Choosing Your Next Job? Use This Simple Framework

Actionable insights and curated articles to accelerate your career and supercharge your job search!

Author

Hannah Morgan
February 02, 2025

Welcome to Career Essentials, where I share actionable insights and curated articles that will help accelerate your career and supercharge your job search.

This week I share a decision-making framework to help you pivot or decide which job is best for you. PLUS articles to enlighten you on job search, using LinkedIn, interviewing smarter and trends in the workplace. 

Choosing Your Next Job? Use This Simple Framework to Decide

Making the right career decision for the right reasons is what this is all about. 

Here are just some of the career decisions you might be faced with:

  • You are new to the workforce and need to determine which job/occupation/industry to pursue

  • You want to change jobs/careers, so which jobs are best suited to you?

  • You have a couple (or more) offers on the table, which one will you choose?

Let’s start with what you want from your next job. What is your your criteria for a good-fit job?  What is important to you? Maybe it includes skills you want to use, values, or lifestyle. If you haven’t determined what is most important to you, you’ll want to do that NOW.

Your priorities change as you go through life. If you haven’t assessed your priorities for this stage of life, you should. 

When you align your priorities with your work, you will be less likely to burn out.  

YOUR PRIORITIES/CRITERIA

For the list below, rank the importance of each of these as a 1, 2 or 3. Next, place the ones you ranked as “1” in the decision-making matrix (sample below). Just to be clear, these are the criteria you want and need in your next job.  

  • Advancing my career

  • Active in the community

  • Competitive

  • Content with my work

  • Creative

  • Independence

  • Loyal at work

  • Part of a team

  • Self motivated

  • Well known

  • Well liked

  • Challenging myself intellectually

  • Choosing my work location

  • Collaborating with others

  • Feeling needed and appreciated

  • Gaining new knowledge

  • Time freedom

  • Authority over others

  • High income

  • Interests outside of work

  • Job security

  • Low work stress

  • Major accomplishments

  • Power

  • Status

  • Influencing others

  • Inventing something new

  • Making my own decisions

  • Pursuing excellence

  • Serving others

  • Spending time with family and friends

  • Taking risks

  • Working for the environment

  • Other:

Decision-making matrix

Now that you have your list of criteria created, begin gathering information during coffee chats and during the interview process. As you gather information, evaluate how each job option meets your criteria on a scale of 1 to 10. It might look like this:

decision-making matrix with info

While there is a tie, at least it going through this exercise gets me thinking about what is most important in a new job and where each job stands. 

The other reason to do this now is that it will force you to ask questions during the interview process to get answers about some of the things that are important to you. 

Do you want more tools and tips like this? Join the next Motivation Monday Job Search Accountability Group and get access to all the tools I recommend for the phases of job search. Plus, you’ll get the support of a small group to move your job search forward faster. 

The next session starts Monday, February 10, 2025 and meets for 6-weeks on Mondays, 12-1pm ET.

SUMMARY SUNDAY

There’s a lot of confusion and misinformation out there about ATS and resumes. Being ATS-friendly doesn’t mean what you think. 

ATS-friendly = readable by Applicant Tracking Systems

Here’s what the ATS 🚫 Rejects:

→ JPEG (image) resumes (They're pretty, but unreadable to the ATS)
→ Flat PDFs (Basically, an image disguised as a PDF)
→ Locked Word or PDF files (It's like locking the door and throwing away the key
→ ZIP or RAR files (The ATS isn't an archaeologist, it won't dig for your resume)
→ The resume you never upload (This one is self-explanatory)

Still not sure if your resume is ATS-friendly? Use Jan’s simple test. 

 

It’s time to expand the companies you look at for jobs. Why? Because having a list of 20+ target companies maximizes your chances of success. This approach increases your visibility to potential roles and allows you to expand your network purposefully. You’ll find 15 different ways to build or expand your list of potential targets.  

💻 LINKEDIN

Is LinkedIn Verification worth it? Spoiler: it is a personal choice. This post helps you understand your options and the reasoning for verification, so you can make an informed decision. As is true with many posts on LinkedIn, the comments offer great value.

