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Investigating Company Culture
John Sullivan is a working project manager who writes and speaks on project and career issues.
Most of us know someone who left a job because “It just didn’t feel right.” The relationship with the company and the personality, practices and customs of the workplace--collectively known as corporate culture--is a significant factor in job satisfaction. The perfect culture doesn’t exist, but self-knowledge and research can increase the probability of finding the right one.
Before you even start looking for a position, think about what you like and dislike in your current workplace and factor that into your search. Personality tests and exercises in career books can help you discern preferences and define your cultural requirements, reducing the chances of having to leave a new job within a year because you did not “fit in.”
When Marty Lewis lost his business analyst position during a restructuring, he was determined to find a culture he would fit. “Though I was in a tough spot financially,” Marty said, “I still maintained some level of cultural restriction--even at the cost of being unemployed longer.”
There are two basic ways to gather information: through people, what spies call “human intelligence”; and through information available to the general public, known as “open source” intelligence.
The Internet is the best open source, and you can start …
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"Maybe this world is another planet's hell." - Aldous Huxley |