Finding the BEST Place to Work

Finding the BEST Job Fit.

What to look for in corporate culture.

The question today is what shall I look for in a corporate culture? When I am doing a job search over the years as a career coach, and as a resume writer, I’ve watched the importance of corporate culture in the hiring process, get more and more imperative.

Culture is important to all of us. What is important to you? How will you know when you have found the best place to work? What is important to that particular entity or in a particular potential employer? You might like their products, their services. A lot of people today are looking for environmental activism, or initiatives that make life easier or emerging technology. That can be all part of their culture, but just because they’re in emerging technology doesn’t mean their culture is for you.

Think about, well, what do they discuss around the water cooler? What do they discuss in town hall meetings? Do they even have a water cooler? Do they host town hall meetings? That will be all part of your research to make sure you understand that corporate culture, because culture is just as important as the perfect fit for skills. In fact, I’m seeing now that people are hired for their culture, whereas they don’t have 100% of the skills, but they will fit into that culture and they pick up those missing skills quickly.

When you are looking for the best place to work, you need to fit into a specific corporate culture. What do you look for? You need to network with people who are already in that company and people who’ve left that company because they could be your best research source. They can tell you all about that company. What are their goals? Where do they hope to be in a few years’ time?

Do they value family-oriented people? Do they value childcare? What other benefits do they have? If you look today, Spotify, Apple, Amazon, even Bloomberg in London, which I visited a couple of times, they supply all the food at lunchtime or breakfast, you can collaborate with your peers. People who are totally different, the other end of the building, but you all building cohesion and collaboration. You all getting to know everybody in that company. So what do they embrace? Do they embrace silos or do they embrace collaboration across the company? You need to find that out. This is becoming very, very important. Many companies are going the extra mile to have town hall meetings to encourage you to be around the water cooler.

If you are in career transition, all want to advance your career. I will be thrilled to help you. I would be thrilled to chat with you.