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Minority workers still fighting job recruiters’ misconceptions

Ken Arroyo Roldan says that there is little diversity at the senior levels in American companies today, and executive search firms share much of the blame for that fact.

By the way, Roldan works for an executive recruiting company.

“We are the perpetuators,” he says. “We control a lot of the search for the new talent brought on board, and if there are not incentives to do it, it doesn’t get done.”

Specifically, Roldan says recruiters often ask employers to pay a 40 percent premium to recruit a minority “because they say it’s more difficult,” a fact that Roldan disputes.

As diversity practice leader with Battalia Winston Amrop Hever Group, Roldan says that assertion is just one of the myths that compounds the problem of minorities in the workplace. Without minorities at the senior levels, he says, minorities fail to get hired in lower-tier positions as well.

“The titans of business really don’t care about this issue,” he says. “They have this ‘I gave at the gate’ mentality. Many executives have been sensitized to death (about minorities) but at the end of the day, are they exposed to others? No. It’s a gated community of white males.”

WON’T BUCK THE SYSTEM

He argues that a multipronged approach is needed to bring true diversity to the workplace, including the education of senior leaders and recruitment of diverse talent of workers at all levels of an organization.

Visit DiversityJobs.com for information on Diversity in the workplace
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Mistakes That People Make When Working With A Recruiter By Carl Mueller

I began working as a recruiter in 2000 around the time that the dot com bubble started bursting and shortly after companies had exceeded their Y2K budgets and had no money to hire new staff. It wasnt the best time to be looking for a new job (especially if you were an IT professional) and it was even worse to be someone who tried to get paid to get people hired. Working with a recruiter is a great way to supplement your job search. Obviously Im biased because Im a recruiter but the fact is that good recruiters add value and help people get jobs. If you are going to work with a recruiter, you simply need to adhere to a few common sense rules in order to get the benefits associated with working with a recruiter. Here are the most common mistakes that people make when working with a recruiter that you should avoid doing: 1. Dont plaster your resume on every Internet job board you come across. Recruiters get paid when they introduce a suitable job candidate to a company and that person gets hired by the company. Recruiters find it difficult to help you find a job if your resume is already public domain and is easily found on the Internet by employers. Employers often use Internet job boards and generally wont pay a recruiter for a candidate who they could have found themselves so if you are planning on placing your resume online, expect that some recruiters will not work with you. 2. Dont lie. Specifically, dont lie about how much money you are currently earning, dont lie about why you left your last job, dont lie about your job title or responsibilities, dont lie about what companies youve already applied to, dont lie about the degree that you dont actually have because you are two credits short, etc. If you expect a recruiter to be honest with you, you need to be honest with them. The first time I find a job searcher lying is the last time I work with them. 3. Dont rely on a recruiter to get you a job. A recruiter gets paid by the employer not by you. Most recruiters work on contingency which means they only get paid when their client hires one of their candidates. The job of a recruiter isnt to get you a job, its to get the job filled regardless of whether its you or someone else. If you use a recruiter(s), ensure you are using them to supplement your job search not to lead it. 4. Dont work with recruiters who are incompetent. Some recruiters arent that good. Learn to tell the difference between a good one and a bad one. Signs that your recruiter is not very good: You live in the same city as the recruiter and they dont ask you to meet them in their office for a face to face interview They fire off your resume to their clients after speaking with you on the phone for only a few minutes without first meeting you or really getting to know you. They send your resume to companies without first asking for your permission. They ask you to lie on your resume to make it appear better than it is. They dont help you prepare for interviews and dont provide any value with regards to learning more about a company you are interviewing with. Carl Mueller is an Internet entrepreneur and professional recruiter who wants to help you find your dream career. Visit Carl’s website to separate yourself from other job searchers: http://www.find-your-dream-career.com Sign up for The Effective Career Planner, Carls free 5-day course: http://www.find-your-dream-career.com/effective-career-planner.html Ezine editors/Webmasters: Please feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your website. Please dont change any of the content and please ensure that you include the above bio that shows my website URL. If you would like me to address any specific career topics in future articles, please let me know.

