Career Search and Expert Advice

How should I approach a phone interview?

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Blake

To save time in the early stages, some employers assess candidates by phone before inviting them in.

There’s nothing strange about this, it merely saves time and costs and is a way of sounding you out before a more formal face-to-face interview.

As always, the key is to prepare for this as you would any job interview with a clear understanding of your accomplishments, goals and strengths and why you are applying for the job etc.

Getting prepared

If you’ve never done a phone interview, set up a mock interview with a friend, or ideally a friend of a friend that you haven’t met before.

Ask them to phone you with a selection of real interview questions so you can practice your answers and get feedback from them on your performance.

Try to find out the names of the people you will be speaking to, their job titles and any other information you can get hold of. List out any questions you have, or notes you have made. You may be nervous and these will be useful when you are suddenly asked to say something.

Always have your CV, cover letter and any supporting materials laid out in front of you. Searching for them whilst an interviewer is waiting on line is going to distract you from what they are saying.

Also, keep a notepad or diary handy (and a pen that works) so you can keep a note of key points, such as contact details and dates for the next round of interviews. Make a note of holidays you have planned, and any dates when you may not be available for a second interview.

Staying focused

Speaking on the phone doesn’t come naturally to everyone and many of us only use the phone for speaking to friends, not for business purposes. Try to answer clearly and without sounding too ‘chatty’.

It’s actually possible to hear when people are smiling so try to remain positive throughout your time on the phone – like you are genuinely excited to be given the opportunity to talk to the interviewer.

A telephone interview need not be a tense time, but it is a formal interview.

Callers can often detect whether you are really listening to them so cut out the distractions and go somewhere you can concentrate. Let family or friends know not to disturb you during the allotted time.

If you’re taking the call during office hours – try and find a local park or other quiet area. The last thing you want is for your current boss to hear you touting yourself to other employers.

If you’re at home, remember that your voice, and the way you sound, is affected by your posture; whether you are slumped in an armchair or sitting upright at a desk.

It’s a good idea to dress in your work clothes and imagine you are actually sitting in front of somebody – this will make you feel more business-like than sitting in your nightgown or tracksuit.

Follow these tips and your caller will have been given exactly what they want, a responsive and positive interviewee and someone who is worth inviting in to meet in person.

Posted in Interviewing | 2 Comments

Keeping an up-to-date CV

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Blake

If you have ever went a significant period of time without updating your CV, you may know that it’s rather difficult thinking back and trying to remember your accomplishments, or the various details of a certain job. To avoid this you should keep a working copy of CV around, while you won’t want to add every little thing that you have done to it you should at least add in some of you bigger accomplishments so you will be able to recall them easier later on.

As you move along in your career it’s easy to forget about accomplishments that may attract potential employers. Also as you progress you will have a better idea of what employers are looking for, making it easier for you to tweak you CV to suit the open position. Make sure you keep up to date with what employers are looking for as well, and think of ways to translate your achievements and experiences into something that will stand out for the potential employer.

When going through your CV make sure to take out the fluff, a good way to determine if it’s fluff is to think about if it’s actual making an impact being written in there. If the answer to that is no you should think about removing it to make room for things that will make an impact. You should also consider that your original CV was based heavily on qualifications, while now that you are farther along in your career you now have more experiences and skills, these will make more of an impact when a potential employer sees these.

If you are quite far into your career path and you are having a hard time thinking back on everything you might have accomplished you may want to try and get in touch with some of your old employers to see if they can help you out. This may also be a good method of finding opportunities that you might otherwise not known about.

Getting yourself on the radar

Even if your not currently looking for a job you may want to go ahead and post your resume on some of the online job boards. Another good reason to do this is because often times thing happen suddenly if not unexpectedly, so it’s better to be prepared and ahead of the game.

When posting it on the job boards you may want to check and see if they provide the option for you to block certain employers from seeing your CV. Another bonus to updating your CV every time you have a major accomplishment, is that it often gets shuffled back to the top of the pile meaning that potential employers will easily be able to find it.

You never know when it will hit the desk of the hire manager at just the right time, this may even lead to you landing your dream job if you are lucky enough.

