How to test a hiring company’s ability to meet your goals and expectations.

Nowadays, it seems a lot of companies are incorporating pre-hiring assessments into their hiring strategy. Personally, I like assessments even though no one assessment or program can really get inside a candidate’s brain matter to see what makes them tick, motivates them to do a great job, or predict how long they will stay around. I think they like to think they can but formal assessments leave out one critical component in determining a successful match – how well a company measures up in meeting candidates’ goals and expectations.

Hiring companies can rely upon validity measurements and test scores to determine if the candidate can perform the job and, hopefully, predict how well they will succeed in that job. And that is great but, like any other relationship, things can become stale when one party wants the other to rev things up a bit. While a good pre-hire assessment will be able to predict if the candidate will be adequately challenged at the time of hire, how does a job candidate measure how well a company evolves to continually challenge employees 5, 10, or 15 years down the road? Without this, it is a bit of a lopsided process.

In the beginning of any relationship, tension exists as to acceptance. Will the company offer the job and/or will the job candidate accept the job? This uncertainty and wanting can cloud the issue of whether or not the company and the employee are the best fit for each other for the long haul. Like personal relationships, there is a honeymoon period but this doesn’t occur until after the deal has been sealed. While everyone hopes the big questions are answered during the courting phase, unlike personal relationships, the courting phase for job hunters and hiring companies is short, by comparison. It is also highly subjective, depending upon the individual representing the company. A hiring manager to whom the employee will report is markedly different than a human resources professional who has likely not performed the work the employee is about to do and may not be aware of what it takes for the employee to get ahead in the job for which they are hiring. I know, long sentence, but I need to make a point.

So, how do you go about measuring how well a company will match your expectations for a long and successful relationship? The tried-and-true method of asking questions about what the company foresees for you in 5, 10, 15 years or more down the road and their plans and ability to get you there.

Who said finding your calling would be easy?

I was struck by Daniel Seddiqui's 50 jobs in 50 states adventure. If you don’t know Daniel’s story, he is the University of Southern California graduate who, unable to find a job in his field, set out to do something remarkable – get a job in each of the 50 states and chronicle his experiences. Daniel wrote:

Ever since I graduated from the University of Southern California, I have experienced uncertainty regarding my career path. Interviewing for a position was a full-time job and I wasn't having any luck; failing 40+ interviews. I never received feedback from any employers, so when I was offered a position no matter how irrelevant it was to my field of study, I accepted. I took my first position tutoring elementary students part-time. I knew right off the bat tutoring wasn't for me. I was realizing that I had to find a position that motivated me to wake up every morning.

What were hiring managers thinking?

Daniel lists on his resume, lobsterman in Maine, a surf instructor in Hawaii, a roustabout in Oklahoma, and archaeologist in Arkansas, among 45 other professions, and only one to go. When Daniel first started looking for a job in his hometown, how did hiring managers overlook this kind of initiative, enthusiasm, and creativity? Or, is it, perhaps, that the best of the best actually require adversity, need that testing, to have them find their true calling? What is Daniel’s mission now?

“My goal is to help Americans understand each other’s lives, respect each other’s hard work and stimulate peoples’ curiosity about different lifestyles.”

It appears Daniel has discovered what he had hoped to find at the beginning of his journey, namely, to find work that motivates him to wake up every morning.

Be a Difference Maker.

Standing on the precipice of greatness is a little terrifying because, typically, you’re up there alone. Not many care to venture that far or up. It’s scary and exhilarating all at once. If successful, you can stay perched up there for quite awhile, enjoying the view. If you fall, well, it can be one heck of a drop.

Before your climb, you’re going to meet a lot of naysayers. They’ll tell you that your chances of reaching the peak are slim and that the road is difficult. This I always find interesting because the majority of naysayers have never traveled that road to the top. This makes their predictions of road conditions suspect. Even if we tune them out, we still have ourselves to contend with. Being our toughest critics and prophets of doom and destruction, we can make a pretty compelling case for taking the road around the base of the mountain. It may be slower, less scenic, and you’ll have lots of company but, provided you don’t encounter any pile ups (like, the recession, perhaps?), you may get to your destination. And if you do take that route, you may glance up a time or two or ten to the top of the mountain and see a handful of hearty souls ascending the mountain. You may even watch them stop and play a bit, enjoying the sunshine, or taking a nice long nap. It may make you wonder if you hadn’t chosen the wrong path. After all, you had the tools and aspirations to make that climb. What makes them so different from you?

The difference might be courage.

Zig Ziglar, sales master, writes that people with courage are Difference Makers. I like this because it gives purpose to what you’re trying to achieve. When you have purpose, your sites are set on something altogether different than the pitfalls that could be encountered en route to the top. And you know what? There will be obstacles. You’ll hit a spot that doesn’t seem to give way to going farther. You may even backslide. But if making a difference is the goal, even if you stumble, how is that failing? The real failure comes when you stop trying to make a difference. As Zig Ziglar writes, “you will never be really happy until you do something for someone else.”