This post has been transcribed from a recent LinkedIn video.
In September, the Clicky team got together for our first in-person social event in almost two years. Not only did seeing the team remind me of how nice it is to talk to actual people rather than a screen, it also got me thinking a lot about company culture, and just how important that is for job satisfaction.
One thing that everyone will be acutely aware of at the moment is that the job market is ridiculous. It's it's so competitive. It's so busy. There are so many people moving around, and there are so many companies actively recruiting. It goes without saying that it's tough for companies, but it's also really tough for candidates at the moment because they've also got to make the right decision for them on where to go.
Sometimes they've got 3, 4, 5, maybe even more options on the table when they're looking to move. That's a lot, and it's great that they have that choice. The downside to it is how do you pick the right one? And what happens if you pick the wrong job? If you pick the wrong one, will the right one still be open in a few months' time?
It is stressful actually trying to move to any role, and I sympathize with anyone who's looking to do that at the moment. Due to this, I thought I'd share some of my own advice on ways to choose your next move. This topic is particularly current for me as we're currently recruiting for a lot of roles across Clicky. All I'm going to share with you in this post is completely my opinion - take what you find useful, leave what you don't.
First of all, to get one thing out of the way, every company is going to offer you a salary. That's not necessarily a perk. Obviously some companies will offer you more than others. The key thing when it comes to salaries is just to make sure that you feel it's fair. Make sure that you feel your remuneration is fair for the job role that you're going to be doing and for the value you bring to the company.
I won't talk too much about specific figures because salary numbers are going to vary across various different job roles/sectors/regions. My only other tip on salary would be to not be afraid of asking what your salary progression would look like, whether that's over 12 months or a shorter time period.
Moving on from salary, one thing I'm going to go into in a little bit more detail is company culture. It's one thing being paid fairly for what you do. It's another thing entirely actually feeling valued and feeling like you fit in at your company.
This point is more important than it typically gets credit for. You can be paid lots and lots of money for a role, but if you hate what you're doing day in, day out, or you don't get on with your team or you dislike the values of your company, then it's not really going to make for a positive experience.
You'll make some money off the back of it, and that's great. Ultimately though, it probably won't be long term. And if it is, then you might see your mental health suffering as a result of it. So, one thing that I think is really, really important is getting that fit completely right. Doing this is such a difficult task - particularly when you're having to make that judgement based on the interview stage.
I've got a couple of tips on how to dig into that a little bit more. First of all, prior to any sort of real conversations, I would research that company. You can do things like browse their social media channels, or see if you can find articles written by their team. For instance, I write for both the Clicky blog, this blog, and occasionally on other sites such as SERanking. By taking a look through social channels & posts, you can get a bit of a feel for the kind of things that I'm interested in or the kind of personality that I have.
Obviously, anything that's put out by a company on social or in blogs is going to be tailored to a certain tone of voice, so you not get too much from that, but what you can do is hopefully find some individuals that work at the company and see the kind of things that they post on social media.
For example, I'm hoping that people that might be considering Clicky might read my posts or see these videos and see me as approachable/friendly.
The next thing when it comes to covering conversations with people from that company is don't be afraid to ask some probing questions. Zone in on elements such as their company values. That's something that any company should be able to tell you. They should be able to tell you exactly what their values are, what their ethics are and generally what things are important to them.
Anything around values is going to be a question that can give you a lot of insight into them as a company. I'd recommend asking questions around values either in pre-interview stage or your first interview.
The other thing area to focus on would be around their culture, how the team interacts, and how they would describe their own culture. You can do the whole, describe your culture in three words, but sometimes three words isn't enough. I tend to leave that open - typically you'll find that people will just keep iterating on the answer to that question which can be quite valuable in terms of insight.
Next, don't be afraid to just have more informal chats or informal conversations. Something that I like to do is just ask candidates about them as a person. After all, we hire people - so it makes sense to want to know more about what makes them unique.
As a candidate, don't be afraid to flip that around. Ask questions that will help you get insight into the people that you're going to be working with. I still to this day have not been asked what kind of things I like to do outside of work or anything like that, but I make sure to ask that question to any prospective candidates.
This type of questioning get people talking a bit more about themselves personally, which means that you can identify with them personally a little bit more as well.
In the current job market most candidates have a lot of options, so you can afford to be a bit more picky about who you work for and the teams that you work in. The main message from this post is just to look beyond salary and start to learn more about the company itself. Seek to understand how you fit into that company and what progression might look like for you at that company.
Obviously you're going in to a company to fulfil a specific role, but if you're going to be there long term and you fit with the company values then talk to them about progression. Ask for examples of people have progressed in the company as well, because it's always a good sign if people have been promoted from within.
To sum up:
Hopefully this post has been useful - if you did find it helpful then please do reach out to me and let me know. Also as I mentioned at the start, we're still hiring at Clicky so if you do want to discuss any of our open roles then I'd be more than happy to!