Posted in CV and Cover Letters | Leave a comment

Most Common CV Mistakes

Posted on March 10, 2010 by Blake

Here are some CV mistakes to avoid:

Unfortunately it’s very easy to make mistakes on your CV and is almost impossible to repair the damage done after an employer gets hold of it. This means that you must put in the extra effort avoid this from ever happening in the first place. Here is a list of the most common problems, and some tips to avoid them.

Grammar and Spelling: This is important even if the role doesn’t require you to write anything, this is because poor writing skills will show that you don’t care, and no employer wants that on there team. To prevent this from happening you should type your resume in a computer program that has spell check, but you must also proof read it after you are done. It’s best if you read it aloud this will help you to find the errors easier. If you can you should also find someone that can read over it, to spot any errors that you may have overlooked.

Lot’s of fluff: If your resume has a lot written on it, but is only making a few key points you should try to narrow it down a bit. The employer isn’t looking to read a story about your life or work history, they are just looking to find a few key elements that make you stand out from everyone else.

Tailoring: You shouldn’t use one general CV for every job out there, that’s because this is the CV almost every employer will ignore. Instead you should special tailor your CV and cover letter for the specific position that you are applying for. This will show the employer that you understand what the position is and a little about what it entails.

Highlight your achievements: Instead of just copying and pasting the responsibilities section from your last job description, try to think about what you actually did for the last company you worked for. Think of some of the things that you might have implemented to save money, time, or any other successful campaign that you might have lead while you were there.

Two-page CV rule: Your CV shouldn’t be any longer then two pages, remember that employers are busy people and may not have much time to look over resumes. Try to make yours short and to the point, you will want to just highlight specifics that will help to make your CV standout from everyone else’s. If you make your CV to long, if might get sent straight to the circular file instead of getting looked at.

Leaving out information: Try not to leave out any information, some people may do this on purpose because of there past employment history, or you may just simply forgot to include some things. You should read through you CV to make sure that everything is included and there are no blanks. It will be better to include this information rather than leaving it blank as employers will always assume the worst if they see something empty.

Avoid clichés: Many people use them to try and describe how important they will be for a company. However it’s often better to just leave them out and let your skills and experience do the talking for you.

Avoid being vague: Once again leave the fluff out, get straight to the point, employers are busy people and don’t have the time to try and figure out what you are trying to hint at. Instead try writing something specific that focuses on their company and what they might need from you.

Design: Unless you are applying for a design position you would be best served by a plain style CV. This means using an easy to read text that is printed in an easy to read size. You shouldn’t use a bunch of different font styles or make the print so small that the employer will have a hard time reading it.

Personal Information: Make sure that all of your contact information is correct. You don’t want to spend your time creating a great CV and then include the wrong phone number or email address. Also you will want to make sure that you include a professional looking email address on you CV, rather than one that looks more like a joke.

Posted in CV and Cover Letters | 2 Comments

How to Negotiate a Better Salary

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Blake

How do you make sure you get paid what your worth? If you would like to find out how much you are worth please refer to establishing your personal market value. The truth of the matter is that it’s easier to negotiate your salary when you are offered a job, rather than trying to ask for a raise after you are already hired. So it’s important that you know how much you are worth before going into a job and make sure that you are able to get that salary before excepting a job. However if you already have a job but would like to try and get more money the whole process is essentially the same it just may take a little more time and persuasion.

Negotiating a new jobs salary

If you have been offered a new job it’s important to keep in mind that you shouldn’t try to rush things, if you are looking to receive the maximum amount of pay. When you are going into the interview you should be prepared for anything that may get thrown your way, including numbers or questions of how much you think your worth. If the interviewer brings number directly to you in the interview you may want to ask for more time to think about the offer, this will help take the pressure off of you and give you time to think about it with a clear mind. Many times an interviewer will ask you what you feel you will be worth, so you should go into the interview prepared to answer this question. The best response to this question is to turn it around and place it back on them, by asking what kind of salary range they had in mind for the particular position. If you are already employed and just looking to see if you can find a better job offer out there you may want to include a basic number in your salary requirements, to get this number you should calculate your current pay and also include all your other benefits that you receive. Once you come up with this number you should then add a little more onto it, to give yourself some extra bargaining room.

