The Early Career Dilemma

For those who do not jump from job to job during the first several years of their working life there comes a point – usually within the first five years when they have to decide “do I stay here or do I move on”. While gut and instinct are always important, there are other factors to consider when deciding whether to stay with an employer early in the career.

Peers

Look at the people hired a year before you, those hired at the same time and those hired a year after you. Do they have comparable responsibilities? Have they moved from job to job within the company? Have they been promoted? Do they get more or less exposure at meetings and with task forces? If you look to this group and they are ahead of your in any of these categories, then it is time to move on to the other questions.

Geography

Are you happy where you are geographically? If not will the company move you to where you want to be (do they have operations there)? Can you live further away and commute? Can you work virtual office or telecommute? If the answers to these are “no”, then continue with the remaining questions.

Lifestyle

Do your co-workers work 60-80 hours a week all the time? Does that work for you? What is the pay-off for those hours? Does everyone come in early and leave early? Or do they come in late and work late? Do the people at your office socialize together whether via softball, drinks after work, entertaining and bar-b-q's or bowling? Or do people go to work and go home and not associate with those at the office. Regardless of the situation, is it one that reflects you likes, interests and values? That is a vital question.

Challenge

Are you doing the same thing you were hired to do five years ago? How many regular jobs have you had at the company? How varied were they? Have you been trained to do them effectively? Are you on task forces? Are you on committees for business issues? Are you challenged every single day and learning and growing in both expertise and responsibility. These questions say a lot about the company and how the company views you as a resource in the future.

Fit

How does the office environment fit? Is it casual? Is it formal? Is it rigid? Is it flexible? Do you feel like you are in elementary school? Or do you feel like you are in your Dad’s office? In other words is it a good fit for your style, personality and temperament.

Education

Do your peers have the same level of education or more or less? How about your boss and her peers? And how about her boss and her peers? Are you being encouraged to get more education? Have you done so? Are your peers pursuing further education? If you need an advanced degree and you are not pursuing one, it may be trouble. If you have an advanced degree or more and others around you do not have it, you may be seen as overeducated. And finally, if additional education is essential, will the company pay for it?

Travel

Are you a road warrior? Or have you never been beyond the office where you were hired. More importantly, to either extreme or in between, does it fit for you? Do you want more travel? Do you want less travel? Is either going to be the case in the near future? Either too much or too little travel can be early career issues.

Compensation

Compensation includes salary, bonus, other pay such as options or stock, benefits and 401K or other retirement and savings plans. First, look at salary.com for your job and your area. Are you paid within the range? If you are below, then you have an issue. Do the benefits work for your lifestyle? If not, you may have an issue. Are you on commission? Does that work for you? While the amount of pay is important, you need to look at the total compensation and benefit package. Think about your lifestyle and then do some homework in this area.

Beyond the question of peers, a negative response to any one of these categories may be the sign that it is time to move on. While this decision should not be taken lightly, any one of these factors noted above has the potential to trigger great pain and unhappiness in the life of anyone early in their work life.

George F. Franks, III is the founder and President of Franks Consulting Group – a Bethesda, Maryland management consulting and leadership coaching practice. He is a member of the International Coach Federation and the Institute of Management Consultants (USA). Franks Consulting Group is on the web at:
http://franksconsultinggroup.com

George’s new E-zine on Career and Leadership topics is at:
http://careerandleadership.com

George can be contacted at:
gfranks@franksconsultinggroup.com