The Ideal Script
“Should I take this job?”
I get that question quite often. When you are a headhunter, people tend to think you are in a position to opine on the relative merits of most job opportunities, kind of like one appraises jewelry. It is like I am the guy hunched over a desk, looking at the job through a magnifying glass, assessing its nooks and crannies, its feel, its value, its intrinsic worth.
My usual response to the question “Should I take this job?” is “I don’t know.”
I will then listen to the things that the “job considerer” is mulling over:
“I think if I take this job, it will set me up for a bigger, better job in the future.”
No, it really won’t. I hate to tell you this, but no one is out there looking at you like you are a casserole in the oven, asking, “Are they ready yet?” A career is not played out on a chessboard, where you are making one strategic move at a time in response to the movement of other players and other “pieces” in the job market.
“It’s not my ideal job, and the company has many issues, and is in the middle of a turnaround, but hey, I won’t have to relocate!”
You know, if you are going to work for a crappy company, make sure it is inconvenient. You will not want to get to the office early, and you will want to have a long commute so that you exorcise the noxious, evil spirits that have invaded your soul by belting out several primal screams before you pull into the driveway back home and take out your frustrations on your spouse and children.
“I am not that excited about the job or the company, but they just keep coming after me, throwing dollars at me…they are paying “crazy” money. I mean, crazy money… If I take this job, my family will be set for life!”
Yo, dude…WAKE UP! If you were to get hit by all that money that they are “throwing” at you, it would hurt! I have been in the executive search business for nearly a century, and the conversation I am more likely to have with somebody is, “A couple of years ago, I joined this company…I knew it wasn’t the best situation, and I had questions about the CEO going into it, and they weren’t very upfront about their problems, but they were paying “crazy” money. .. I never saw a dime of it. And I was miserable.”
Most of the time, exorbitant amounts of money are paid by companies that are desperate.
Now, the possibility exists that there is an uncharted island somewhere in the South Pacific where all the people who have taken the crazy money are living. It is called “Teeheehee” (not to be confused with Tahiti) because everyone living there is giggling all the way home from the bank after depositing their crazy money.
After I listen to the factors the person is considering, I ask them these questions:
“Who are you going to positively impact in this job?”
“What do you see as the mission of the company? How do you ‘connect’ with the company’s purpose and what it does?”
And then I ask this:
“Forget about this job for a moment… If you were writing the ideal script for your life, personally and professionally…what would it be? What would you be doing? Where would you be doing it? What would the characteristics of the job be? What would the culture of the company be like?”
“Now, go back to that job you have been approached about. Would you write about this job and this company? How does this job fit into your “ideal” script?”
A job will never be perfect, and the job itself will never make you happy. In fact, too many people rely on their job as the one and only source of their happiness. It is but one source of joy and fulfillment among several.
And yes, you can find satisfaction and fulfillment working in a crappy job for a bad boss, as long as you have a net positive impact on others.
Note, I don’t recommend this, because, as we have often said, life is short – too short to be spent working for “jerks, whiners, or peacocks.”
Thank you for listening. It was cathartic.
Good luck spending your crazy money!
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