Note: If you are desperately looking for a job this may not be the best method for you to use. However if you don’t necessarily need the job, you may also consider turning down the job, they may comeback to you with a better offer.

Negotiating a raise with your current position

If you already have a job but feel that you deserve a pay raise you should get yourself well prepared before going in and asking, as your boss will certainly question why you feel you deserve a raise. You should be able to present your case clearly to your boss, you should have an idea of what others in your field of work are getting paid, as well as the average experience level, and responsibilities. If needed you should be able to present some examples of the research you have conducted, only present this if necessary.

Here is a list of bargaining tools and tips, you should consider before going in and asking for a raise:

1.Examine what your experience and skills are, as well as what you bring to the company. Then take a look around to find out what others in the same line of work are getting paid. If it looks favorable for you to get more money, this will be a strong argument when it comes time to ask.

2.Keep in mind some of the other benefits you maybe receiving if you are specifically interested in getting paid more you may be able to use some of them as bargaining tools. If you are interested in other benefits rather than receive more money, you should bring that to the table as well, you could ask for anything from more time off, to increase benefits such as healthcare or a better pension.

Some other negotiating tools you may want to consider using, if you know other in the industry you could offer your employer some business contacts. You may also consider suggesting performance based salary increases, this shows the employer that you are willing to put in the extra effort but you would like to be rewarded for your troubles.

Consequences

Unfortunately things may not always go as planned. If you are negotiating for a new job you may lose out to another candidate who has just as many qualifications as you but is willing to accept a lower salary. If you are asking for a pay raise, does your company risk you leaving? If they do how much will it take for them to replace you?

As you might imagine whoever has the most to gain in these deals will likely lose out on the negotiation, as they will have quite an uphill battle to deal with. There are many other factors that make this a difficult situation to judge as well, so if you do go into this negotiation process you should keep an open mind and try to be flexible about these things.

Last but not least if you are able to close the deal make sure that you get it down in writing, and that it’s signed by both of you. This will make it harder to go back on at a later date. Also be sure that you don’t overlook anything in the process, (e.g. if it’s a new job will you have to relocate?). There of course are always other factors that you may need to consider that are special to your situation, but make sure that you consider every angle before going into the process and certainly before you settle on a deal.

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Companies Hiring in March

Posted on March 8, 2010 by Blake

If you are currently on the job market, March looks to be a good month for you. According to the latest research, it looks like most employers are expecting to either maintain or start growing their permanent employee levels. This study also show that employers are also looking to increase their temporary working staff within the next year, but this last one is to a lesser extent.

You may now be wondering which companies are looking to expand their workforces in the near future; if you are your in the right place. Below I have compiled a list of the top companies that are planning to workforce this year:

Amazon.co.uk they opened their doors in October 1998, and have been striving to be the world’s most customer-centric company. They try to create an environment were people can find and discover anything they might want, and enable them to buy it online. They offer a wide range of goods, anything from books, electronics, jewelry, to sports goods, and many things in between. They operate sites in a number of countries, from the US, the UK, Germany, France, Japan, Canada, and China.
Open positions: Amazon is currently recruiting new staff nationwide and in Ireland, Germany and France for jobs in senior management, engineering, management consultancy, recruitment sales and many other areas.

Barclays is a provider of banking and investment management services. They provide their services to over 20 million people in more than 60 countries. They have more than 110,000 employees around the globe which makes Barclays one of the top five financial institutions in the world. Barclays is equally focused on the quality of support they provide as an employer, and on helping their own people to be the best they can be.
Open positions: Barclays has a great demand for cashiers across the UK.

Centrica is an integrated energy company operating predominately in the UK and North America. Upstream they source, generate, process, trade and store energy. Downstream they supply gas and electricity to homes and businesses and offer a distinctive range of home energy solutions and low-carbon products and services.
Open positions: They have many open opportunities and challenges available in banking and finance, accountancy, IT, management, construction and more.

