When many opportunities knock it's important to consider your moves carefully.
Rebecca from Melbourne writes, "I've been looking for a job for about six months and it's been quite frustrating - until three opportunities came all at once!
Two job offers are similar, consulting roles. One is with a 'Big 4' accountancy firm and the other with a tier-one competitor. The other is an internal role.
I've spent eight of my 10 years in internal roles and was thinking a consulting role would be a good move.
If so, am I lured by the brand, or are there other things to consider? The internal role seems good, too - it's one of very few global companies with headquarters in Melbourne, challenging culture issues to address, opportunity for travel, meaty projects and diverse work. In many ways I don't think there's a 'bad' decision but how do I make the best decision?"
Lucky Rebecca, is my first response. These firms see potential in her, which is great. Rebecca outlines two issues in her decision - consultancy versus another internal role and "meaty" work versus a brand.
With the internal versus consultancy, Rebecca does not say when she got her two years of consultancy experience. If it was the past two years and she moves back into an internal role, she runs the risk of creating a perception she did not like consultancy and moved back into the familiar territory of an internal role. However, does this really matter?
Rebecca says, on the face of it, there is unlikely to be a bad decision (but that can change dramatically after the fact).
Rebecca stated she was "reasonably ambitious and would like to climb the corporate ladder but I'm happy to climb quite slowly and definitely want to have fun". She needs to ask whether the cultures of the internal role or the consultancy role are most conducive to a slow climb.
My view is that well-run consulting firms tend to be aggressively results-driven and that is reflected in expectations of advancement, both of management and staff. Slow climbers may be at a disadvantage in the lower or middle rungs of a consultancy
because the pace at which they choose to climb may be misinterpreted as a lack of ambition and this could be exacerbated in contrast with their pushier consultant colleagues.
As consultants are more intimately aligned with sales and profit and loss than many equivalent roles in other types of enterprise, this might be a factor for Rebecca to consider.
Branding, meaning working for a company with a strong reputation for quality and staff development, should not be underestimated. Having a blue-chip employer on your CV can be a real door-opener in other ventures.
Some people have managed to trade on their fleeting blue-chip credentials for the rest of their careers! Meaty internal roles are great, too, as long as the protein she gets builds strengths that can be easily transferred to other companies.
What is missing in Rebecca's considerations are any statements about what is meaningful for her to do. What contribution does she want to make through her work? What does she want to be remembered for? What reputation would she like to nurture?
These questions get at deeper motivations regarding work in her life.
Rebecca clearly sees work as fitting into her life and not the other way around. I'd want to explore the possible assumption she is making about rapid promotion being associated with less enjoyment. It is worth Rebecca considering if this reflects a hesitancy or lack of confidence in her own abilities; a lack of wholeheartedness about her general direction; or a healthy desire to pursue or maintain an active non-work life.
Jim Bright is professor of career education and development at ACU and a partner at Bright and Associates, a career management consultancy. Email marked clearly "FOR PUBLICATION" to brightside@jimbright.com.