ve seen numerous businesses struggle with it. It could have been anything from a management change or ownership change to the introduction of new system or technology platform. These too, were good conversations allowing me to see how the business responded the change, sudden or expected, and see if they were proactive with a plan or reactive with a panic.    

What, if any doubts do you have about me?

This provides a further opportunity to address and alleviate any concerns, but more so, see if you and the employer are on the same page. If you are, you will likely foresee and if anything, agree with their doubts. These usually come down to cultural fit and how both you and the employer like to work. It’s an important question as it can set the framework and context for knowing where compromise might exist and if you will thrive in the business.

There you have it.

Those were five of my key questions to help navigate the recruitment process and potential employer landscape. The goal for me was to understand more about the strategy, culture and direction of the organisation rather than just “the job”. Having had one employer for over a decade it was never going to be about taking on just any opportunity, give it a try and leave in a hurry if the decision was wrong. After all it’s my career, it’s me! If I’m not taking myself seriously who will?

What have been your most useful or out of the box questions when considering new opportunities?