G4S is the world’s leading international security solutions group. They work in partnership with governments, businesses and other organizations to provide integrated solutions to security challenges. G4S has almost 600,000 employees, making them the second largest private employer in the world.
Open positions: Operating in more than 110 countries, G4S is always looking for committed individuals to join their team. G4S is looking to recruit meter workers on a national basis, to undertake the installation and exchange of electricity meters in industrial, commercial and domestic premises. Other positions are in business development, accountancy, education and sales.

Hertz is the world’s largest vehicle renting organization and operates from approximately 8000 locations in 145 countries worldwide. Hertz began 2010 with a head start after winning several awards, including “Best Car Rental Company in Europe”. This is no surprise, because in 2009 Hertz also successfully competed against its competitors by winning 16 awards, including the most prestigious award for “Best Car Rental Company Worldwide” — for the 16th time in a row.
Open positions: Hertz offers exciting career opportunities for starters but also for experienced managers. One of its offices is located in Swords, (near Dublin) Ireland, where they are currently expanding their team. Because of their expansion, Hertz is recruiting Dutch-, German- and French-speaking talent to join their winning team. Who wouldn’t want to work for the “2010 Best Car Rental Company in Ireland”?

Hilton is a leading global hospitality company, with over 3,000 hotels totaling over 500,000 hotel rooms in 80 countries and territories. The company already has over 100,000 team members worldwide who have access to a wide range of benefits, training and development support.
Open positions: Hilton has a variety of opportunities whether you are a seasoned professional or just starting out in this industry, e.g. in the areas of catering, hospitality, senior management or customer service.

Kellogg’s UK is a successful company that has created great products that continue to grow. In 1978, forty years after the first Kellogg’s UK factory was established in Manchester manufacturing Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies and All-Bran, a second was opened in Wrexham; at the time, one of the most progressive and modern food production plants in the world. Combined, the plants produce 230,000 tonnes of breakfast cereal every year. Kellogg’s employs around 2,000 people in the UK and more than 32,000 worldwide.
Open positions: Kellogg’s is regularly recruiting and always interested in speaking to people who are passionate about their careers and have experience or an interest in working in the following areas: Finance, sales, marketing, supply chain, food science, research and development, customer service, IT, HR, innovation, quality or manufacturing.

Total is one of France’s largest corporations and the world’s fifth largest publicly-traded integrated international oil and gas company, Total is committed to meeting growing energy demand while consistently acting as a responsible corporate citizen. Total operates in 130 countries and offers 500 different occupations.
Open positions: Total is recruiting nearly 8,000 new employees worldwide in 2010, both beginners and experienced professionals, who have all levels of diplomas.

The Nottingham University is dedicated to attracting and retaining the best possible staff. With over 6,700 staff in a variety of roles there are a range of job opportunities for a fulfilling and rewarding career. The University is a popular place to work with attractive award-winning surroundings, state-of-the-art facilities and a range of leisure activities which are hard to beat.
Open positions: The University of Nottingham has open positions for administrative and catering staff, housekeeping staff, researchers and technicians.

Posted in Job Search | 1 Comment

Ten Signs It’s Time to Quit Your Job

Posted on March 5, 2010 by Blake

For the past couple of years the current economy has helped to keep workers in the same position whether they liked the job or not. Often there are many employees that don’t like something about their job sometimes it’s what they do, other times it’s where they work. The big question however is, should I stay here and work where I am unhappy? Or maybe it’s time for me to start looking for someplace else where I might be happier?

The truth is that people quit their jobs for many different reasons, everything from coworkers to the boss. Maybe they found that it’s about impossible to move up in the company, maybe it’s the hours they work. Whatever the reason is, there may come a point and anyone’s career when it’s time to move on and try to find something better. If you are having trouble deciding whether or not it’s time to move on here are the top ten signs you need to start looking for a new job elsewhere:

Co-workers
They can either make the place that much better or they can be a total curse. If you find that your co-worker fit into the later category better than the first it might be time to start thinking about moving on. If they are constantly driving you crazy, irritating you, offending you, or distracting you from your job these are all very good signs that it’s time to get moving on. You may find that there are other ways your co-workers drive you crazy this is not an all inclusive list, if you find that you often want to tear your hair out at the end of the day, you should definitely start looking for another job.