This list of recommended people to follow on LinkedIn was compiled based on a post asking the community for recommendations. It has four categories: resume writers, coaches and thought leaders (of various types), LinkedIn-focused experts, and recruiters/talent acquisition folks.There are 76 people. Follow (no need to connect) the ones who meet your needs. 

Today’s job seekers need to be smarter about finding and applying for the right jobs. LinkedIn’s Job Match function should help. See a quick overview of the free vs paid version. And do read the recruiter comments on why they aren’t always able to respond to every message. 

🗨 INTERVIEWING

Social capital “is the notion that your relationships and people's perception of you can translate to financial or bottom-line gains.” If you’ve ever been passed over for a promotion, was it because your boss lacked social capital? See some questions to ask during the job interview to assess social capital of your potential new manager. 

⚙ AI

56% of the managers chose a candidate with relevant experience and some AI skills according to a recent Resume Templates study of 780 hiring managers.

What makes this article interesting is the potential reasons why AI skills are desirable: a marker for greater potential productivity or it’s seen as scarce but needed skill. Learn more about how to list your AI skills and why soft skills are still valuable.  

🔮 WORKFORCE

These are some of the key data points highlighted in the press release: 

  • 60% of remote workers report that employers have demanded more in-office time in the last two years, with 38% being required to return to the office five days a week.

  • 1 in 6 employees say they would quit their job if forced to return to the office full-time, signaling potential talent loss for companies enforcing strict RTO policies.

  • Over one-third of millennials intend to defy return-to-office mandates, with 37% planning to ignore company policies and either continue working remotely or go to the office less frequently than required.

  • 96% of workers agree that carefully selected incentives, such as flexible schedules or pay raises, could be key to enticing them back to the office.

These shouldn’t come as a surprise. Instead, it’s a reality check for those who are new to the job market or want to know if how they are feeling about RTO is normal. 

 

You’ll find the key changes and projections by employers. Including: 

  • The decline of employee turnover and reasons

  • The move to hybrid work arrangements

  • Employers expect to increase pay in 2025

  • Employers plan to increase hiring in 2025

This is a good look at what’s happening and some of the logic behind the shifts employers are making. 

💰 CAREER

Which of these 3 excuses are you using for not networking? There’s a simple solution in this post. Will you do it?

📶 RECRUITER PERSPECTIVE

This post is proof that many employers do not care that their online application process or hiring process is grueling. And note the the author (and commenters) are recruiters.

  • Trump administration offers buyouts to federal workers

  • What is DeepSeek? China’s ChatGPT rival sends Nvidia and Microsoft stocks tumbling, rattles AI giants

  • Starbucks, union withdraw lawsuits

EVENTS

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Begins February 10, 2025

This job search is taking longer than you want

  • You've sent dozens of applications.

  • You've aced interviews, only to be passed over.

  • Your dream job still feels out of reach.

Why is this process so frustrating?

Because you're doing it all alone, in a silo, and you run out of ideas and motivation. Remember: Your persistence will pay off. This is a marathon, not a sprint - and you've got what it takes.

So, what's your next move?

Motivation Monday Job Search Accountability Group is like a Mastermind group for job seekers. Share best practices, ask for advice, hold yourself accountable for doing those things you don’t like to do! You’ll get 6 weeks of accountability, tools, tips and resources to build a successful job search strategy.

JOB SEARCH VISUAL

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6 STAR stories needed for interviews

DID YOU MISS THESE

COACHES CORNER

A dedicated spot just for career practitioners (resume writer, career coach). 

Help your clients (and yourself) by being active on social media. This seminar shows career practitioners how to use Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to support clients, attract new clients, and market their business or grow their brand.

Social Media Strategies for Career Practitioners It starts February 8, 2025 and runs for 5 weeks. Learn more here.  

WEBSITE OF THE WEEK

As of this week, Job Search Database now has over 700(!) actively posting job boards sortable by career category.

Why is this important? 

With the large number of applications, companies will be looking for niche job boards to post their openings. This allows them to target the applications based on specialty. This could be by occupation, industry or other interests. 

How to take action?

Find 3-5 niche/specialty job boards and set alerts there. 

TELL ME

What is the top factor when deciding to accept a job?

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