What to consider in a job offer

Luna Schrøder
Luna Schrøder

Work is made up of many factors, so as employees it is on us to consider all these aspects and reflect critically if we think we could be happy and do a good job in the company. It will be worth it to think about the following aspects:

The job contents

Of course, companies try hard to make a job description sound interesting, but sometimes they will go too far and not reflect the actual position anymore. As a perceptive applicant you can quickly realize this during an interview. Make sure to ask questions about your tasks, what a normal day for you will look like and specifics on what will be expected of you in the various areas. Through this, you will see if the job description matches the position you are talking about in the interview.

If you find out the job content is merely a fraction of what the description promised you will quickly become bored and will return to searching for new opportunities. Also, it may not be a step forward in your career, so the motivation to change jobs may have been removed entirely. In this case, it may be best to simply say no right away.

Contrarily, it may also happen that in the conversation you find out about more and more tasks you will be responsible for and leave the interview feeling overwhelmed. It may be a sign that the company itself is not yet clear on who they are looking for, which can be a clear warning signal. If you are not confident in being able to do the job or if you feel that this may be part of an inherently unstructured process, you may be better off keeping your options open and continuing to search for the perfect fit.

The work environment

Work is always embedded in the context of a company and a team, which plays an important role in how satisfied we are. You can only partially see how a team works in the first contact and interview, but often this will give us enough insights to develop a gut feeling. If you have the chance to see the interaction between team members this can be a good indicator of the corporate culture and team spirit. Watch carefully and think about how you see yourself fitting in.

The contract

The contract is the legal framework of your employment and as such, it should be read very carefully. If there are clauses that have not been discussed in any way before, or if topics are not recorded as agreed, we get justified doubts. Try to clear them up and see if you get an open and honest response.

Payment is a subject close to the contract. Surely we already talked about salary expectations in the interview and specific figures will likely have been named. As such, the contract usually bears little surprise about the figure, but if it does it should be a clear warning sign. Beyond the salary, there will be other contractual terms to consider such as vacation days, the option of a home office and working hours, which can be important aspects of how comfortable we feel and how well the job suits us and our work-life balance.

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