Balance is the key to a successful job search

Once in a while, job searching is easy. In the morning you contact a company, and by afternoon you receive a phone call to schedule a meeting. Thirty minutes into the interview, they offer a position on the spot.

Other times, it takes a bit longer. You spend a week daydreaming about new coworkers and increased pay before the manager calls to set up an appointment. A couple of days later, they present an offer that you accept over the phone. Just like that.

In most cases, job seeking is a process that unfolds over time. You do everything you can, from resume to thank-you note, and then you wait. Days turn into weeks, and you find yourself checking voicemail a hundred times a day.

It’s great to feel energized about new beginnings. It lifts the spirit. At the same time, many job hunters make the mistake of contacting a potential employer over and over again when it’s time to sit back and wait for a response.

Here’s a piece of advice to help keep you centered: To succeed in the future, focus on the present.

A healthy job search includes several steps. First, find opportunities that align with your goals. Second, pursue these positions in a way that highlights your accomplishments and expertise. Third, make a positive impact in interviews and follow-up letters. Finally, find a way to distract yourself and “let go” of the outcome.

It’s true that this is easier said than done. But don’t forget that you have the best chance of impressing a hiring manager when you feel calm and confident. And there may be consequences to contacting a company too many times to ask about your status.

The hiring process takes time. It requires focused effort for an organization to determine its staffing needs, place job advertisements, read and evaluate resumes, conduct interviews, make compensation decisions, and offer a job to the right candidate. At the same time, they must continue to run their businesses.

Keep yourself busy by writing thank-you letters in advance, practicing for interviews, and looking for more jobs that match your objectives. After you’ve done all of these things, take a breather. Do a little yard work. Go see a movie. The key is to balance your attention between job search efforts and personal time.

If you are an employed job seeker, after you feel more relaxed, shift your focus to your current job, the one that exists in your life right now. Make it your priority to perform your responsibilities with integrity and pride, even if you don’t like your situation. Whether you realize it or not, your work ethic will come through in your job hunt, and employers will respond.

If you are not presently employed, tend to your family, friends and career search with the same level of integrity and focus that you would bring to a job that you love. Also, consider rebuilding relationships with former coworkers or bosses. Research new possibilities, and allow yourself to get excited about what you find.

It takes courage to communicate with new employers, and patience as you await their response. Make a strong impression, and then allow the future to reveal itself. Change is inevitable. Give it time.

Acing the Informational Interview

Baby boomers pursuing environmental or personal interests after retirement, executives fleeing downsizing companies, and restless upstarts pushing for higher pay all have one thing in common: They are part of a trend of professionals starting second careers, a trend that recruiters and coaches now call “recareering.”

As companies struggle to retain talent and career changers chart unfamiliar territory, recareering is often facilitated through a series of informational or exploratory interviews. Loosely defined and malleable enough to fit a job seeker’s desired profession as well as his or her unique circumstances, informational interviews can be as informal as trading contact information at a barbecue or as formal as lengthy office meetings that result in a job offer.

While most informational interviews don’t bear fruit right away, recruiters say they are a great way to learn the language of a new profession, ask tough questions about a company’s benefits and drawbacks and, if nothing else, gain practice at telling your story and selling yourself. “It gives you a safe forum to explore something completely different,” says Carol Tienken, former director of marketing for Polaroid . Tienken knows of what she speaks: She became the first chief operating officer of the Greater Boston Food Bank after an informational interview with the organization’s CEO and president 10 years ago.

“I think informational interviews are a fantastic way to change careers,” says Bill Coleman , senior vice-president for compensation at Salary.com, SLRY a provider of on-demand compensation management solutions. Salary.com recently surveyed thousands of career changers with Money magazine and concluded that second-career choices are influenced by passion for work, in addition to the more traditional drive for higher salaries.
Beware the Unfocused Interview

Still, the interview’s informal structure can be daunting to a career changer seeking to prove he is knowledgeable but humble, seasoned but adaptable. Trying to put one’s best foot forward while asking informed questions about a new profession and/or company in as little as 15 minutes can result in an unfocused interview.

