Hard to believe, but it's been only a year since people rejected jobs for reasons like "They won't let me bring my Chihuahua to the office" or "They said my piercings would have to go, so I left." But just because there are a lot fewer jobs around these days, doesn't mean that people are willing to accept any job. Sure, standards have changed, but they haven't gone away. What people want in a real job these days is not about perks. It's all about possibility.
We asked veterans of new-economy jobs what they are looking for in a job now, and they had plenty to say. They've learned what counts and what's window dressing. They know what defines a great job and a fulfilling career, what separates a real manager from a poseur, and what differentiates a real business plan from a movie treatment.
Here are eight things that matter most now.
Ping-Pong tables and wet bars are an embarrassing memory. What people seek, above all now, is a challenge. Many employees feel that the frenzy of their prior startups kept them locked into repetitive chores simply because they were good at those things. Now people are craving inspiration. They want to work on a project or service that makes them feel they can make a difference in people's lives or can transform a business. "We're cycling back to more fundamental values that were temporarily distorted by opportunism and greed," says André Delbecq, director of the Institute for Spirituality of Organizational Leadership and professor of management at Santa Clara University. "A job has to be purposeful."
No one expects to stay for years and years at a company. But people do not want to keep getting laid off every three months either. It's bad for the budget, not to mention the morale. Burned by past empty promises, employees are obsessed with the idea of working at a place that makes an honest-to-goodness product or service. They want a clearly visible path to profitability, with supportive investors and partners already in place, and a CEO who can articulate the strategy and doesn't shrink from tough questions. If they don't find that, they'll look elsewhere -- or change their minds quickly. "We have taught people to leave," says Colleen Aylward, president of the recruiting firm Devon James Associates. Note to managers: Do not, under any circumstances, mention an upcoming IPO to a prospective hire. You'll be laughed out of the room.
Although many people in the workforce are fairly young, they are no longer naive. They know when they're being fed a bunch of baloney, and to them, there is nothing more repugnant. So if the company's experiencing trouble, they want to know about it, directly from the head of the company or the business unit. They can handle it. If they are not meeting expectations, they need to be told, so they can improve. And when offering a job to candidates, don't promise them the world -- simply tell them what you need from them, and be honest about the tough parts. If you think the job may change, tell them. Candidates are flexible these days -- as long as they don't feel that they got a snow job on the way in.
People know that their job won't last forever. They know that things might not work out and that they could get the boot one day. So what do they want? The chance to gain skills that will round out their abilities -- and that will make them more employable in their next job. That doesn't mean they'll be less loyal -- on the contrary, employees tend to stay longer at places that don't try to fence them in. One company, NetPace Inc., an e-commerce solutions provider, now has regular technology rotations, so staff technologists become familiar with all the latest innovations. "One thing we've been doing is ensuring that our people are not bored by run-of-the-mill projects," says Omar Khan, co-CEO of NetPace.
Managers don't have to have gray hair and wrinkles -- nor should they revert to the old command-and-control mentality -- but they do have to have experience, as well as respect for the act of managing itself. And employees want regular, periodic reviews, something that didn't happen much in the frenzy of the past few years. Job seekers want to know about your culture and how people are retained, says Beverly Kaye, president of Career Systems International, a talent retention and development company and coauthor of Love 'Em or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People to Stay (Berrett-Koehler, 1999), "You'd better be able to answer those questions, and you'd better not fib."
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