There are many different ways to evaluate whether a job is a good fit for you but unfornately job search websites limit career explorers to search by company, position, industry, location, and salary—all the things that matter least.  What about company culture, professional growth opportunities, mission, etc?  Using the 8 Cylinders of Success framework, you can look at potential employers or your current employer through a new sets of lenses.  You don’t have to align all of the 8 Cylinders, but the more the merrier.

1. Principles = Your dashboard
Does the company believe in what you believe?  Do they measure success as a organization similarly to how you measure success for yourself?  Answers to this question can found in annual reports, values, key performance indicators, and employee evaluations.

2. Passions = Your keys
Will this job allow you to use and develop your passions on a daily basis?  Answers can be found by asking potential colleagues about their day-to-day work and even shadowing an employee.  If possible ask to shadow or interview the most passionate employee in the organization.  They are likely to be the highest performing employee as well.

3. Problems = Your fuel
Will you have the opportunity to work on a social, scientific, technical, and/or personal question or pain that matters to you?  Is there opportunity for you to identify a problem you see in the organization that you care about and dedicate time to solving it?  Ask your interviewer to define the question or problem they are seeking to solve each day.  Also ask about employees that have taken non-traditional paths in the organization and how they managed to carve their own paths.

4. People = Your motor
Will this job allow you to serve people you care about in a place that you care about? If you can, ask about company-wide customer success stories or ask the person you’re speaking with about memorable success stories they have had.  You can even take it one step further and talk to customers about their experience of the organization.

5. Positioning = Your lane
Is this job going to position you for your next career move or lifestyle goals?  Ask about the average length of employment and where people who leave earlier than average usually go and where people who leave later than normal go.  Also ask to speak with someone who has been with the company for a significant amout of time to understand the career trajectory within the organization and the rewards it may (or may not) bring.

6. Pioneers = Your pacesetters
Will you be working with someone great who you can learn from?  Internal mentorship is key to your growth and advancement in any organization.  You want to make sure that your new boss is the best boss possible.  You can determine that by finding out who has worked on his/her team and where they are in the organization today in comparison to other managers.  You can also get a sense of this by asking how long each team member has been on the team. It’s hard to become great under a below-average manager.  They will take their insecurities out on you.

7. Picture = Your road map
Do you like the organization/department/division’s long-term goals and strategy to solve the given problem in the market? Do you believe in their approach in comparison to their competitors?  You can inquire about the organization’s strategy and any new innovations that may be occuring.  Make sure that a process for innovation, research, and learning exist.  Otherwise, you may joining a one-hit wonder and wondering what happened when the doors shut. Feedback and evaluation processes from employees and customers are also good to look for.

8. Possibility = Your impact
Does the job allow you to create something revolutionary that will outlive you in the organization and potential change the industry forever? Is the job focused on doing what currently works or is it trying to create new possibilities in customers’ lives that would tranform the way customers work and live?  Observe the level of risk-aversion or risk-love in the organization.  Long-term customers can also speak to the changes in the quality of service.

Now you have 8 more ways to evaluate your next job opportunity.  You should take the one that has the most cylinders going for you.  Despite the significance of career choices, they are often made with imperfect information. Do the best that you can to access current employees, former employees, and customers to find as much information as you can.

The HARDER you work on the career search, the EASIER the job will be for/on you.

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