"Accepting a Job Offer"

"To Accept or Not to Accept"

Congratulations! You’ve just received that ever-elusive job offer you’ve been waiting for since the moment you realized you were actually going to graduate. The salary you’ll receive will finally pull you out of the "starving student" income status. No more resumes (for now) and no more nagging from your parents (for now). You will finally get a chance to put your degree to work, instead of vice versa.

So your problems are all over, right? Wrong! In actuality, they could be just beginning if you make a hasty decision by accepting the right job, but for the wrong company.

Yes, it’s true that the average American worker will change jobs five or six times before he or she retires. But those six times could be stepping stones from one nightmare company to another if you’re not careful; trust me, I know the feeling all too well.

While most college graduates focus on money, benefits, and job location, one of the most overlooked areas when it comes to job satisfaction is the organizational culture (i.e., how things are done and how you will fit into the scheme of things). "Job dissatisfaction" is caused when there is a discrepancy between what you want and what you actually get from a company.

According to a study that was conducted by Ohio State University (OSU), the key to "finding the right company" is by asking the right questions before you accept the job. And you can only ask the right questions when you’re focusing on the right things. OSU offers the following questions to ask in assessing a company’s organizational culture:

Assessing Organizational Culture

1. Telephone:
Observe: Are calls answered immediately or after several rings? Do they keep their customers waiting for an extended period of time? Are they polite to their callers or impersonal? Do they treat callers like they are anxious to serve them or as an inconvenience? How did they respond to you when you called? Did they return your call promptly?

2. Physical setting
Ask to speak to a recent hire, and ask him or her the following questions: How are newcomers greeted? Are there extended delays in procedures and the processing of paperwork?

Ask yourself: What does the office setting communicate to you? Is the setting consistent for all? What values are being communicated? Ask about these and other aspects of the setting.

3. Written Communication
Observe: Are there internal (i.e., memos) and external messages (i.e., brochures communicated professionally? Is their communication consistent with their image?

4. Observe employees (Consider the emotional climate)
How are the people dressed? How do the employees interact with each other, customers and management? Is management visible, and do they interact with employees and customers.

5. Observe meetings
Ask to attend their next staff meeting: How is the agenda created? Who gets to speak? How is conflict addressed? What is the content of the meeting? What seems to be important to the organization?

6. Interview employees
What are the employees’ perceptions of the company’s: history, success, customers, advancement opportunities, management feedback, decisions making, communication, conflict, etc.?

7. Interview customers (if possible)
Ask them: Who really runs the place and seems to call the shots? How are you treated? Would they like to work for a company like this?

8. Listen for stories
Observe: What do the others (employees and management) seem to talk about most?

9. Observe the language
What kind of language does the company generally use? Is the language mostly formal or informal? Do most people employees speak passively or assertively; in positive terms or negative terms; about lack or abundance?