Determining Cultural Fit Before You Accept the Job Offer

In 2014, we were inundated with reports, blog articles, and LinkedIn group and Twitter chats all driving home the notion that cultural fit was the #1 issue in hiring today. Poll after poll and study after study made it clear that cultural fit was what both candidates and employers were after. Yet, when I spoke with technical professionals throughout the year, what I discovered is that despite a desire for a better cultural fit, very few of them knew how to make that part of the job search process.  

In other words, they were willing to hop out of one bad fit into another, hoping the grass was greener because, well, it just had to be!

I was recently interviewed by Rich Hein of CIO.com on this topic, and his article "How to Tell If a Company's Culture Is Right for You" is the result of our discussion. You may or may not love social media, but one thing that it can do for us is provide a wealth of information and quickly. LinkedIn, in particular, now gives us direct access to people inside corporations, stats, brand awareness, and more, all things that were difficult to obtain in the past.  

You may never be able to know with 100% certainty what it is like to work inside a company until you're there, but you can do more than just hope for greener pastures.

Start putting today's tools to work for you, and use networking to its fullest.

--About Stephen----

Stephen Van Vreede is not your average IT/technical résumé writer. He provides career strategy and concierge job search solutions for senior (15+ years) (ITtechExec) and up-and-coming (NoddlePlace) (5-15 years) tech and technical operations leaders. Stephen and his team focus on building simplified, targeted, and certain career move campaigns, be it an external search or an internal promotion. He is co-author of UNcommon with career development leader Brian Tracy (out June 11, 2015). Contact Stephen directly at Stephen@ittechexec.com or send him an invite at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenvanvreede. To see whether Stephen and his team are a good fit for you, take their free (and anonymous) 1-minute compatibility quiz, Is the ITtechExec Approach a Good Match for You? Also, feel free to take his complimentary resume self-assessment quiz, How Certain Can You Be About Your Technical Resume? You might be surprised by what you find out!