Letters, We Got Letters
A recent article I wrote, in response to a reader question, about whether "climbing the corporate ladder is worth it" reminded me that I haven't shared lots of those Q&A topics here, lately. I'll do better. In the mean time, what follows is, first, that article, and then, second, a list of recent topics with links to them on Quora.
How important to your overall job satisfaction is feeling appreciated and your effort and contributions recognized?
What are 3 deal breakers when accepting a job offer?
When in the interview process Should I bring up concerns about the company/job raised on Glassdoor?
What are some typical entry-level salaries for software developers outside of Silicon Valley?
After going through the interview process, what happened to make you reject a job offer?
Have you hired someone who actually underplayed their CV?
When an interviewer asks you "what is your greatest weakness" and "what is your greatest strength", what do they hope to learn about you as a prospective hire?
Is it more or less common now to be offered a job at the interview?
How often do prospective employers actually check references?
I think I set my desired salary too low at the job interview. If I am offered the job, how should I negotiate to raise the salary?
How do pre-employment background checks guarantee that an employer is hiring the correct person for the job?
What do you do to earn a six figure salary? Do you think your salary is justified by the nature of your job?
How do you best answer the interview question: “What other organizations are you pursuing, or are pursuing you?”
Where do people go after they quit their jobs at top companies like Google and Facebook?
I want to resign because I have a better job offer (around 1.5x). What should I do if my boss offers me a better salary? Should I stay in that case?
When should I propose for a salary in the interview?
Are job interviews really an effective way to hire people?
If your work let you choose your salary, what would you choose, how does that compare to what you make now, and how can you justify that pay rate?
Are work bonuses, for any job, whether the bonuses are large or small, really fair?
How do you structure an answer to “so tell me about yourself” at an interview without being boring?
How do most companies handle the situation where a new hire who receives a sign-on bonus takes a new position internally but with a different team before their “pay-back” period is up?
Why are salaries in the UK/Europe so low? Is the cost of living generally lower than the US?
How much salary do top programmers at Google earn?
What are H1B Visa workers really paid compared to the US national average?
As a Google employee, what is the biggest possible mistake you could make?
To draw attention to your company, you invent a compelling cofounder, and trick online reporters into writing about this imaginary person. Soon there are insistent requests to interview him or her on television. What happens next?
What are some good tactics in negotiations to get what you want?
What salary structure is the best for salespersons?
How good is the average junior developer working in Silicon Valley?
How can I calculate my value as a software engineer and the value I would be bringing in for a new company, and tell the recruiter that this is how I arrived?
How much does your attire at an interview have an influence on whether or not a potential employer hires you?
Would you think it's fair to ask a partner to stay in a highly paid job for only four more years if they were unhappy there but due a big bonus?
Is being a high functioning sociopath a good trait to have when seeking to climb the corporate ladder?
Is it possible to overdress at a job interview and blow your chances of getting hired because of your attire?
What are employers looking for when they ask "what is your biggest weakness?" during a job interview?
If asked in a job interview what you want to be doing in 5 years, is it ok to say 'being your boss' or 'taking over your job'?
When asked at an interview, 'Why should we hire you?', is it a good idea to suggest improvements you could make?
Why is pay such a taboo thing to discuss in the job interview process, or among coworkers?
What are some common mistakes candidate make when answering “do you have any question” in an interview?
If you tried to conceal a job termination on application and during interview, what are the chances that the employer will find out if it was a long time ago?
Does the pay in Silicon Valley keep up with the cost of living or are software developers no better off than the average unskilled workers in other places?
Do you view it as a red flag if someone claims to be an "expert" in something on their resume?
What's a good and a normal base salary raise for an average software engineer outside of Silicon Valley?
What drives you to climb the corporate ladder?
When a software engineer leaves a top company like Google/ Facebook to go work in no-name company, do they find the challenges and daily work 10x easier?
My best employee wants a raise that is double what he is currently getting. They say if they don't get it they will leave and go work for someone else? What should I do?
