Asia Resume
From Amazon to Google, the biggest companies in the world hire incredibly selectively and among fierce competition. But despite popular belief, the biggest thing you should be concerned about isn’t what Ivy League college you graduated from. Instead, you must make sure your values are comparable to those of your target companies.
Most job seekers fail to apply the most basic criteria to filter out companies. So often, we fall into the trap of applying to the “Best Companies to Work,” which actually puts us at a disadvantage. While those lists do a great job of boosting a company’s reputation and bolstering their applicant pool, it’s a false promise land for you as the job seeker.
When you use these lists as cheat sheets, you’re cheating yourself out of finding all the other great companies you could work for. You also fail to ask key questions about these “best” companies that will help you assess them for yourself. What criteria qualifies them as “the best?” Do these criteria sound like what you need to thrive? If not, then what do you really need to succeed at work?
We all know that companies hold most of the power during the hiring process. Hiring managers decide if your application is worthy of a phone call, they decide whether you proceed to the interview round, and they deliver the final life-altering decision. Along the way, you’re in the hot seat as they bombard you with questions to answer their million-dollar question: “Is this candidate the right fit for our company?”
But, what if I told you that instead of waiting for a company to deliver the news that you may or may not be quite the right fit, you could reject them at will? You can take back your power by instead sizing them up from the get-go. The main question you should be asking yourself: “Is this company the right fit for me?”
This question, the inverse of theirs, will grant you a job search that best serves you.
Brainstorm the things you value most in a workplace. Get clear about your own values and what values are most important to you at this time in your life. Your goal is to create your own personalized list of target companies with specific criteria based on these values. (If you don’t know where to start, use that same “Best Companies” list, but this time, as you go through, cross each company off the list if it does not overlap.)
Start researching companies online using the keywords that reflect your values. For example, if “diversity” is one of your core values, then finding a company that values diversity will be important for your success there.
You would first need to get clarity on how a company defines diversity. If you’re looking for companies that attract talent from diverse ethnicities, sociocultural backgrounds, sexual orientations and/or those other identities that reflect your definition of diversity, then you’ll have to take a closer look at each company. A prospective company with this value will prominently display it on its website and in its mission statement. If a company is agnostic in who it serves or employs (which most are), then you’ll have to do some deeper digging to find its diversity policy or web pages that emphasizes its commitment to diversity.
A good place to start your search for a company’s mission statement is on LinkedIn. Search for the name of the company (on the toolbar at the top of your homepage), then click on the company name, which leads to the specific company page. In the “Overview” or “Company Description” section, you’ll find a high-level summary of what this company does, how it does it, and who it impacts. Pay particular attention to the terminology on this page, especially as it pertains to company values. This will give you key insight into whether your prospective company is aligned with your own values and how it defines it.
As you continue your research, you can take what a company says at face-value or take it a step further. You’ll want to verify that a prospective company is walking their talk. Move beyond the hype, and go straight to the heart of the matter: Is this company actually doing what it says it’s doing? Does this company have instilled programs, practices, and policies that support the value(s) important to you?
Dive into another level of research by taking a look at the company’s leadership, board of directors and employees. Much of this information is published on a company’s website in the About Us, Jobs, Careers, Team and/or Leadership pages.
For companies with 100+ employees, it will be a lot harder to gain insights into the make-up of their staff. To find this information, you’ll want to search the website for employee resource groups (ERGs), community initiatives, events or conferences it sponsors. You can also use LinkedIn’s search tool again, but this time, switch over to the “People” tab to examine the staff. Does this sample of employees reflect the value the company purports to uphold? Do they denote a commitment to said value in their individual profiles? And, more importantly, is this a group you believe you’d like to work with?
Taking these measures to first assess your values then strategically select companies that reflect them will put you in the best position to sail through the hiring process.