How to Choose Between Two Jobs

Vanilla or chocolate?

The ice-cream vendor stares yawningly at you. To which you joyously reply – Vanilla!

If only choosing between two jobs were that easy.

Job A pays well but Job B comes with perks and excellent work-life balance.

Why not choose Job A and get a better pay package? It helps with exponentially scaling your salary raise every year.

But wait! Job B allows me to have a life outside of my career for lesser pay. And what kind of life is all work but no play?

Are you losing your mind between these conflicting thoughts?

Cleverism has just the solution to help you make a career choice without entering a mental breakdown.

1. STOP, REVIEW, AND CONSIDER

Take a deep breath and calm yourself.

Congratulations! You’ve got two pieces of job offers staring right back at you.

Give yourself a pat on the back. Most people would be lucky to have one job offer; you get the good fortune of choosing between the two.

Before making a decision, it’s necessary to review your life goals and professional pathway.

Promise yourself that you won’t read either job letters before you’ve reviewed your goals on paper. This is to eliminate any biased thoughts towards either job before a full review.

Now write down every career goal you want to achieve on a list. We’ll use it in the next step.

Done? Perfect!

Now conduct a self-interview by asking yourself a series of questions.

1. Which of the two jobs am I most excited about?

Surely you have a preference for the two job offers you’re considering. And even if you’re excited about both jobs, careful consideration often leads to a decision.

Which job closely resembles your dream job that you’ve always wanted?

What about the organizations that you work for? Between the two companies, which one stands out in terms of recognition and success?

Take a look at each company’s history and spend time understanding the various challenges they’ve solved. The internet is vast and there’s always news to help you with your decision on which organization suits you best.

2. Which of the two jobs takes me closer to my career goals?

Remember, the white sheet of paper where you’ve listed all your career goals to achieve in this lifetime?

Let’s pull that out and begin a comparison.

It’s time to unleash your investigative powers. Break down the two companies and compile a series of research data.

Find salary information and reviews on career review websites such as Glassdoor. Pay special attention to the reviews left by former employees, this is incredibly valuable in deciding between two jobs.

Once you’ve conducted your research. Compare each individual career goals to the two jobs and rate them on a scale of 1-5. With 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest.

Here’s an example. Imagine one of your career goals included – “Earning a 6-figure salary by 3 years.”

If Job A pays better than job B, rate job A as 5 and B as 1.

After rating every career goal on your list, it’s time to tally and get an average score. The most 5’s among the two jobs demonstrates a strong direction towards your dream job.

3. Which among the two jobs has the most growth potential?

While every job in the modern world offers career growth potential, some jobs just get you to your final destination quicker.

No one wants to be stuck doing the same tasks for years. Every employee likes challenges, advancements and of course incredible pay packages. A job that comes with career growth gives you the leverage to advance through the higher ranks of your company.

Find out which of the two job offers has room for advancement. Reach out to past employees on LinkedIn or Facebook, politely ask if they’ve had a good experience working in your prospective company.

Conduct analysis on the company on advancement opportunities.

If one job offer checks out as a career growth advancement, it’s a strong contender to being your preferred pick.

But wait, there are other critical points to follow before you send in your approval.

4. Which among the two jobs has an ideal company mission and culture?

Why should I care about company culture or a mission statement?

Seriously, it’s not like I own the company, I just work and get paid. Why bother?

The place you work at is where most of your time is spent throughout your life. Working for a company’s mission that you believe provides you with a productivity boost and makes work a happy place.

Let’s say you work at a pet food company. If you have no love for animals or you don’t get along well with them, coming to work can seem boring. After all, why bother with animals when you can be working in a cool job scouting planets with NASA?

However, if you love animals, your stance for working in the company changes completely. You get paid for the work that you enjoy doing.

Remember the popular quote “Choose a Job you Love, and You’ll Never Have to Work a Day in Your Life”.

That’s why company culture and the mission statement is critical for job happiness.

5. Finally, which job offer gives me the most happiness?

The most important question and this one is a personal one.

What makes you happy?

Let’s rephrase that.

Which of the two jobs gives you extreme happiness?

Let’s prepare you with a mental exercise.

Close your eyes and imagine walking into your office on the first day for Job A. Pretend you’re shaking hands with everyone and joyfully learning the ropes of your new-found employment opportunity.

Repeat this exercise all over with Job B.

Which of the two put the largest smile on your face?

Do you know what made you happier?

List down the points that each job offers that increases your overall happiness factor.

A pro/con list provides an overview of what makes you happy and what feels like a burden.

Go one step further, ask the opinion of others. Your family and friends provide a completely unbiased and out of box opinion on what each job offers to your life.

Take every opinion seriously and ultimately, weigh down all the pros and cons.

A new job is an extremely tough decision and requires time before you make a decision.

2. ROLEPLAY A ROUTINE WORKDAY

Maybe the two jobs provide you with two unique responsibilities?

That’s where roleplaying your workday opens the hidden anguish you hadn’t considered.

The alarm rings. You’re out of bed.

Let the roleplay begin.

From here what are the first things you do? List out your morning routine on paper.

Does your work start early (7-8 a.m.) or a bit later (9:30 a.m.)? Make a note.

How do you commute? Bus, carpool, rapid transit, drive yourself, etc.

What is the total commute time? Use Google maps to find out the total travel time it takes to get from Point A (your home) to Point B(workplace).