How should I answer "describe a time you had to stand up to a superior" in a job interview?
As a new software engineer, when does the company you work for expects you to begin bringing value?
Should you wear a belt to an interview?
Which career has the least employment satisfaction, accountant or nurse?
Should I wear a suit to an interview?
Why do so many people quit 6-figure jobs at Google?
What weakness should be mentioned in an interview to be safe?
Is it true that "everyone's hiring practices are broken," as a New York software developer contends, with little to support various interviewing techniques and all the popular hiring metrics used?
When you're asked what your salary requirements are during a job interview, what should you say?
How have you negotiated the salary in an interview?
I was recently asked whether it is “worth it to climb the corporate ladder.” Here is what I told my interlocutor. I wrote, My take on that question is two fold:
First, only you can decide what other things in your life you need to balance with “getting ahead,” and feel good about those choices. Every day we are presented with options about how to spend our time, and no one else can answer those questions consistently other than you.
Second, my own personal experience went something like this. (I’m not asserting that I meet your definition of climbing the corporate ladder. Rather, I am describing the way I have come to think about my work.) At some point in my career, I realized that if I was going to show up every day, and get things done, the time and the energy were largely a “sunk costs.”
So, if I was going to be present, anyway, it seemed more rewarding and more fun to approach each situation thinking about what “What would a person who gets a ‘5’ performance rating — greatly exceeds expectations — do in this situation?” (This was back in the days when “performance ratings” were a common practice.) I thought: “Since I am going to be here, anyway, why not just do the work like that?”
I was in a unique situation, perhaps, because I have worked in HR for many years. I had heard or read a lot of performance evaluations, and participated in a lot of talent reviews of people up to the leaders reporting to the CEO, so I had a sense of how to answer that question (“What would a ‘5’ do?”). Simply by asking and answering that question, I sought to model my work based on those examples and that ideal.
If you aren’t sure about how to answer that question in a given situation, hopefully you can seek out a trusted advisor, mentor, or your direct manager, or even an HR person familiar with your organization, and ask for their opinion. Over time, you’ll probably learn how to answer that question without needing to ask other people about it as frequently.
So, while I don’t think there is one answer to your question about climbing the corporate ladder, I do think there is merit to being mindful of how one works and the ways one chooses to spend the “cost” of time and energy that work represents.
And lest I sound like an over achiever, let me be frank and say I would usually get evaluated as a “4” (exceeds expectations) rather than a “5” (greatly exceeds expectations) but that was enough to help me move into increasingly larger roles of greater responsibility — and feel good about it. In that sense, it can be worth it.
And then back to Quora, where lots of these topics originate, I find a trend among folks interested in how to talk about salaries during the job hunting process, and in how to "show up well" in interviews, in fact, lots of stuff indicating that the economy is HOT HOT HOT.
These are important topics, but unless one is only job hopping, they should not prevent one from considering other things about the workplace, as well. In point of fact, I wrote an article almost a decade ago that is still true today -- that one is "always interviewing" even if one never speaks with anyone outside one's own company, in the sense that one needs to sell one's value on an ongoing basis. And vice versa: The company needs to demonstrate their desire to see an employee continue to show up to work (and no, money alone is not necessarily enough, especially when so many opportunities outside abound).
That said, it is a sign of the bustling economy that career advancement through taking on new roles at new companies is the topic of the past year. And I won't argue against the notion that it is often a useful way to move ahead, or up, or across to a new role, or over to the other side of the fence, where the grass looks greener.
Here is a selection of those discussions.
How important to your overall job satisfaction is feeling appreciated and your effort and contributions recognized?
What are 3 deal breakers when accepting a job offer?
When in the interview process Should I bring up concerns about the company/job raised on Glassdoor?
What are some typical entry-level salaries for software developers outside of Silicon Valley?
After going through the interview process, what happened to make you reject a job offer?
Have you hired someone who actually underplayed their CV?