“Sometimes I run into people who are so into selling themselves that they don’t look at what the company needs,” says Robert Crowder, senior executive recruiter for Hartford-based Aetna AET, which has more than 30,000 employees. “Businesses are addressing problems, so the person has to think of the solution.”

The interview provides an additional challenge to top executives who may be stepping down in seniority to follow their passions. “Since they’ve always been in a position of power and knowledge, sometimes it’s difficult for them to go into a situation and ask questions about something they know nothing about,” says Jeffrey Crown, a managing partner with Essex Partners who offers advice to senior executives who are seeking new careers. “They’re used to having all the answers, so the big challenge for them is knowing how to have that conversation and not feel bad about it.”
Getting a Jump on the Competition

Jodi Hullinger, 37, who is on the hunt for an educational nonprofit position after spending six years in government relations for a marketing services company, observes that the process can be lonely, “especially when you’re job-searching without a job.”

Any discomfort or embarrassment is a small price to pay, however: Candidates who apply for jobs with knowledge and recommendations from interviews are a step ahead of the competition. Exploratory interviews are also good business, helping recruiters to expand their networks and companies to create new positions. “It actually does help your credibility in the marketplace,” says Coleman. “It’s soft public relations.”

As career switching has become more popular, informational interviews have become an increasingly important way for companies to tap into new talent pools. In a recent Korn/Ferry International survey of 273 recruiters, 63% of respondents said there are more job opportunities for executives to recareer than there were 10 years ago.

Money, power, and prestige are prime motivators for switching, but retirees often pursue second careers for the greater good, says Crown. Experienced executives who retire often have the luxury of a comfortable nest egg, allowing them to pursue a passion, not merely a high-paying position.

But regardless of the motive and the goal, experts say informational interviewing is an indispensable tool for testing the waters. “You might like the idea of a title,” says Brenda Greene, author of You’ve Got the Interview, Now What?: Fortune 500 Hiring Professionals Tell You How to Get Hired. “But when you get down to the nitty-gritty of what you do from 9 to 5, you have to like that too. You can find all this out in an informational interview if you ask the right questions.”

How to Use a Networking Site

Amid all the chatter about user-generated content and Web 2.0, another class of Web services has been quietly gaining momentum. Call it the “professional Web”: online services designed explicitly to help you manage your career and do your job better. LinkedIn, for one, has been adding 120,000-plus members a week and now has almost 10 million total. Users of Jigsaw have compiled more than 5.3 million business contacts, adding 12,000 a day.

Right now, the most obvious value that these services provide is the opportunity to own (and control) your online identity. LinkedIn, as well as the services Ziggs and ZoomInfo, let you create a profile for free. (ZoomInfo also proactively aggregates Web info about professionals–34 million so far–and lets you verify your identity.) Search for a name and these profiles generally show up in a search engine’s top 10. This is a low-stress way to control your image and, incidentally, make yourself a passive job seeker.

Still, a site can’t necessarily build a business on such a narrow premise, so each service is adding features designed to get us to use them more. Ziggs, for example, has ambitiously rebuilt its people search engine into a Web desktop where you can orient your world around the folks you know–from work, college, etc. “People were using us once a month as a reference site, and when they’d come, they’d spend two or three minutes,” says Ziggs CEO, Tim DeMello. “Now they’re spending 10 times as much time. We want to offer daily utility.”

Unfortunately, daily utility is the fool’s gold of the professional Web. Most people are not going to reinvent their whole routine to match someone else’s business model, which makes Ziggs more interesting for its parts than its whole. Take Elizabeth Yekhtikian, a PR professional in Boston who uses Ziggs to prospect for new clients. “If I have an idea for a new business, I’ll invite them into this professional environment for a chat,” she says. Ziggs also allows you to send someone a cup of coffee (not instant coffee: a Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) gift card). But if no one you know is on the service, are you really going to invite people to join just to swap java?
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How to handle a telephone job interview

Telephone interviews are an increasingly popular - and time-efficient - way of pre-screening job applicants to narrow the candidate field before a face-to-face interview.