If you hate going to work
If you are constantly waiting and dreaming of Friday, or when Sunday night rolls around and you are already dreading going into work tomorrow morning it may be time to start thinking about moving on. It happens to almost everyone at one time or another, and the last thing you want to do is hate your job that much. After all you are already spending 40+ hours a week there no need to make it that much worse on yourself.

If your not feeling challenged
Most people like to feel that they work challenges them, if you find that you are starting to get bored and your job is starting to seem to easy or repetitive, that’s a sign that you are in need of more responsibility or a change in roles. However don’t get confused, there is a difference between slacking off all day while work is piling up, and goofing off because all of your work is already done for the day.

The company is struggling
It no secret that many employer are struggling as a result of the economy, if you know or feel that your job may be in trouble as a result it maybe time to start looking for another. You should have another plan in place before leaving your current job of course, and something else you may possibly want to try before doing any job hunting. If you feel that your company is struggling and that your job might be in danger, you may want to approach your manager and ask him about your concerns before going any farther.

You don’t feel comfortable
It’s important that you feel comfortable at work at least to some extent. You should be able to get along with your colleagues, and they shouldn’t always be looking for away to one up you, or they might even go one step farther by stealing your ideas. Here are a few other reasons you may not feel comfortable working at this company, if your values or ethics conflict with the companies. Or maybe you prefer a little bit more casual style then what you get while working at your company. If you for whatever reason feel more uncomfortable than you think you should at work, this might be a signal that it’s time to start moving on.

Lousy Boss
You should have a good working relationship with your boss, however this is not always possible. If your boss prevents employees from creating a good working relationship, this maybe a sign that it’s time to move on. If a bad or even hostile relationship is created between the employees and the boss it may be hard to advance in the company or it may just make working there plain uncomfortable.

Your career has come to a standstill
If you have been working at the same job for sometime and feel that you ready for more responsibility it may be time for a change, but you should start your move out inside the company first. This means that the first thing you should do is talk to your boss or manager and let them know that you would like to make a change, and that you would like the chance to farther develop your skills and start reaching your goals. However if you find that this has gotten you no where it maybe time to take the search outside the company and start looking elsewhere.

You’re not getting the recognition you deserve
This is important you should feel like you are making a great contribution to the company that you work for, and part of this comes when people give you credit for your successes. If you find that you are contributing a great deal to your companies successes and not receiving any positive feedback it might be time to start thinking about moving on.

If the work environment is depressing
You should first understand that with the current economy there will be more ups and downs, however if you feel that you are experiencing more downs then you should be within your company it maybe time to start thinking about moving on. If you find that you are constantly feeling stressed out, depressed or you have a negative attitude because of your working environment, you should start thinking about moving on to find a more positive situation.

Burned out
Many people like to claim that their work stresses them out, but not all of them are really that stressed out by their work. In some instances this may however be true, if you find that you constantly have a heavy workload or loaded up with many projects and you don’t have enough help to complete these projects it may be time to move on. In these cases you will find that you will get burned out very quickly and you will not enjoy your line of work anymore.

If you find that you experience anyone of these signals you should start looking around and getting ready to make a change. However if you experience more then one of these it’s definitely time for you to get yourself out there on the market looking for a better place to work that keeps you happy and feeling challenged.

Posted in Workplace Issues | Leave a comment

Five tips for making a good first impression

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Blake

Anybody that has ever been to an employment interview can attest that acing the interview is no easy feat. Here are a few tips you can follow that will help you to prepare for your job interview and may even help to set you apart from other candidates.

One of the first things you can do to prepare is reviewing the job description, and make sure you know how to describe how your skills fit the requirements of the position. Also if you have previous work experience you will want to work in how your experience will be of benefit in this position as well.

You will want to go into the interview prepared, bring extra copies of your CV, as well as a list of references. Make sure that you dress appropriately, even if the company has a causal dress code you should dress up some, it’s better to be slightly over dressed than it is to be underdressed.