When an interviewer asks you "what is your greatest weakness" and "what is your greatest strength", what do they hope to learn about you as a prospective hire?
Is it more or less common now to be offered a job at the interview?
How often do prospective employers actually check references?
I think I set my desired salary too low at the job interview. If I am offered the job, how should I negotiate to raise the salary?
How do pre-employment background checks guarantee that an employer is hiring the correct person for the job?
What do you do to earn a six figure salary? Do you think your salary is justified by the nature of your job?
How do you best answer the interview question: “What other organizations are you pursuing, or are pursuing you?”
Where do people go after they quit their jobs at top companies like Google and Facebook?
I want to resign because I have a better job offer (around 1.5x). What should I do if my boss offers me a better salary? Should I stay in that case?
When should I propose for a salary in the interview?
Are job interviews really an effective way to hire people?
If your work let you choose your salary, what would you choose, how does that compare to what you make now, and how can you justify that pay rate?
Are work bonuses, for any job, whether the bonuses are large or small, really fair?
How do you structure an answer to “so tell me about yourself” at an interview without being boring?
How do most companies handle the situation where a new hire who receives a sign-on bonus takes a new position internally but with a different team before their “pay-back” period is up?
Why are salaries in the UK/Europe so low? Is the cost of living generally lower than the US?
How much salary do top programmers at Google earn?
What are H1B Visa workers really paid compared to the US national average?
As a Google employee, what is the biggest possible mistake you could make?
To draw attention to your company, you invent a compelling cofounder, and trick online reporters into writing about this imaginary person. Soon there are insistent requests to interview him or her on television. What happens next?
What are some good tactics in negotiations to get what you want?
What salary structure is the best for salespersons?
How good is the average junior developer working in Silicon Valley?
How can I calculate my value as a software engineer and the value I would be bringing in for a new company, and tell the recruiter that this is how I arrived?
How much does your attire at an interview have an influence on whether or not a potential employer hires you?
Would you think it's fair to ask a partner to stay in a highly paid job for only four more years if they were unhappy there but due a big bonus?
Is being a high functioning sociopath a good trait to have when seeking to climb the corporate ladder?
Is it possible to overdress at a job interview and blow your chances of getting hired because of your attire?
What are employers looking for when they ask "what is your biggest weakness?" during a job interview?
If asked in a job interview what you want to be doing in 5 years, is it ok to say 'being your boss' or 'taking over your job'?
When asked at an interview, 'Why should we hire you?', is it a good idea to suggest improvements you could make?
Why is pay such a taboo thing to discuss in the job interview process, or among coworkers?
What are some common mistakes candidate make when answering “do you have any question” in an interview?
If you tried to conceal a job termination on application and during interview, what are the chances that the employer will find out if it was a long time ago?
Does the pay in Silicon Valley keep up with the cost of living or are software developers no better off than the average unskilled workers in other places?
Do you view it as a red flag if someone claims to be an "expert" in something on their resume?
What's a good and a normal base salary raise for an average software engineer outside of Silicon Valley?
What drives you to climb the corporate ladder?
When a software engineer leaves a top company like Google/ Facebook to go work in no-name company, do they find the challenges and daily work 10x easier?
My best employee wants a raise that is double what he is currently getting. They say if they don't get it they will leave and go work for someone else? What should I do?
How should I answer "describe a time you had to stand up to a superior" in a job interview?
As a new software engineer, when does the company you work for expects you to begin bringing value?
Should you wear a belt to an interview?
Which career has the least employment satisfaction, accountant or nurse?
Should I wear a suit to an interview?
Why do so many people quit 6-figure jobs at Google?
What weakness should be mentioned in an interview to be safe?
Is it true that "everyone's hiring practices are broken," as a New York software developer contends, with little to support various interviewing techniques and all the popular hiring metrics used?
When you're asked what your salary requirements are during a job interview, what should you say?
How have you negotiated the salary in an interview?