Ah, happiness. Everyone wants it, not everyone gets it. It’s important to realize you deserve happiness at work, and part of ensuring it entails being particularly keen on evaluating several important factors during the job interview process.
When it comes to being happy at work, not all companies are created equal. To help make sure you find your happy workplace, here are a few key topics to ask about during job interviews to help you evaluate your prospective employer to see if they’re a fit.
[See: 14 Best Jobs for Work-Life Balance.]
Compensation and benefits, safety, career development, challenging work
While all of these factors can certainly stand on their own, they’re intrinsically linked to not only human resources, but the internal fabric of the company. By doing your due diligence, you’ll be able to determine if the compensation package along with benefits seems fair, but does there seem to be a trajectory for growth and an investment in learning?
You can ask each person you interview how long they’ve been in the position and what training opportunities there have been and if there’s a budget for professional development. The answer to the budget question, typically from your prospective boss, will provide a lot of insight.
Ask about challenging work projects and how you can grow into the position. You may even want to say something like, “I have an insatiable appetite to be challenged by my work on a daily basis. Right now I take on extra projects to continue learning and I read a lot of industry trades to stay on top of the trends. Would this be a possibility in this role?” Watch the person’s body language and listen to what they say. A typical reaction might be, “Of course!” Then you can press further (remember, you’re interviewing them as much as they’re interviewing you) by asking to give you an example of the possibilities.
[See: 10 Reasons to Quit Your Job Already.]
Company culture, communication, leadership support, accessibility
It’s important to assess whether or not you’re a fit with the company while simultaneously seeing how effective they are at communicating with others, how accessible leadership is and if they are a transparent organization.
You can learn a lot by observing not only what the office looks like, but what it sounds like. Is there a lot of interaction and activity or does it seem pretty quiet (sometimes that’s the nature of the work as well; an accounting department crunching numbers may not be as interactive as a collaborative, brainstorming marketing team). But, overall does it seem to be bustling and do you prefer that environment over others?
As for communication, this is particularly helpful if you have a lunch interview. How does the hiring team interact with each other? While it may be difficult to assess the company’s communication style and accessibility, you can ask if there are all-hands meetings, how often the department meets and if they encourage open door policies (and if people actually use them).
[See: 8 Ways Millennials Can Build Leadership Skills.]
Job security, work-life balance and working conditions
Happiness at work can be synonymous with not only knowing you enjoy your work, but knowing that you have a job and you’ll have it for a while. Of course nothing is guaranteed in life, but during an interview you can ask about the future of the department and the company as a whole. Also, if you heard about the company in the news possibly getting acquired, or the opposite — expanding — ask about that too! If they are in the midst of an offshoring or AI project, they may not exactly tell you, but you can get a sense from the interviews as to why the position is open and what direction the group is headed.
Work-life balance is always key and you can get a sense of what’s expected of employees during the interview by asking if the team is in the office all of the time, if they travel or if they work remotely. Similarly, by observing working conditions you’ll get a sense if you can see yourself working in that environment — e.g., a space without windows that may seem cold, dark and drab versus one where everyone is given a laptop on day one and works in a spacious office.
Overall, among a variety of these workplace factors, you should rank which one is most important to you and prioritize accordingly. By having a plan and doing research prior to your next interview, you’ll be able to fully assess the company on a variety of dimensions.
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How to Be Happier at Work originally appeared on usnews.com