You should also know what to expect and prepare a response to some of the more common questions. Hire managers often ask “why do you want to work for this firm?” and “what makes you fit for this role?”. When preparing your responses for these questions you will want to say them aloud to yourself or even ask a friend to listen, this way you can make sure that your answer to clear and to the point.

Go into the interview with the right attitude, and remember to be confident but not arrogant. Show the interviewer that your engaged by making eye contact, also respond to what is being said either by answering or nodding your head. You will also want to take into consideration your body language, and avoid doing things like slouching in your chair this indicates that you are bored.

This is the part that many people leave out, you will want to follow up after the interview. You can do this by sending a thank you note to the hiring manager. This should be just a brief note thanking them for their time and you can also reaffirm your interest in the position, this will show that you are a professional and that you are really interested in the job.

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Five Tips for Improving Your CV

Posted on March 1, 2010 by Blake

Whether you are already looking for a job, or getting ready to go on the hunt, you should make sure you get your CV into tip top shape. However you may be wondering how do I get may CV looking good and make sure that it stands out when potential employers look at it.

Let’s take a quick look at what your CV is designed to do. It’s designed to do pretty one thing and one thing only; get you a job interview. The problem is that most recruiters only spend about 30 seconds glancing over your CV, which means that you need to make it stand out and grab their attention quickly in order to sell yourself.

Without any farther ado here are five tips to make your CV stand out from the crowd:

1. Personal Statement

It’s important that you add a personal statement about yourself, to simplify this think about it as a news headline or the opening of a movie. It has to grab the attention of whoever is looking at it, in this case the recruiter. You will want to have something written up there that will grab their attention and make them want to read on and find out more about you. However a word of advice you will want to avoid writing something cliché on there that they have likely seen many times over, instead come up with something original about yourself.
It may farther help you if you think of it as an advertisement about yourself, as with advertising agencies that pay large sums of money to create headlines that will grab peoples attention. This is what you should be going after when creating your “headline”. Use language that will outline and explain what benefit’s the employer will be able to look forward to if they hire you.

2. Layout of your CV

First of all you will want to limit your CV to a maximum of two pages. On the first one you will want to focus on your strengths and demonstrate what you will be able to offer to the company as this is the most important page being that employers will see this one first. If you choose to your CV two pages the second one should focus on your career history and your personal details. Most of the time you will be advised to structure your CV the other way around, however it’s important that you let the employer know what you offer right away so they know if you offer what they are looking for.

3. Skills

If you are posting your CV online, it’s important for you to know that many are being placed directly into a keyword searchable databases and there are three key skill types:

Transferable: these are skill learned in one field that can easily be taken into a different field easily.
Job-related: these are skills that are directly relevant to a specific job.
Adaptive: these are skills that are often difficult to substantiate because they cannot be proven by experience rather they have to be proven by personality traits.

You should definitely include the transferable and job-related skills in your CV as these are the most desirable skills any employer will be looking for. You will want to include that ones that will make you stand out the most, here are a few of the most popular skills: communication, teamwork, initiative, problem solving, flexibility, computer skills, and technical skills. Keep in mind that it’s best to keep your list short and sweet, you may even want to specially tailor your list depending on what position you are applying for, having a CV that is targeted will be much more effective than a lengthy one.

4. Employment history

This is the section that employers will spend the most time looking at, so you will want to structure this to quickly convince them that you are right for the position. There are different formats that can be used to communicate your employment history to the employer, and depending on what stage of your career you are in will determine which type you will use.

Chronological: You will want to use this style if you are applying for a position that is similar to the one that you already have and can show a track record of gradually advancing your career, this CV is ideal.

Functional CV: This format is recommended for those who have been out of the workforce for a prolonged period of time or those seeking to change careers because it focuses on the experience and skills you have that are relevant to the job you are applying for instead of employment dates. Replace the traditional ‘Company,’ ‘Job Title’ and ‘Date’ headings with the ‘NAME’ of the most important skills and experience that you have developed through paid employment, voluntary work of general life experience.