And, sooner or later, if you are determined about your career progression it is an audition you will have to get through, so it makes sense to get up to speed with the fundamentals now.

Where do I start?

Your aim for the interview should be to get to the next level, which is to obtain a conventional face-to-face interview.

Take the time to find out about the company interviewing you, and be sure that you have a good appreciation of what the job you are being interviewed for entails.

The interviewer will be looking for evidence that you have fully prepared. As you can’t be seen by the interviewer, make the most of this by having your CV and covering letter in front of you to refer to, if necessary.

Also consider preparing a set of bullet-pointed notes about projects you have worked on and specific accomplishments, to use as a crib sheet.

Importance of timing

Make sure you choose an appropriate time and find a comfortable and relaxed setting to take the call.

Jane Horner, HR consultant at the Osler Partnership, recalls occasions where candidates she has interviewed have taken calls during their lunch breaks and needed to go outside the building for privacy and ended up losing reception on their mobile phones.

“I would advise you not to put yourself in this position, but rather to schedule the call for a more convenient time when you know you will be in a quiet, uninterrupted location without the concern of being overheard,” she suggests.

This also gives you the chance to relax and gather your thoughts before you take the call.

Making an impression

As visual clues are lost on the phone, candidates have to rely on verbal ones to build a rapport with the interviewer, which can make the prospect of a telephone interview more intimidating.

But Horner says if the interviewer has prepared sufficiently, the call should have a clear purpose, and you will be guided through the questions, which in itself is a good way to overcome such hurdles.

“Put yourself in the shoes of the interviewer and provide clear, well thought-through answers to give them the information they require,” she says.

Etiquette and protocols

Although telephone interviews tend to be fairly swift affairs, make sure you proceed slowly enough to form a clear picture of what the interviewer wants to know. Actively listen and keep your answers brief and relevant to the question.

“If an interview is conducted well, it should be a controlled conversation in which you are the active participant,” explains Horner. “Speak clearly and allow the interviewer time to make notes and probe further on your answers.”

Also try standing up - an erect and confident poise will help you come across more confidently.

Use role-play

Acting out a telephone interview scenario with a friend or trusted colleague can help you gain insight into your technique. It may highlight areas in which you fall down, such as listening skills, tone of voice or how authoritative you sound, enabling you to refine specific skills accordingly.

Horner also recommends conducting research relevant to whichever stage of the interview process the call aims to address.

“For example, an initial screening telephone interview may just require evidence of a role’s baseline competencies, while a final interview conducted over the phone will delve far deeper into your employment experience and suitability for the role,” she says.

If you only do 5 things

1 Research the organisation and the job thoroughly

2 Minimise the risk of distractions

3 Speak clearly and concisely

4 Remember, first impressions still count

5 Listen carefully and keep your responses relevant to the question

The nature of the telephone interview means there is no instant feedback, such as in a face-to-face interview, and interviewees can feel uncomfortable or uncertain of how their responses are being received and how well the interview is going. Turn these negative factors into an advantage. With no visual distraction, you can focus intently on what is being asked of you and respond to the best of your ability.

Is there a way you can gauge the reaction of the interviewer during the interview?

Aside from the verbal clues you would receive from any other conversation over the phone, not really. However, if you feel distracted or uncomfortable at any point about your answers and how they have been received, don’t be frightened to ask.

Top three tips

* Prepare. Research the role you are applying for and the organisation and prepare any questions you may have about either in advance.
* Comfort. Take the call in a location where you will be comfortable and uninterrupted for the duration of the call, and ideally one where you have access to a landline to avoid losing reception or battery in the middle of a call.
*Listen. Focus on what is being asked of you and respond by speaking clearly, without gabbling. You will feel much more in control of the process if you speak slowly and clearly. Finally, in the excitement of the moment, don’t forget to ask what the next step is and what the process or timeline is for this.

