In recent years, we wrote a lot about the job search. But never on researching company culture in your job search. Until today!
From LaConte Consulting: Researching Company Culture in Your Job Search
LaConte Consulting specializes in identifying areas of risk, opportunities for healthy growth, and innovative ways to increase profit margins.
With regard to researching company culture, Grace LaConte (the driving force behind LaConte Consulting) weighs in about researching a company’s culture during a job search:
Defined expectations of behavior, words, symbols, habits, values, and beliefs that directly impact an organization’s work environment, vision & mission, ethical practices, objectives, and performance standards.”
Culture is the “secret sauce” that makes a company succeed. It is based on the belief system of its founders [and current leaders], which includes the following. (a) What they value. (b) How they reward staff. (c) What they do for fun. (d) The structure (or lack of structure) they create.
Surface Culture — Yet, all we can see of most companies is limited: initial impressions from what we see (the website, how people dress, what the office looks like), what we hear (the sayings and language), and what we feel (how the words resonate, what we sense emotionally, whether the experience is pleasant or not). These are all “signals” of how the company operates, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
You may have already experienced this when starting a new job. You’ve done research about your new employer, went through several interviews, met the staff and management team, and started orientation with a certain set of expectations about how things will go. But once inside, things may not be as they appear. You’ll start to notice quirks and rules that nobody told you about. That’s because every company has hidden cultural values and beliefs that aren’t easy to see. The surface elements don’t tell us the whole story. Just observing the surface cultural elements can’t tell us WHY a company does certain things.
Ideally, we should learn what goes on beneath. This requires more research. And we still won’t uncover many hidden attributes until we actually work at a firm.
Take a look LaConte’s detailed view of company culture. And learn from it.
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