Defining a Good Job
How to differentiate a good employer from a bad one and know when to change jobs.
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TL;DR
- Good jobs compensate fairly, play to their employee’s strengths, and have a supportive culture.
- Research the market value of your experience to compare against your current compensation and use for negotiation
- Ask questions before accepting a job offer to determine whether an employer values transparency, inclusiveness, and respect
- Unpaid internships, multi-level marketing roles, and careers in declining industries are riskier jobs
Once you have a job, how can you tell whether it’s worth staying at? The gold standard for any job is to enjoy going to work most days, even if you don’t enjoy work every day. This standard may seem unrealistic, especially early in your career. Therefore, if you don’t enjoy your job now, it should at least develop your experience towards a job you expect to enjoy more. In general, enjoyable jobs compensate fairly, play to their employee’s strengths, and demonstrate a supportive culture.
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Compensation
Determining whether you are paid fairly is a matter of identifying whether the market value of your employment experience aligns with your current compensation package. Your employment market value depends on several factors, including job title, years of experience, education level, additional skills or certifications, and how these qualities compare to others in the job market.
To view salary ranges for a given position, search postings online and review career salary data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For a comprehensive analysis, online salary databases like Payscale.com reference crowdsourced information to provide an accurate outlook of your suggested compensation and opportunities for growth.
Payscale shows your anticipated market worth over time and suggests skills to further your value.
Get a sense of what you should be paid by comparing your experience against the average salary range for your position. While some jurisdictions require employers to be transparent about their salary ranges, many do not, so additional diligence can be necessary to understand what you should be paid.
In addition to online research, you can contact your network for qualitative input. If you choose to broach the subject with your coworkers, these conversations are easier (and oftentimes more reliable) before you accept a job offer, so consider asking questions before joining a company.
When evaluating pay, remember to consider the non-wage components of your compensation, including bonuses, accrued benefits, and equity compensation programs. Think about the workplace benefits most important to you and whether your job appropriately budgets for them. You can further research standards for non-salary compensation on the BLS website.
Keep in mind that your compensation is negotiable. Organizations often have the flexibility to increase pay or provide more competitive benefits to deserving employees. While you can negotiate pay anytime during employment, these conversations are typically done before accepting a job offer or during a performance review. In any negotiation, focus on why you are uniquely positioned to bring value to the organization and, therefore, deserve accommodation. While your goal may be to maximize earnings, the organization is incentivized to keep labor costs low, so come prepared and willing to negotiate other aspects of your employment.
In addition to salary, consider negotiating the role’s title, benefits, start date, vacation time, stock options, and remote work policy. Focus on your priorities, but avoid bringing up your personal life. For you, this is your livelihood, but for the organization, your job is an expense. Therefore, it’s worth entering the negotiation with a minimum acceptable offer in mind and letting the employer share their budget before you make any concessions. For a complete crash course in salary negotiations, refer to Yale University’s Job Offer Negotiations Packet.
Lastly, consider how opportunities for upward mobility contribute to how you feel regarding your current compensation. Enjoyable jobs provide employees with transparent, realistic performance standards, sometimes called key performance indicators (KPIs). Employers should have strategies to reward those who exceed these standards and assist those who don’t meet them. For example, organizations typically reward high performers with annual merit-based raises or a clearly defined promotion cycle. Regardless of approach, your employer should be willing to elaborate on the strategies they’ve implemented to develop and reward their workforce.
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Strengths
Jobs are enjoyable when you can apply your skills and interests to your work. Ideal workplaces should balance enabling employees to use their skill set while challenging them to become proficient in other areas. Enjoyable jobs will encourage you to pursue interests at work and may offer opportunities, such as mentorship programs or cross-functional projects, to promote skill sharing and knowledge transfer.
Culture
Culture is another crucial consideration that determines an enjoyable workplace. To learn about an organization’s culture, start by searching online. Websites like Glassdoor show anonymous employee reviews of the companies they work for. Because they are anonymous, you can generally find more honest feedback than if you asked an employee of the company directly; however, keep in mind how disgruntled employees could skew results. You can find additional resources to research an organization’s culture and determine whether it aligns with your values in Grow.
When evaluating an organization’s culture, qualities you should look for include transparency, inclusiveness, and respect.
Transparency refers to the willingness with which an employer provides information regarding both the company’s performance and the employee’s role within it. Organizations exhibit transparency by regularly sharing company-wide updates with all employees, providing clear standards for individual and team performance, and encouraging communication between employees and management. Employers should be honest in their feedback to employees and welcome input from them.
Inclusiveness refers to the extent to which different employees feel a sense of belonging and value within an organizational setting. Organizations that value inclusiveness create a culture that embraces unique ideas, perspectives, experiences, and people. Examples of an inclusive workplace include equitable hiring practices and internal efforts to support diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Respect refers to an organization’s ability to treat workers with dignity and common courtesy at all levels. A respectful work environment values communication, publicly recognizes employee achievements, and honors personal boundaries. Respectful organizations appreciate employee time spent outside of work and put policies in place to establish a healthy work-life balance.
A company’s culture is measured by its people. The behaviors of your coworkers, manager, and company management will determine your perception of an organization’s values. For this reason, try and get to know who you will be working with before accepting a job. You can do so by looking them up on LinkedIn, reaching out for a phone conversation or coffee, and asking them questions during an interview.
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Questions to ask