Unleashing Your Many Identities - From Business Week

Marci Alboher is a lawyer-turned-journalist/speaker/writing coach who knows that she introduces herself with an abundance of labels and punctuation. She does it on purpose, because she’s hell-bent on spreading the message that people should be unleashing their many identities. For her new book, One Person/Multiple Careers, she interviewed hundreds of people living these lives, from a longshoreman/documentary filmmaker to a management consultant/cartoonist.

She and I recently talked about what she learned from people who are custom-blending careers, why she thinks we’re going to see more “slashing,” and how we can all benefit from the slash movement—both in our own careers and in the companies we build and manage. Edited excerpts of the conversation follow:

You’ve gotten a lot of attention for bringing the word “slash” into the lexicon of careers. So what’s going on with all the slashes?

Slashes are people who pursue multiple careers or vocations simultaneously. They’ve taken the notion of moonlighting and turned it on its head. Whereas moonlighting was something you did shamefully, slashing has cachet. From lawyer/chefs to mom/screenwriters and celebrity icons like Bono (see BusinessWeek.com, 4/24/07, “My Dinner with Bono”), rock star/humanitarian, slashes are appearing at all strata of society.

What is behind this explosion of careers with slashes?

It’s happening for a number of reasons:

•Now that so much work can be done flexibly, portably, and virtually, it’s easy to do many kinds of work in the same workweek or even workday.

•Economic security no longer exists unless you create it. Having multiple income streams is one of the best ways to create stability.

•People are living and working longer, creating a large canvas on which to paint a career.

•We are all craving fulfillment and meaning in our careers, so it’s becoming more common to combine work for security with work that feeds a passion.

Are there common models for slashing, or is every case different?

Some combinations are so common that people already think about them as an integrated career—the actor/director or anyone who teaches/speaks/writes/consults in their given field. Then there are the corporate types who have a business or artistic pursuit “on the side.” The slashes who get the most notice are those with incongruous combinations, like Robert Childs, a psychoanalyst/violin maker. Of course, anyone who works while actively raising children is living a slash life.

Most people have trouble managing one career; aren’t you just encouraging them to make careers more challenging and complicated?

The most surprising thing I learned from the people I’ve interviewed is that while people with slashes may experience workplace stress, they tend to say that the difficult times are far outweighed by the fact that they have written the rules of their own working lives. Slash careers provide variety, multiple income streams, and a tonic against the burnout so common in those who pursue one endeavor exclusively.

And in many cases, multiple identities result in unexpected synergies. Consider Robert Barr, who had a thriving career as financier, all the while publishing books of poetry. When the National Poetry Foundation was looking for a leader who was both passionate about poetry and capable of managing a wealthy nonprofit, Barr was the perfect choice.

How do you create a résumé or handle an interview when you are a person with multiple careers?

This can be tricky, and it all depends on your goals. For some, it makes a lot of sense to be upfront about various slashes in all contexts. Angela Williams, the corporate lawyer/minister who inspired me to write this book, says that revealing her dual professions has made her more marketable to potential employers and clients.

She features both prominently in her résumé and bio. Others keep their identities separate to the point of having multiple résumés. In the era of Web sites and online profiles, more people are describing themselves with a litany of slashes, but in each case it’s about what works best with a person’s particular mix of slashes.

What ever happened to the conventional wisdom that values specialization and becoming an expert in your career? Why would anyone want to go to a surgeon who has another job on the side?

Slash careers are entirely consistent with developing expertise. In fact, many slash professionals occupy the highest rungs of their various professions. Often they took on a slash at a time in their career when they had the luxury to slow down a bit after putting in their dues in a given field.

And many slashes tell me that having other outlets or areas of focus made them better at their original occupation. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who divides his time between his career as a journalist for CNN (TWX) and his work a surgeon, is arguably seeing a wider world of medicine by traveling the globe as a correspondent than if he never left the confines of his hospital in Atlanta.

You often refer to yourself as a former lawyer. Now that so many people go through career changes, how do prior careers fit in with the whole slash movement?

I rarely encounter someone who has switched careers who didn’t carry forward and benefit from the training or perspective that came from the earlier career. The key with “starter careers” is to realize how they can complement or enhance your current career.

