According to research of 2,000 British people by Benenden Health, starting a new job is in the top 10 most stressful life events.
As a recruiter it is my role to support candidates and help them de-risk any potential new job move. We accept that moving roles is a big decision, regardless of what stage you are at in your career. The following blog post will suggest things that candidates can do to ensure that a job move is the right thing and the role you are accepting is right for you.
Table of Contents
Document Your Future Employment Needs
People move roles for a variety of reasons: feeling stagnant and unchallenged, a change in focus for the team/business, a change in line manager, the threat of redundancy, a conflict with a colleague, excessive working hours, change in flexible working policy, lack of promotion, or a feeling of being underpaid/undervalued.
In our coaching and recruitment practice we are always helping coachees/candidates identify what things they would like out of their current/future role, we refer to them as ‘hygiene factors’. We encourage candidates to rate their latest role (current state) against these factors and also assess where they would like to be (desired state) in terms of these same factors. This provides a great model with which to assess your ability to influence change in your current role or determine that a move to a new role is the only way to meet your future employment needs.
It also provides the basis with which to assess any future roles and can be a great tool to define (and ask) appropriate questions during the interview stage. It underpins quite a lot of our recruitment and coaching – please get in touch if you would like to have a session that focuses on this.
Understand Your Strengths
Strengths can be described as “underlying qualities that energise us, and we are great at (or have the potential to be great at)”. Most people have a good idea of what their top 3 to 5 strengths may be. Note that strengths are very different to skills. We at Red Tiger utilise a psychometric test called Strengthscope which provides a statistically robust framework with which to accurately identify and work on your key strengths.
In order for you to succeed in any role it is important to align the following three things:
- Skills, tools, and experience – necessary to do the job.
- Strengths – the role really leverages your identified strengths.
- Company goals – that you are aligned with what the company stands for in terms of values and objectives/goals.
A better understanding of your strengths can help de-risk a current or new job role. Firstly, for optimal performance you need to be in a role that plays to your strengths. It is also important to manage the exploitation of your strengths as you can also over-use strengths and this will have a negative impact on performance.
Secondly, it is a great tool to help your manager become a better manager (of you). A good manager will always want to play to someone’s strengths. Why wouldn’t they – if you perform well then they will look good as well?
Thirdly, if you are looking for a new role this framework can help in terms of determining the most suitable future roles to play on your strengths. This will maximise the chance of you being successful in your future role.
Fourthly, utilise these strengths in your CV and in an interview situation. You are naturally going to project in a more positive manner in interview if you are asked about examples of your strengths. Explicitly outlining your strengths (and Strengthscope) in your CV demonstrates to your employer that you are very self-aware of your own strengths and limitations.
If you would like to find out more about Strengthscope then please get in touch.
Research Companies/Roles for your Job Move
Once you have a better idea of your strengths and the types of roles it is then worth thinking about the prospective pool of companies that could be your future employer. It is worth being forensic on this company and team due diligence as this is your career at stake. Specific sources of good insight into companies can be found in the following places:
- Company websites – particularly researching around their values, aims and objectives. Plus look at their careers sections for potential vacancies.
- LinkedIn – following companies, researching teams, and connecting with any potential hiring managers. Look at attrition levels, how long people have been in role to get a feel for how long people tend to stay.
- Google – particularly the news search – will give you a good idea of what the recent issues impacting the business are.
- Third party websites such as Glassdoor – please ensure you get a balanced view from such reviews to form an opinion about a company’s suitability for you.
- Network with people who work or have worked at such organisations – it is worth speaking to a small number of people who currently work there or have worked there to form a balanced view. Be armed with a standard set of questions for them.
- Use AI tools such as ChatGPT to do the heavy lifting for you – ask to summarise the business in terms of business performance, outline other key statistics (e.g. CEO name, revenue for last 5 years, number of employees, number of stores, top 5 recent news items etc).
Utilise Help Before and After You Start in a Role
There are two clear areas to potentially explore when looking at a new potential role.
- Interview process – Utilise the interview process to do further due diligence and to fill gaps in your understanding about the role/team/company. This may also be an opportunity to cover off questions about the hygiene factors that you identified as part of the first section above. If you forget to ask any questions it is perfectly acceptable to follow up with further questions after the interview.
- Transition Coaching – One of the areas we help at Red Tiger is in supporting coachees/candidates transition into their new job. This is a short burst of coaching support, typically starting 1 month prior to starting and continues for 3 months into a new role. The aim is to ensure that you land in the role appropriately and then continue to deliver in order to pass your probationary period with flying colours.
Hopefully, these areas will give you enough time to ensure you have de-risked any significant move. One deliberate omission is to seek counsel from your partner. Of course this is necessary and important, but it is also important to get support from someone who doesn’t have a vested interest and can give completely unbiased opinions and advice.
If any of this post resonates with you feel free to get in touch with one of our recruitment consultants to discuss.
0 Comments