What exactly is a "good" job? When you have choices, what kind of position is truly "good" for you? Why are these considered good jobs？
This article is for those experiencing career choices, including experienced professionals considering future directions and new graduates choosing their first jobs.
- In recent years, I've been responsible for organization-related work in the company, with a major focus on discussing "future career choices" with others.
- During these times, I act as a career counselor — sometimes discussing "job rotations" with colleagues, sometimes "job changes" with friends, and often talking with young students about what kind of jobs to look for after graduation.
- Through these conversations, I've discovered that so-called "good" jobs share certain common characteristics. Broadly speaking, there are three main types.
The first type of good job is actually a "career," essentially about "choosing the future"
- What is a career? It specifically refers to work with a certain future but current challenges.
- The future prospects are bright, but the present is difficult. The long-term vision is highly certain, while immediate challenges abound.
- This usually indicates that the field is still in its early stages. Once you choose such work, even as a novice in the field, you might have the opportunity to become a pioneer in the industry/region. Conversely, precisely because it's in the early stages, such work allows newcomers to enter with low barriers.
- In simpler terms, this type of work is called "getting on board."
- The difficulty in choosing such work lies in "how" to judge "great future prospects." That's another topic, with a potentially long answer and challenging execution.
- Fortunately, we can cite many examples of such work:
- Those startups that chose the right track, like Xiaomi, ByteDance, and Kwai in their early days — you might say it's too difficult, with slim chances of success. Actually, that's not the point; what's important is choosing the field, not the company. If the direction has great prospects, as long as you ensure your own growth, you'll be marketable, regardless of whether the company survives.
- On a smaller scale, within a company, there's the extension work of basic business operations. Ask yourself: In 10 years, if this company still exists, will this business/direction be necessary? Will it likely be more important than now? If the answer is "yes," then it's still "early" today. "Trendy" opportunities may fade quickly, while these "important basic works" can provide long-term certainty, and the more long-term certain it is, the more relatively early it is now.
The second type of good job offers diverse input with high intensity, suitable for passive growth of young people
- Key characteristics: diverse input + high intensity
- Diverse input: interacting with many people from different fields; daily tasks from various domains
- High intensity: extremely fast work pace, numerous tasks
- Sounds like self-inflicted suffering? Indeed. Such work brings significant short-term pressure and fatigue.
- However, the benefit is: intense input over a period forces passive growth; once you adapt and persist, your progress rate will likely exceed others' within months or years.
- A typical example: In our department, there's a small team in Beijing, mostly young people, responsible for India business coordination. This small team handles almost all coordination between group headquarters' departments and India local business teams, and often acts as gatekeepers for India business.
- We've noticed these young team members growing rapidly over the past few years, for several reasons:
- First, due to language barriers (Indian colleagues don't speak Chinese, most Chinese teams don't speak English), this team must communicate entirely in English. Daily intensive communication significantly improves language ability.
- Second, while the India team has thousands of members covering all functions, headquarters' team has only about 10+ people, requiring them to handle various aspects — beyond core duties, they support different functions and manage Indian colleagues'/clients' Beijing visits. This creates extremely diverse input and high intensity.
- Moreover, as business liaisons and gatekeepers, this small team have to directly engage in business operations — their core responsibility.
- Consequently, these young team members are highly sought after within the organization, often moving to more important positions after about 3 years.
- Young, energetic people who are still learning or preparing for career transitions are suited for this type of work. The best part, as mentioned, is "passive growth" — you just focus on your work, and your capabilities naturally increase.
The second type of good job has a variant: High tolerance for mistakes and allows you to lead while making mistakes, suitable for transitioning professionals of all ages
- Many people prefer the "main channel" - usually the company's core business. Such business typically receives much attention (being the company's cash cow), with abundant resources, talented staff, and possibly good benefits. This is certainly good.
- However, such teams often have these characteristics:
- Due to high resource investment and many experts, one's role might be limited to a small part. Like in a large kitchen, you might just cut vegetables, someone else washes them, another tends the fire — all good and dignified work, but you're only responsible for one link.
- Meanwhile, since the business is crucial, there's no room for error, so decisions are made very cautiously — and decision-making is highly centralized.
- This type of work is excellent and attracts industry experts.
- But for newcomers, I might recommend another type: where you can take complete responsibility for projects, preferably multiple projects.
- Such teams might not be core business but offer many opportunities with relatively fewer resources — meaning one person can handle multiple different responsibilities, managing projects end-to-end rather than just one segment. Moreover, if these projects are relatively small, even mistakes or wrong decisions have limited impact, hence "high tolerance for mistakes."
- "High tolerance for mistakes" and "complete project cycles" are variants of the previously mentioned diverse input and high intensity.
The third type of good job offers high information access and exposure, suitable for experienced professionals' transition
- We sometimes talk about "hitting a bottleneck." What's the real bottleneck for a professional? Likely when your previous intelligence can no longer make you "stand out" after years of work.
- Like a naturally talented child at ping-pong who easily wins neighborhood and community competitions, but suddenly faces trained competitors at city/state level.
- At this point, if interested and determined to improve, they need a coach and deliberate practice to advance.
- Essentially, "diligent practice" is needed, but diligence alone isn't enough - you need the right method. Some might choose further education, like an MBA, for breakthrough opportunities.
- Actually, certain jobs can achieve similar effects. A position might be this type of good job if it offers:
- High information access: Cross-departmental understanding, organizational insights, interaction with capable people, observing their thinking processes
- High exposure: Opportunities for visibility while observing others. Your strengths and weaknesses become apparent, and you see how others work.
- These roles may not emphasize specific duties but help broaden horizons and maintain analytical thinking. It's like an on-the-job MBA for senior professionals, potentially breaking through bottlenecks.
- Examples include strategic research departments. Companies may transfer senior staff to strategy departments; senior executives joining new companies/industries might start in "corporate strategy"; business executives transitioning to entrepreneurship might begin with "investment" roles.
- These three types summarize the good jobs I've observed over recent years. Meeting any of these characteristics likely indicates a good opportunity.
- Though different and suited for different people, they all lead to one thing — growth.
To rephrase: Jobs that let you see a broader world, experience more diversity, and learn more in less time are good jobs.
- If you add the "human" factor: mentors providing guidance, colleagues growing together, engaging communication environment, the value of these "good" jobs multiplies.
- Speaking of value, some might ask: What about money? Isn't money important?
- Money is important, but making yourself more valuable might be more important. When you're more valuable, people will compete to pay you a premium. If not here, then elsewhere.
- After all, the choice remains yours — just as you choose the best job, just as you've chosen to read this far :)
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