Job Wants Inventory and Opportunity Comparison
Have you asked yourself lately what you truly value and what gives you job satisfaction? Are you easily able to prioritize your job wants and weight them according to what really matters to you?
Self-knowledge at this granular level can be a tough ask without tools and techniques to work through the process. A few years ago I was having difficulty making a decision between opportunities. I ran across a job opportunity comparison article, A Scorecard to Help You Compare Two Jobs, on the Harvard Business Review site. Doing the exercise had multiple positive outcomes for me so I created an Excel spreadsheet to facilitate the process.
The process is simple, the reflection complex.
- Brainstorm a list of job Decision Factors that matter to you when considering job satisfaction (role, culture, duties, etc)
- Assign an Importance Weight for each Decision Factor according to it’s weight in your decision making
- Determine the Decision Factor Score for each opportunity
- Compare and analyze results
Job Wants Inventory
It was really challenging to complete my Decision Factor list. The process took a few days to stew. I came up with several pages of factors and had to edit and categorize similar wants to get the list to a concise two pages. ๐ I editorialized a bit in the notes to help support my importance scoring for future reference.
Instead of the 5 choices suggested for the Importance Weight used in the spreadsheet, I opted to only use 3 choices; 1-not important, 2-important, 3-very important.
Comparing Opportunities
The comparison function was really interesting and did help me make a decision. I love being able to look at personalized data. I should make more decisions this way. ๐
There is a solid number at the bottom that is weighted based on my biases. I have categories set up so that I can sort or filter to see how the jobs compare in different areas. You could actually compare even more options by simply duplicating columns E and F. Lots of possibilities!
Expanding self-knowledge
The exercise accomplished far more than helping me compare and decide between opportunities. By coming up with my own criteria and carefully considering the importance of each to my job satisfaction, I created a tool for understanding my motivations, social and psychological needs on the job. And that seems very valuable to me!
Have you done something like this? If not, then give it a try! Download the Excel spreadsheet to get started. Please let me know how it works out for you!
Happy learning,
Jenn