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Don’t Pick a Boss, Pick a Job

Written by Bernie

Bernie Frazier, SPHR is the Founder and President of CAREERCompass, LLC, a speaking and career coaching firm in St. Louis, MO. She also spent almost 25 years recruiting talent to six organizations across four industries and led the talent acquisition function for four of those organizations, including one global team.

I recently read an article entitled, “Don’t Pick a Job.  Pick a Boss.”  While the article made some valid points, I want to offer a different perspective.

After spending 25 years in Corporate America and having 17 direct supervisors, I can truly appreciate any person’s desire to have a great boss.  As the article stated, great bosses facilitate learning, welcome ideas from employees, believe in their employees and more.  Just thinking about these traits brings a smile to my face.

However, since I’ve helped to hire many professionals over the years, I’ve seen a number of people accept a new job with most of their decision being made based on who they were going to work for.  Then, within 1-6 months of their arrival, they see that boss leave for various reasons – promotion, transfer, resignation or termination.

So, now what?  They’ve accepted a position which probably wasn’t their best career move, and now they don’t even have the wonderful boss there to support them.  They’re stuck.  What is the advantage of accepting the position now?

When deciding whether you should accept a job or not, you should certainly consider the personality, work style, and business vision/goals of your potential boss.  But, what’s more important is to ensure the work you will do will “add bullets” for you.  What do I mean by bullets?  Will the work you do add to your knowledge, skills, and abilities that will make your resume stronger and make you even more marketable in the future?

In most instances, if your boss changes, your work will not. Therefore, you’ll still be able to clearly see the advantages of remaining with your organization in your role after the great boss has moved on.  Of course, you’ll be sad to see your great boss leave, but you can still add to your marketability in his/her absence.  Besides, no employer will make a hiring decision about you based on the fact that you had a great boss in your last role or have a great boss in your current role.  But, they will hire you if you’ve acquired additional education and training, led project teams, saved or made the company a lot of money, or increased efficiency by reducing cycle time!

Until next time….