Brian Gongol
Ask yourself the following questions about a new job opportunity:
- Would you be working for someone smarter than you? There's no point to working for someone who's dumber than you.
- Does the company you'd be working for have some kind of durable competitive advantage in the marketplace? (The safer their earnings power, the safer your paycheck.)
- Would you be developing skills that will be increasingly valuable with time? Some jobs are much closer to going obsolete than others.
- Can you filter out the "blue-sky" sales pitch you undoubtedly got from the recruiter and still see something really good about the company even with the filter removed?
- Will you be working at something that's at or above your comfort level? There's nothing rewarding about working at a job where your skills and knowledge will be vastly under-used.
- Do you think you'll find something interesting or rewarding about the job beyond just the paycheck?
- Do you have any prospects of future ownership, partnership, or profit-sharing in the business?
- Are you going to be able to live where you want and travel when you like?
- Is the company likely to stay independent, or is there reason to believe they'll sell out to someone else while you're there? (Sometimes you'll benefit from a merger, but many mergers and acquisitions make the affected employees completely miserable.)
- Are you going to move up a pay grade and/or get more vacation time and/or get better benefits out of the move?