So we don’t want to host classes or pretend we are experts in career counseling. We will try though, with our  recruitment expertise, to offer some pointers to consider when thinking about your CAREER.

Self-evaluation

Questions to ask yourself

What are your strong points? (I know these questions seem over-rated, but they are very important. You will be able to know and describe what is best fitted to your abilities).

Which would you think are your weak points? (what do you view as a weak point? – sometimes a weak point in a certain area can be a strong one in another. If you are the kind of person who gets bored by a sting of code, but you are still passionate about everything technical, you may  be perfectly suited for a sales role in this field, or, perhaps for technical support)

Which are the activities you enjoy the most?

What is the context in which you have the best results?

What is the general field in which you would enjoy working? Why?

What is your learning style? (do you like to learn about something by reading how it’s done? Observing someone doing it? Or, perhaps, examining someone else’s results, in order to learn from them?)

What kind of company/environment is best for you?

Which of the two scenarios do you see as more suitable for you?

Entrepreneur

The entrepreneur is the person who enjoys having the freedom to make decisions, have ideas and initiatives, as well as implementing them, overseeing their entire completion process. With endless courage, an entrepreneur tackles risks and responsibilities, which oftentimes could prove to be more work than one can handle.

Naturally, some are also very deliberate entrepreneurs, for whom every step must pe perfecctly documented and planned before taking action. But more often than not, an entrepreneur acts on impulse.

What to do if the above describes you perfectly? Well, most likely you won’t have the monetary resources – and perhaps nor the experience-  to build your own business right away.

What is important, however, is to feel like an entrepreneur, to feel like you can suggest or implement new ideas of changes, that you have freedom of movement, that you’re not bound by old patterns and that you have flexibility.

You may also find all these as an employee. The question you must ask yourself is where can I have all of these?

It is more likely to find this kind of flexibility in start-ups, rather than in multinational companies with hundreds upon thousands of employees. If the employer has more than 100 employees, it already becomes difficult to benefit from such an environment. Those who do, however, have a very big rate of tenure, because their envolvement is apposite.

You must take it upon yourself to, at every interview, find out details about the hiring company and find out if you can fit in and perform easily there.

If you will feel constricted by „n” types of reports or fixed working hours or activities that seem redundant and red-tape-ish, but you are not allowed to bring improvement to any process, or any idea that you have is thoughtlessly tossed aside, you feel as if you are just another unimportant face in the system, you are wasting your time and you can not grow as you would like to. You should consider the fact that this particular environment may not be suitable for you.

Employee

Generally speaking, what defines an employee is the need for financial security. I believe no one would still be employed if everyone was financially sound. Everyone would prefer to run their own business, become an entrepreneur or, maybe, as some say, to slack off, because one is financially assured.

All of us need financial predictability. Both employees and entrepreneurs.

There is no clear distinction, but one could say there are candidates who are „the entrepreneurial type”, and candidates who are „the employee type”.

The first type is defined, most probably, by a greater need for freedom and involvement, while the second through a need of strict rules, procedures, predictability.

There is no clear line between the two typologies, each of us could just as easily be an employee in cetain environments and an entrepreneur in others. What matters in the end is to know what kind of environment and company is best suited for us.

You can easily solve this mistery- no 6 month long internships or work experiencce required.  You simply have to think really hard about what are the things you like, in what work condidtions do you feel particularly happy and what is it that gets your „creative juices flowing”.

Do you prefer to be involved in taking the tough decisions or are you most comfortable following others’?

The interview is drawing to an end and you still don’t know much about the job you applied for, besides what was written in the add and the scarce information the recruiter offered you.

You just can’t not be curious: if you get the job, the better part of your every day, for a long time, will be spent at work.

Ask. Enquire. Probe for information. It’s your right to know.

But what is it that you would actually want to find out?

Go to the interview with your homework done. Be prepared. Think about what you know about the role and about the company, and aim to compose a list of what you don’t know, but would like to.

Anything. You can sort through the questions later but, for now, just be curious.

For some of your questions you will get indirect clues, during the visit to the company’s offices, for the interview: what is the atmosphere like? How are people treated in this company?

For such queries you most deffinitely can formulate an answer by yourself, if you think about them well enough: have you been greeted respectfully? Were you welcomed well? What was happening in the lobby when you arrived? Did anyone acknowledge you right away? Were any confidential matters being discussed in the hallway? How many employees were on a „smoking break”? Did anyone send you smile without having been previously introduced? Were you left waiting for a long time? Did you have the interview in an appropriate space? Did the interviewer ask before calling you by your name? Did they explain what the discussion will be about and what are the „rules of the game”?

Then, pay close attention to what the interviewer will ask you.

What kinds of questions are they insisting upon? Do they offer enough details about the workplace? Do they have a pre-made list of questions and desired answers?

Don’t be shy. Ask if you may interrupt with appropriate questions, whenever their explanations are not clear enough to you. It’s not a problem if you interrupt with a question, as long as it’s on point, and relevant to the topic you were discussing at that particular time.

It is, however, a problem if, while the recruiter is explaining something, you interrupt to enquire about a previous topic or one which you are especially interested in, but haven’t got to that part yet. Gather the questions you have that do not fit anywhere during the discussion in a sort of „bunch”, and ask if you are permitted to address them at the end, before the final stage of the meeting, while mentioning that they are odd questions on topics which haven’t been covered so far.

Don’t be indifferent. Don’t ask solely about the material benefits, no matter how much you are interested in them. If not for a more practical reason (wanting to know where and how you will have to work, that is), at least through the perspective that it’s not the least flattering for the employer to learn that you are not one bit interested in their company and the opportunity they present you with. Why would they hire you, provided that you’re not interested in what they are doing or their environment, but exclusively on the material gains?

Be sharp. Asked directly, people tend to get embarassed and few actually still manage to lie. So ask short, straight-to-the-point questions.

Don’t be so sure you can always get your answers later.