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What are factors in choosing a job?

What factors do new college graduates forget to consider when choosing between job offers?

  • I'm current choosing between software development offers from Google and Square, so any firsthand experience from these companies would be especially beneficial.

  • Answer:

    I worked for Google and I work for Square, so make of it what you will. I'll also try to present an unbiased list of criteria to consider. Consider the amount of new things you could learn, not just from opportunities to play with new technologies, but much more importantly from access to mentors and other senior people. Anybody can find and install the newest and latest language/framework/toolkit, but the wisdom and experience of senior developers (and their inclination to share with you) are the true lessons you should be trying to learn. Consider the opportunities for movement, both horizontally and vertically as you grow in skill and reputation. You probably won't want to be doing the same thing 5 years from now (or perhaps even in the same company), so you want to find something that gives you that flexibility and career advancement. Consider how the company is organized around the engineering. (at least of Google and Square, this is mostly true) As an engineer, you don't exist in a vacuum with other engineers on your team; you have to interact with other teams, designers, product folks, business people, and once in a while, executives. How the company works as a collection of differently skilled groups is going to determine what it's able to build. Consider the people working there around your own age. Particularly for new grads, the people they usually end up hanging out with are the people they get along with at work. The friends that you make on your first job can grow to be lifelong buddies. Consider the networking you'd receive while doing your job. If you do good work, your colleagues will remember you, especially when they move on to new opportunities. This matters more if you'd want to be an early employee/cofounder at some point at a potentially hot startup, but also if you want an inside track at a bigger company.

Allen Cheung at Quora Visit the source

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Seconded on Allen; consider how difficult it is to move within the company.  The odds of your first position being the perfect job for you?  Astronomically slim.  If you wanted to transfer to another team, what are the policies around that?  Do you need to re-interview?  Do you need your manager's permission?  How often on average do people in your position move between teams? Consider vertical movement as well.  With time, hard work, and skill, would you be eligible to be promoted to your manager's position?  How about to their manager?  To CEO?  Some companies are staffed by engineers top to bottom.  Some are sales all the way to the top.  Some are MBAs.  I've found that managers treat employees measurably better if they have similar qualifications, so this is hard to overrate.

Dean Jackson

Congratulations on having multiple offers - take a moment to enjoy the flattery! I've spent my career helping employees decide on career opportunities. I'll share with you a few things that have helped them. Do your researchNot just on the company, the team, and the job (although it's very important to do this as well), but also research your motivations for doing what you do for a living. Do you go to work everyday because you enjoy solving problems? You like to travel? Ambiguity excites you? Understanding your motivations will help you identify the roles that are right for you. Evaluate the roleIt's easy to get distracted by compensation or the thought of how a brand name employer will look on a resume. What is more difficult is to think about the long-term by maximizing the important stuff in the short term. Research has shown that those who maximize job stretch and growth in the short term, earn significantly more in the long run than those who chase compensation. Will the opportunity presented to you allow you the ability to stretch and grow in your role? Do as Bryan Cranston doesIf all else fails, I suggest trying the Cranston methodology to job offer acceptance. I wrote a post about this on LinkedIn. If you enjoy what you read, please click the "like" button: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-bryan-cranston-decides-which-job-take-alex-mooney

Alex Mooney

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