I hear feedback from people that they don’t want to work at a “US company”, or a “French company” from time to time. What does this really mean? It means they’ve had an experience which has either been negative or one which they would like to improve upon. For example some French luxury brands prefer to rotate expats in Japan every few years. So the chances of a Japanese national becoming the CEO (shyacho) are 0. So what these people really mean is that they want a career path. Some US companies are start-ups and so in that case, what these people are really saying they would like clear job responsibilities and more stability. So in order to move away from more general statements such as the above, how can you assess if a company is the right fit for you before joining?
Aside form the usual things like checking out the company mission statement, core values and looking at glassdoor for reviews (which is fundamentally skewed, who’s going to go out of their way to write a review if they are happy at a company?) and other online research, some other factors to help your assessment are below:
Find out the hiring manager’s name and background either from the HR, linkedIn or a recruiter. Keypoints to note here are
- How long has this person been at that company?
- What experiences have they had that they can teach you?
- Have they spent time overseas?
- What route did that person take to get there (is their background sales, marketing, finance, law firm, inhouse counsel etc). This can skew someone’s decision making decisively one way or the other. It can either lead to a preference for someone with a similar background, or the total opposite. I have heard some people say “I came from company X and I know the training typically given, I don’t want someone like that here, I was very lucky to get the training I received!” for example.
- When speaking with this person at interview, ask them “what type of person do you look for when you hire”, “who is the most successful person in your team and why”, “why have you been so successful at this company”. This will give you a clue about what that person feels is important to them.
- What is the hiring manager’s vision of the team and company in the coming year?
- How will the hiring manager assess success in this role? What are the weekly or monthly kpi’s, targets or goals? What are the targets available for promotion?
- Ask her/him what made them choose that company when originally and what surprises they have found along their journey?
- Ask her/him about the previous incumbent in the role, if there was one. What was this person great at and what are you looking to improve upon in hiring this new person?
Team structure & key stakeholders
- Research the members of the team you will join, check out their backgrounds as well. Have they been at the company long? How technical are they? What are their language capabilities and have they lived overseas at any point?
- Has there been any historical examples of people doing what you want to do at this company? For example, are you are looking for fast promotion, what are typical times taken to get promoted? If you are looking for an international move, does the company or team have any track record in successfully making it happen?
- What hours do the team typically work. Not the official hours, but what do they actually do?
The company
- What is the mandate for the office or country you are going to be based in? Is it growth, is it business as usual, is it turnaround, change management, introducing products from head office portfolio, driving profitability?
- How important is your country or office for the company? Where does the company want your country or office to be in future? Are you the 1st, 2nd or 3rd most important country to the company? What is the goal, for example to become number two country globally? This can give you an idea about how much support you will get in your role?
- What are the best selling products or services from this hiring company? Will you be working on them or in a different area?
Your Assessment
- Once you have met the hiring manager, HR and everyone else in the process, how do you feel about the leadership team?
- What do you think about the role available, does it sound realistic? Does it sound like it will be new and exciting for you?
- What will be the biggest challenges going into this new job and how will you overcome them? I would also recommend at this point putting together a powerpoint outlining your plan of what would need to be done over your first six months in the role and talk through with your new potential boss before a decision is made on who the company will hire. This can be really powerful in landing you the job!
- If you get the chance before an offer is made, meet with your new team mates for lunch or dinner. Ask them why did they join this company, what do they think – of course you are going to get a very rosey view from them but you might find out some good information in there too!
Hopefully some of the above will help you in your search. A happy byproduct of asking the above questions and doing the research is that this will also give you a good chance of being offered the job in the end!
Good luck with your interviews and contact us if you have any feedback or questions on the above!
