The Fish Mentality!

Each and every one of us at some point in our careers feel the need to change their current job, either by moving on to another opportunity, or by simply retiring. This article is about the folks who want to move on to another opportunity. In my experience going through so many contracts and permanent positions so far in my career, I think I have a good handle when giving advice about changing jobs.

We - as human beings - are different than fish because we learn from our own, or others’ mistakes. Fish on the other hand, since the beginning of time, still fall for the very same mistake much to their demise, by eating the bait.

Again, as human beings, we share our experiences with products, people and companies to fulfill a natural urge to not let any other human being fall for the very same painful experience we had. However, there are still some of us today that do indeed have that fish mentality. They fall for the very same mistake someone else made, because they don’t do their research about where they are going before stepping out of their current position, they just follow the high rates or the benefits, in other words the bait!

So, as someone who has been in this predicament before, here are a few of my tips to help you make a good decision before jumping quickly to another job.

Glassdoor

this website is basically a place to anonymously share a certain experience one has had with a certain company. This website comes in very handy and people are voluntarily (and most of the time very fairly and honestly) share their experiences at a certain company. So keep that in your favorites list in your browser. You may not need it right now, but you may in the future and I’m sure a friend or family member will.

LinkedIn

this network has so much gold if you dig enough, for instance, LinkedIn will tell you the percentage of employees leaving or joining a certain company, so when you see a given company’s employees are getting fewer and fewer every year, that’s a bad sign, but not a deciding factor, so do not make it your only sign.

LinkedIn also allows you to search for people who worked for a given company before, you can simply search and have a personal message to ask someone about whether you should join or not. Usually people are very helpful when it comes to asking them about previous experiences, if you ask the right questions, for example: would you go back again to work for this company? Or something like - if I were to choose between this company and another, what would you recommend? Questions such as these can be very helpful.

Google

of course, if you put a given company’s name between double quotes “SOME COMPANY” Google will specifically find every single mention of this company all over the web. People tend to leave very informative comments on forums and public mailing lists that you may not find in Glassdoor or LinkedIn, so this is an important resource too.

Recruiters

Recruiters are an infinite source of information when it comes to where they recruit, they know the ins and outs of every client, candidate, consultant, you name it!

recruiters will not lie to you if you ask the right questions - a question like, “have you recruited for this client before and is the consultant still there?” Inquiries voiced this way could unveil some very interesting insights about whether you should make that move or note.

Recruiters make it their job to gather facts and are full of information about certain clients and consultants. If you ask the right questions you will get very interesting answers.

Your guts!

follow your instinct - go into the company and ask to spend a day there, walk around and talk to people, see how you feel, most of the time your gut won’t lie to you. It’s very easy to sense tension in the air or some pretentious attitude if you are observant. Even the most professional “actors” can’t stay in the “role” for very long, so experience the place and find what you feel.

Friends and Family

explain your situation and whys and the what’s of your desire to leave a certain place and join another Oftentimes, a friend or a family member might know someone who has been in that place before, and maybe they are not on LinkedIn (yes, that’s possible) or Glassdoor, but they may give you very interesting insights about the place and whether you should move or not.

Friends and family also love you for who you are, so they will purely give you advice because they want what is best for you and your happiness, so take their opinions very seriously.

“Life is short, work somewhere awesome!” Some dude on the internet