Does the office come with its own cafeteria? Are you packing your own lunch?

What are the first things to do when you reach the work desk?

Who will I interact with?

What are my job priorities and roles?

Will there be a training session?

How many workdays in a week? And what are the work hours?

Every bit of the following information allows you to see further into the daily workday of each of the two companies.

It opens up plenty of choices that may positively or negatively affect you.

Roleplaying a typical workday in your mind and on paper, while making a note of every outcome, allows you to choose your career move carefully.

3. THE SWEET PERKS

Often the additional things that come with a job apart from the paycheck make our decision-making convenient.

We are talking about the good old perks and other advantages offered by a company during a negotiation process.

Let’s take a look at these elements.

Flexible Timings

Nothing puts the icing on the cake like having to come into work at your own preferred time slot. A research conducted by Maintel communication services demonstrated that 73% of respondents identified with flexible work timings as an important benefit.

Apart from this, working remotely at home as a choice is a welcome perk for an ideal work-life balance.

A company that offers flexible work timings in their job offer over one that doesn’t should strictly be considered as this could tip the balance between satisfaction and misery.

Employee Benefits

While most employees are automatically entitled to insurances, medical plans, and retirement options, it’s necessary to see the difference in value.

Company A could give just 55% of the total value when compared with Company B. Depending on your household, a complete family plan securing your health and providing term insurance saves plenty annually.

It’s critical to breakdown the different benefits between the two companies and measure contribution before making your final decision.

Stock Options

It’s not a myth for companies to provide stock buyouts to their employees. In fact, making the right move and going for a company that offers stocks as a benefit is a rare opportunity. If either job offers a stock option, it’s time to pull out your notepad and answer the following questions.

Do both jobs provide stock options?

What is the current net worth of both companies?

Will you be allowed to immediately buy the shares or at a later date?

Are they Non-Qualified Stock Options? Or are they Incentive Stock Options?

What is the minimum buyout? What is the maximum?

Non-qualified stock options are available for everyone in the company while incentive stock options are only available to employees that aren’t a board member or a C-suite executive.

In rare circumstances, it’s a wise choice to forgo the stock options if the company is a startup and the other job offer provides a handsome salary with a privileged position. The reason being startups are prone to failure and your stock isn’t guaranteed to be worth anything.

Networking

Meeting some of the business icons, that ordinarily would be impossible to interact with, thanks to your job profile. It’s one of the best ways to build your network database.

Years down the line, these clients or coworkers provide you with invaluable references and even mentorship in the success and growth of your career.

If either company has a history of working with strong A-list clients like celebrities, Fortune 500 CEOs, pop icons, etc. it’s a good idea to consider starting in a company with an invaluable client list.

Additional Benefits

Perks can come in the form of free movie tickets every month. Tickets or passes to local sporting events. Reimbursement on educational fees on behalf of the company for taking up courses that improve your soft and hard skills.

4. STARTUP OR AN ESTABLISHED ORGANIZATION?

On the off chance, you’ve received job offers from a startup and a mature organization, there is much reason to sit down and strongly consider your decisions.

Let’s break the differences between why each job offer is worth considering.

Why Choose Startups

Just because it’s a startup doesn’t mean it’s not going to take forever to be successful. Especially if the startup has been founded by a serial entrepreneur who has built plenty of successful companies throughout the years.

Conduct research on the founder, and all board members to get a complete analysis of their success stories. If you’ve indeed got successful team members, then choosing a startup would be an ideal opportunity to go big with your career.

Here’s why.

• Startups offer an exciting variety of work
• Small teams mean less mess and better team bonding
• Exciting opportunity to gain equity
• Individual recognition at its highest
• Learn as you earn without the worry for blunders
• Extensive control in your job role
• Plenty of flexibility to switch between roles
• Solving early challenges offer plenty of appreciative and promotional value
• When your startup grows, you gain senior roles and instant recognition

That’s some of the many advantages of choosing a startup over an established company.

Why Choose a Big Company

Sometimes, you’re in no mood to mess up your career and take a risk with startups.

That’s completely fine and it’s a safe choice to pick a big company and learn from the finest. In fact, choosing the industry experts provides you with plenty of established teams to work with which will aid you with your confidence and increase your earning potential.

Here are the prime benefits of a large organization.

• Excellent mentorship and leadership opportunities via seasoned veterans
• Extremely stable and absolutely no risk of bankruptcy
• Great pay packages and several employee benefits
• Established brand increases personal reputation
• An exceptional record to have in your work resume for future endeavors
• Best practices are always maintained and shared
• Exposure to better investors and clear direction of expansion
• Large teams streamline the business operations, less overtime contributed
• Good work/life balance

Often going with a top brand is the right choice especially when considering a career move in your early stages. A risky choice of moving to a startup that collapses hurts your chances of obtaining future employment.

CONCLUSION

Career decisions are never easy. Take a deep breath, consider all options, weigh in your pros and cons, and submit your approval letter when everything checks out towards your goals.

Once you’ve hit send on your approval letter, it’s time to forget the other job offer and don’t dwell on the past.

Life is too short to live out in regret and there are tons of opportunities for a smart working individual like yourself.

Live with your decision and be proud of yourself for receiving two job offers.

How many days did it take you to accept your last job offer? Did you make the right decision? Share your thoughts with us. We’d love to know.