Personality and workplace culture

[Double J]

This is probably one of those situations where "you won't know unless you try," but I hoped you guys could nonetheless provide your two cents.

 

I've worked for my employer, a young start-up, for over two years now. The upside is that this place fits my introverted personality to a tee: no meetings, no bureaucracy, minimal workplace politics, no BS.

 

The downside: Scant raises, limited room for growth and no training opportunities. I've addressed this with my employer, who says there isn't much he can do. The company is known for being cheap and pretty much all of us are in the same boat.

 

I'm planning to propose to my girlfriend toward the end of the year, which makes having a secure job all the more important. (She's a teacher and always on edge due to the county's endless budget woes.) I have twice accepted jobs in the non-profit world that turned out to be bad fits for my personality; consequently, I chose to resign from both.

 

As you may have learned by reading some of my earlier posts, I've been interviewing with different companies over the last few months. I've received no response from the local college I met with, but continue to draw the attention of private employers. I have a second interview with a large company next week and might be setting up a first interview with another established firm later today. My ultimate goal is to find a company that couples a culture similar to that of my current employer with the growth and training opportunities it sorely lacks.

 

What are some ways to increase the likelihood of ending up somewhere where you blend in with the corporate culture? To that end, what are some good questions to ask in interviews? Feel free to share your experiences.

 

Thanks in advance.

[lavenderdove]

Up until the age of 35, i changed jobs about every 2 years to leverage my way into bigger salary and better jobs. It is frequently hard to get that once you are stuck in a job at a company, especially places like startups where the work is usually so overwhelming there is no time to do anything else.

 

When you interview, ask questions about their educational and training opportunities and what they pay for. Also ask what percentage of their hires are internal transfers vs. outside hires. If you see a lot of movement within the company, then there are growth opportunities there. Also ask how fast they have been growing in terms of number of employees. That is also an indication they are healthy and there is room to move.

 

Make sure you ask about what their 'average' hours worked per week are. If they say 60+ hours a week, it's a sweatshop with little opportunity to do anything else but work.

[orchidrose]

This is an interesting question that I've been wondering about, as well. I've now worked in several nonprofits and up until my current office, I fit in really well with the culture. In my experience, people working in nonprofits (especially in the arts) tend to be extroverted, caring and very engaged with their work. I've always worked in offices where there are regular potlucks, people lunch together, coworkers actually like each other, etc. The downside to this is that people can get too engaged: all three of my bosses questioned me about my new boyfriend after I posted to Facebook about him. And there tended to be a lot of bureaucracy, too (i.e. three bosses).

 

My current office is the complete opposite in terms of personality. Everyone keeps to themselves. One department lunches together regularly, but when they do, they close their door and invite no one from the outside. Everyone eats at their desk. People can be friendly with each other, but not overly so. There are few people who are friends outside of work. There are no parties of any kind; for my birthday, I got a card from one other person in my department.

 

As I'm looking for a new job, I'm hoping to find a culture somewhere in the middle, where people are friendly and encouraging, but don't get in too deep with each other personally.

[Ariel85]

The working world is not like how it was during our parents (and beyond) time. Back then, you worked for one company for your whole career, and took promotions, raises, job changes, etc. - all within one company.

 

Now, you take the experience from one employer and move on.

 

I wouldn't make corporate culture such a big thing. Go for the opportunity, experience, and money.

[orchidrose]

I wouldn't make corporate culture such a big thing. Go for the opportunity, experience, and money.

 

Yeah, but you spend most of your waking hours and most of your life in your office. For me, working in an environment that is cold, unfriendly, unfeeling, etc. has had a big impact on my day-to-day. My work has suffered somewhat because at times I'm afraid to ask questions of my colleagues because of the responses I will get. I don't feel motivated and I don't feel appreciated here.

 

I think, as with everything, there needs to be a balance. You can be making tons of money in a job that will really get you places and still dread coming to work every day because of your boss or the environment. Is that really worth it?

[thejigsup]

An office is as cold and unfeeling as you make it. I'm very social and I took and office that was very "no socializing before, after, or during work" and changed it into a place where we are all friendly and communicative. It took a year or so, but I've now been there 10 years and love it! Sometimes you have to take the lead.

[mfan]

What are some ways to increase the likelihood of ending up somewhere where you blend in with the corporate culture? To that end, what are some good questions to ask in interviews?

 

This is not from experience and may or may not be practical, but my advice (FWIW) is not to ask any questions like this during the interview itself. Then, if you get offered the job, call back or ask to visit the company one more time and find out the answer to this question yourself by talking to people. Similar to the "how much overtime is there?" question, actually. During the interview, just be enthusiastic about everything including long hours (if you sound worried that you might not fit in, then even if the answers are to your liking, the interviewer may worry that you are a picky, hard-to-please person). But find out the truth later before you accept the job.