We are entering an age where the hybrids will rule the workplace, whether they’re called hyphenates, slashes, or some other name. If you’re an architect with an MBA, you’ll see opportunities in the business side of architecture that few others will see. Careers at the intersections are where innovation is born.

You say throughout your book that slash careers require constant tweaking and reinvention. So what’s next for you?

Just a few weeks ago, I started writing the online column, “Shifting Careers” for The New York Times (NYT). Writing a weekly column is quite different, both in pace and in style, from writing a book. So I am embracing being a beginner all over again as I immerse myself in this new kind of writing. I have a feeling my next book idea will come out of that column.

It has been great to interview you! I now realize that I am an executive educator/professor/coach/writer/columnist/Buddhist!

Resume should highlight skills, not duties

John Grobe has seen a lot of resumes in his career, and that means he’s seen a lot of mistakes.

Grobe is president of a company called Federal Career Experts, based in the Chicago area, which provides career advice for people who are working in the federal government, or would like to.

He’s written a book, “The Complete Guide to Writing a Federal Resume,” available on the Web at www.fedweek.com. He just released a list of the top mistakes people make in writing resumes, which he said applies to both federal and private-sector jobs.

Want a job with these ladies at the Government Printing Office - or any other federal job? Write a resume that focuses on your skills.

The biggest mistake, he said, is listing responsibilities rather than skills and results. Grobe said just telling employers what you did doesn’t tell them the skills you used or the results you achieved.

Grobe said to be as specific as possible. If something you did saved money, how much money. If it saved time, exactly how much time.

At the same time, he said, don’t ignore “the soft skills,” such an ability to communicate or be an effective negotiator.

Grobe said applicants should use the right key words, which are nouns or noun phrases that are part of the job requirements. If the job demands an accounting degree or a knowledge of Microsoft Excel, those words should appear on the resume — particularly since some government agencies and companies have started scanning them electronically. If the right words don’t show up, the resume might never make to the next level.

For federal jobs, Grobe said, the key words can usually be found in the “qualifications” or “requirements” or “duties and responsibilities” part of a federal job posting.

A private sector job can be trickier, he said, but there’s often a description of the job requirements, sometimes on a company Web site.

Surprising Six-Figure Jobs

It’s always been true that if you want to earn more money, you should think about going back to school.

But how many people realize that so many teaching posts could carry six-figure salaries?

According to the latest statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor showing average salaries for a range of occupations, six categories of teachers are included in the rankings showing jobs where the average of the top earners (the 90th percentile) is in excess of $100,000 annually.
In Pictures: Surprising Six-Figure Jobs

They range from math teachers to those who impart knowledge about home economics. In math, for example, the official Labor Department definition of jobs done by those in that teaching category is “teach courses and/or pursue academic research pertaining to mathematical concepts, statistics and actuarial science and to the application of mathematics in solving specific problems and situations.” So each teaching group specifically includes university and college lecturers at the postsecondary level, rather than high school teachers.

The data also show, of course, that the true average wage for all the teachers included in the data set is between $55,000 and $65,000 a year. But the ranking measure–the average of the higher-earning individuals in each category–puts teachers of certain subjects into the six-figure range.

In order of their average salaries for top earners, the subjects most in demand are computer science, sociology, psychology, mathematics, history, languages and home economics. In terms of numbers as defined, there are 44,570 math teachers and 36,630 computer science teachers, but just 4,330 home economics teachers.

Some of the occupations on the list probably won’t seem that much of a surprise. For example, commercial pilots come at the upper end of this particular ranking, with a high-end average of just over $115,000, roughly the same as insurance sales agents. Those are the only two of the listed categories to exceed that average figure.

Market research analysts (those who “research market conditions to determine potential sales of a product or service [and] may gather information on competitors, prices, sales, and methods of marketing and distribution”) come next, followed closely by real estate agents.

