Who to Listen to in the Organization Trying to Recruit You

For many years I've been surrounded by people who have considered, taken, returned from or even rejected new career opportunities: in academia, in government, in industry / corporations and in startups.

As a youngish researcher in "hot" computer science-related disciplines (robotics, machine learning, autonomous vehicles), I, like tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands? millions?) of others, have also had to consider opportunities.

Consequently, I've put a lot of thought into the subject. And colleagues, friends and acquaintances have too. And I'm old enough to have seen several cycles of this.

One of the key factors in making these potentially life-changing decisions is listening to what others say, very often people from the very organisation (university, corporate, startup etc...) that you are considering joining.

So based on the combined experiences of lots of people and my very imperfect observations on what has worked and what hasn't, here is my prioritized list for who to listen to and who to ignore.

The list goes from least useful to most useful and I will alternate genders...

Mr "My Last Role Sucked"

Beware the bad last job person. 123rf.com / Antonio Guillem

We all know these people. They are deeply unhappy in their current role, for a wide variety of reasons. Perhaps their boss is horrible. Their salary is too low. They have no freedom. Their colleagues suck. The commute sucks. The office sucks. No-one listens to them. It's not their "calling". They don't get enough publicity or recognition. They get too much recognition! Their role is hollow. They don't feel fulfilled. And so on...

Even within this category, there's variation. The worst are those in the organization you're considering joining who spend their entire time "convincing" you to join by talking about how much their previous role sucked, and projecting that on you. This is the least informative type, unless you have some other information on that person which suggests you should really pay attention to what they're doing.

Another sub-category here is the somewhat "broken" employee. This is a person who has some talent or experience, who's had a horrible experience in their previous role, and often someone relatively passive who hasn't actively sought to get out of that position. They're less explicitly negative about their previous role, but they've often been thrown a life preserver in terms of their new role, so their rationale for moving won't always be of much use to you (unless perhaps you too have a sucky current role, but even then...)

Miss "It Was Time for a Change"

This is a broad category, because some people can come up with a fairly detailed and nuanced explanation for why it was "time for a change", and others can't.

Either way, unless their time for a change motivation aligns with your current situation, listener beware!

Mr Floats Through Life

There's nothing inherently wrong with being focused and driven. And there's nothing inherently wrong with not being focused and driven, either.

But where the latter does matter is when you are looking to their choices to inform your choices (unless you aspire to the carefree wandering career lifestyle).

This type has typically not put a lot of thought into any of their career changes. Often it works out well in retrospect for these types because they are very talented or good at what they do, which buffers them from a lack of planning or thought. But taking what they have done and using it to guide what you might do is risky.

Miss Revisionist

These ones are tricky because the initial story they sell you is very convincing. They have retrospectively revised the story of their career and life up to that point to make their current role line up as if it was their destiny in the narrative. And sure, many of us are guilty of this to varying degrees, even if we're happy in our current role.

The quickest way to spot these is to talk to people who knew them a few years ago and were privvy to what they were espousing then - which was often a very different story. And if you've been around a bit, you often witness that their "true calling" wasn't actually their true calling at all, and evaporated remarkably quickly once things turned sour.

Mr Persistent "We're Doing Something Special Here"

Everyone thinks they have the magic sauce. 123rf.com / rawpixel.

So many people in a startup or organization think that organization has the magic sauce, idea, team combination, political environment or whatever factor that means they're special. No matter how much evidence or rational discussion would suggest otherwise.

And, to be fair, you probably need some of that persistent attitude to push a startup or corporation in a competitive environment to ultimate success or failure.

But blind faith, un-tempered by at least some consideration of rational counterpoints, isn't exactly inspiring. One exception to this would probably be organizations centered around truly unique individuals - this is surely part of Elon Musk's appeal.

A case example of this "we're unique" attitude were self-driving-car startups in the early days. Everyone was convinced they had their "unique edge", which the competition didn't have.

I'm sure some subset of them did have a genuine competitive edge (and even then that's not necessarily deterministic of their eventual success), but you can quickly get an idea of how grounded they are by how they respond to reasonable (not provocative just for the sake of it) questions.

As of right now, you can see that most (but still not all) startups in anything to do with hot fields, often offer a somewhat more measured and nuanced appraisal of their own value proposition - which is refreshing given how much hype is floating around.

Had Everything But Threw it All Away

Worth listening to: those who had it all (or think they had it all) and thew it all away. 123rf.com / Андрей Ярославцев. 

This is the biggest, overall most valuable category, and has (at least) three sub-classes.

They are, in increasing order of usefulness:

Miss Had Everything, Is Already Financially / Life Secure and "Threw It All Away"

You get a lot of this sub-type out of people who have successfully exited in a big way once from a startup, or are already wealthy from success in a corporation. They have plenty of money, and never have to work again, at least not for financial reasons.

When changing to something different, they're taking much less of a risk, although certainly they may be giving up some "status" and risk possibly ignominy if their new career blows up in their face - if they even care about such things.

These people are really dangerous, because there's not as many real world factors giving feedback to their actions. They're also usually eloquent or good communicators, which makes them even more dangerous when they're convincing you to "make the move".

That doesn't mean to discount their suggestions - often they're right on the money, and they definitely have some experience - but you want to do your due diligence on whether, despite their previous success, the current organization they're working with (the one you're considering) really holds up to some tough scrutiny. Or whether it's just their little indulgence.

Mr Thinks They Had Everything, but Changed Anyway

This person has the perception that they had everything, but in reality there was something flawed with their previous situation.

An all-too-common example is the very high salaried person who is desperately unhappy in their current role (a cliche but relevant nonetheless). On paper it looks crazy that they have stepped away from that to a (perhaps risky) opportunity, but in reality there was at least one significant reason to step away.

These people are still worth listening to, but you should take into account whether there really are hidden motivational reasons that lessen the significance of why they jumped, at least for you.

Miss Really Had Everything, Not Yet Rich / Secure and Risked it All

This person, at least in my opinion, is the most useful source of advice when they are in the organization you're considering joining.

A typical example would be a successful, happy and young tenured Associate or Full Professor in the American system (where tenure is incredibly valuable) who has quit their job to pursue a different role outside of academia. The interim not quite as convincing version of this is the academic who has taken a 2 year leave-of-absence - who still has that security blanket.

This person was already happy and fulfilled with their career, had a high paying position, a great team, great job security, was well-respected internationally. And has consequently thrown at least some of that away to pursue an opportunity they have hopefully both a) done their due diligence on and b) truly believe in.

These people are gold. Really, the only primary risks here are either that they have screwed up their due diligence, or that their life status is sufficiently different to yours that their decision doesn't directly transfer (e.g. you have a partner and kids, they don't and don't plan to and have chosen a role which requires 10 years of 80+ hour weeks).

Wrap-Up

Any analysis like this is flawed, in part simply because categories overlap and boundaries are fuzzy. It also isn't comprehensive and omits other categories.

But hopefully some of this is useful and resonates with people who've had similar observations. If I've missed something, or you have contrary views, I'd also love to swap notes! Let us know in the comments!

And happy decision making!

Michael Milford