Combination CV: Although redundancy and job hopping have become more commonplace today, but having several employment dates will still signal red flags for potential employers and may harm your chance of securing the job that you want. Counter this by ‘dividing and combining’ your employment history. To setup this style of CV:

Split your Employment History into two sections: ‘Relevant Work History’ and ‘Other Employment.’

In the first section, you will want to list the positions that you have held which demonstrate your ability to do the job you are applying for, do this in chronological order. Also include a brief paragraph that enables you to quantify what you have done. For example, “Significantly increased revenues and grew client base by 35%”.

Then you can include the ‘Other Employment’ section underneath where you may list the details of your other previous employers.

5. Education

Depending on your situation while dictate where you place your education section, if it will enhance your CV you will want to place it closer to the top. If you have recently graduated, obtained excellent academic results or even if your still studying towards your professional qualification, you may want to position this right under your personal statement.
However if you are already out in the workforce you will want to include your employment history over top of this section. This will give you the chance to highlight your career achievements and experience.

Posted in CV and Cover Letters | 1 Comment

Considerations Before Accepting a Job

Posted on March 1, 2010 by Blake

In today’s economy searching for a job is very hard, so when you hear back from an employer you are more likely to become very excited. This also makes you more likely to except any job offer that comes along, but should you?

Sure you may be needing to collect a paycheck, however you should consider your options and investigate weather working for this potential employer has any disadvantages. If you can make due without collecting a paycheck for a little while longer depending on the situation you might consider waiting for a better opportunity to come along.

Carefully review the job requirements and description

One of the first things you should do is review the jobs requirements, so you will know what your responsibilities would be, as well as your key tasks, and who you would have to report to on a regular basis. I would also recommend that you answer the following questions for yourself:

Will I enjoy my daily tasks?
Will I be challenged?
Is the job right for my level of experience?

Will I have to and am I willing to make any required changes? Will these affect my quality of life? (e.g. commute, hours, travel)

If you answered no to any of these questions you may want to consider looking else where for a job. I say this because if you are going to have fundamental problems with the job itself you will not be happy working there for very long. If it’s just something such as a lower starting salary then what you think you deserve, you may still want to consider taking the job as you may end up getting a raise quickly if you prove your worth.

Research the company

You may want to find out how they treat their employees and what the work environment will be like. If they don’t treat their employees very well you may want to reevaluate whether you would like to work there. Another red flag might be if the company has a high turnover rate.

Consider what the work environment will be like as this will affect how you will feel daily, so it’s important that you feel comfortable there. An example of this may be if you are used to a fixed schedule and working in a corporate environment, so you would most likely be unhappy in a more informal atmosphere.

Compensation

You will want to review the compensation plan, and compare your salary to that of industry standards and maybe even how much you earned in your last position. You will also want to review the benefits package, and consider how good they are. Remember that sometimes the benefits will make up for the lack of compensation.

There are also other things you should take into consideration such as how many hours you will be required to work, or maybe the company offers you the option to telecommute saving you both time and money. Something else to consider, if the potential employer doesn’t currently offer a benefit that is really important to you maybe consider asking them if it can be included for you. A good example of this maybe tuition reimbursement for seeking professional certification, most employers will appreciate that you are working to improve your professional skills so it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Opportunities

Also you may want to inquire about the opportunity for career growth, there is nothing worse than getting stuck in a job that is going to lead you nowhere. While you may accept a position to get your foot in the door, getting stuck in the position for an extended period of time may eventually take a toll on you.

Here are some tips to help you get a realistic idea of growth opportunities in the company:

Find out who held the position before you.
If you have a manager find out where they started out.

If you find the answers for these questions don’t quite fit with the idea of promoting from within, you may consider going back on the hunt for another job opportunity.

If you take all of these issues into careful consideration they will help you to decide whether or not to accept the job offer, to negotiate farther, or to reject it altogether. If after following all the above advice you still aren’t sure what you would like to do, think everything over and see what your gut tells you to do. Or you may want to dig deeper into things, possibly come up with some of your own questions that you would like to ask, or just find out more information about the company. After all making the leap into a new career is a big step and decision, and shouldn’t be something that you rush into without considering everything (pros and cons), you may end up regretting it later.

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