While commission-based jobs are obviously subject to greater fluctuations in income levels than those that have a graded salary structure, it is certainly interesting–given the often cyclical nature of the home sales market–that loan officers (in addition to real estate sales agents) are highly placed. A loan officer’s job is to “evaluate, authorize or recommend approval of commercial, real estate or credit loans [and] advise borrowers. [The category] includes mortgage loan officers and agents, collection analysts, loan servicing officers and loan underwriters.”

In terms of the connection between commission and income, also in the ranking–albeit lower down the scale, with a high-end average of $101,030 is the general category of “sales representatives” (definition: “sell goods, for wholesalers or manufacturers, to businesses or groups of individuals”). Sales representatives also make up the biggest single category by number, with 1,488,990 so defined by the Labor Department.

Coming in at the bottom end of the ranking is the category that includes the 3,330 employees defined as “farm, ranch and other agricultural managers.” The Labor Department defines them as employees who “manage farms, ranches, aquacultural operations, greenhouses, nurseries, timber tracts, cotton gins, packing houses or other agricultural establishments for employers.” Their high-end average is $100,050, just less than double the true average for all employees in that category.

After a Successful Interview, It’s Your Turn to Ask Questions

It’s especially nice to feel wanted after you’ve gone through the often-daunting exercise of looking for a job. All those hours of tinkering with your résumé and driving all over town for interviews can make you ready to accept anything that meets your minimum salary needs, just to be done with it all. If you have been out of work for a while — or if this is your first job out of school — the pressure can really start to mount, right next to that stack of bills on the kitchen counter.

But just because an employer wants you doesn’t mean you should take the job. Here are some questions you should ask yourself and your potential employer before accepting any offer:

· How stable is the organization? Is it growing? Stumbling? At the least, you should catch up on the news about an organization and its industry. Ideally, you should make the time to read the financial reports ( http://SEC.gov for public companies; http://GuideStar.org for nonprofit groups). Are they making acquisitions? Are any of the higher-ups in legal trouble? You would do this sort of research before buying an organization’s stock or giving it a donation, right? So you need to do it before giving them your time.

· What are the benefits? Too often, people judge a job offer only by salary. This can be an expensive mistake. Health insurance, in particular, is important. It’s the benefit that can vary most widely in terms of what and who gets covered. Some organizations cover their employees’ premiums 100 percent but provide nothing for dependents. This won’t matter if you are single, but if you have a family to support, you had better ask. What are the vacation policies? Retirement plan? How long before these extras kick in? Ask human resources for the full benefits package and look it over closely before you send in that acceptance letter.

· How’s the commute? How much will it cost you to get to this job every day, in time and money? A job close to home or accessible by public transit can be better than a big raise. No matter how cool a job is, you have to think about this issue before starting. Otherwise, you may find yourself obsessing about it for two hours a day in a matter of months. I know how tempting it can be to downplay a lengthy drive. (After all, everybody else around here just sucks it up, right?) The first newspaper job I was offered after college was in Manassas. I lived in Rockville. Desperate to end my days standing in front of copy machines for local government contractors, I was ready to take the job. But the editor talked me out of it and recommended me for a similar job at a sister paper in Montgomery County. Boy, am I grateful.

· Do I click with my new boss and colleagues? Chemistry isn’t everything, but it does help. After all, you will be spending a good chunk of your waking hours at work. Talk to as many people who work there as you can — preferably outside the building, over a cup of coffee, lunch or a drink — to get a feel for the place. Does your personal work style mesh with the organization’s culture? If it doesn’t, to what degree are you willing to adapt to make the most of the opportunity?

· What will this job teach you? Even seasoned professionals should look for places where they can learn new skills. This can happen in a classroom, on the job or with a mentor. If the job would be a promotion into management, would you get training for the new role? Ask about employer-sponsored tuition benefits if heading back to school is in your plans.

· What comes next? How does this job fit into your medium or long-term goals? This question is especially important if you are leaving your current job because you think you are stagnating. Find out what happened to the last person who held the job. Was he promoted within in a year or two in the company? Did she go to a better job with a competitor? Law school? A minimum-security prison for a corporate-fraud conviction? Do the answers you get fit with your vision of where you want to be in the next few years? If not, keep looking.