Article: The Single Biggest Threat To Your Job

The biggest threat to your job might come from an unexpected place. I believe that there is a hidden assassin lurking in the background waiting to finish you off in your job. Let’s face it, job security is high on everyone’s wish list right now, especially at times of economic downturn when it might not be so easy to quickly find another one.

So how secure is your job? Where is this hidden threat coming from and how can you put yourself into the best possible position to keep your job? I believe the biggest threat to your job, indeed most of our jobs, is coming from from an unforeseen eliminator. I believe that our improved ability to capture and analyse data will allow us to automate most jobs. And I am not just talking about the manual and un-skilled jobs but any job, including the jobs of knowledge workers, doctors, journalists and even sports coaches.

10 Things Job-Seekers Must Do to Get a Better Job

... rather than complaining, take some advice from Jim Rohn: “Things will get better for you, when you get better.”

Given this state of the economy, the best thing any job-seeker can do to get a better job is to be more thorough, more savvy and more aggressive. The following are some basic guidelines for the thorough and savvy parts. These are not optional. Neither is the aggressive part, but I’ll leave that up to you.

Some Big Ideas Job-seekers Must Follow if They Want to Get a Meaningful Job

1. Applying directly to job postings should represent no more than 20% of what you do. Getting referred to a job is 5-10X more effective than applying directly. If you’re going to apply, only apply to jobs when you’re a perfect fit for the skills and experience listed on the job description.
2. Leverage your understanding of the recruiter’s role. Many recruiters are gatekeepers who don’t know the job and will just box-check your skills and experiences. Others are extremely talented, who want to work with the best people to craft great career moves. You must avoid the former and seek out the latter.
3. Implement a 20/20/60 job-hunting plan. A job hunting plan requires a performance-based resume, an understanding of how recruiters find candidates, and applying through the backdoor. Networking is the key to the backdoor. It must represent 60% of what you need to do.
4. Focus on the job, not the money. It’s better to be underpaid than overpaid. Getting promoted or obtaining a big compensation increase will only occur after you’ve demonstrated great performance. You need to put yourself into these situations. Ignore anyone who says otherwise.
5. Present your strengths and weaknesses via short stories. No one believes general statements. You must validate each of your strengths with a specific example of how it was used in a real job situation. In addition, you need to demonstrate how you’ve turned your weaknesses into strengths. Never say you don’t have any weaknesses! It means you’ve stopped growing.
6. Divide and conquer by asking the universal question. Very early in the interview, or phone screen, you must ask the interviewer to describe the focus of the job, some of the big challenges, and how the new person’s performance will be measured. Pick at least two from this list. Then prove each is a core strength using the SAFW response below.
7. Practice the universal answer to any question. You need to be able to prove every strength with a specific example. Form your answer using the SAFW two-minute response: Say A Few Words – Statement – Amplify – few Examples – Wrap-up.
8. Weave the 10 Best Predictors of Job Success into Your SAFW Response.  Make sure you have an example proving you possess at least three or four of these strengths. Then during the interview ask if these traits are important for on-the-job success. Of course they will be. Then give your example. Note: this is a slam dunk!
9. Use the phone screen to minimize the impact of a weak first impression. Even if you make a good first impression, it’s important to ask the universal question (see above) early in the phone screen. Answering it correctly will increase the likelihood you’ll be invited to an onsite interview. This will help focus the actual interview on your past performance, instead of box-checking your skills and experience, or judging you on first impressions.
10. Uncover any concerns before the end of the interview. To determine where you stand, ask the interviewer about next steps. If they’re not specific, you probably won’t be called back. In this case, ask the interviewer what’s the biggest concern he/she has about your background. Then ask how the skill, trait or factor mentioned is used on the job. To overcome the concern, you’ll need to use the SAFW two-minute response to prove you can handle the requirement.

Getting a job is no fun. It’s hard work. But working hard on the wrong things is a waste of time. So rather than complaining, take some advice from Jim Rohn: “Things will get better for you, when you get better.” Learning the ten techniques above is a great way to start.

Lou Adler

How Long Should You Stay At Your Job?

Over the years many people who have been granted options or RSUs have asked me for advice as to how long they should stay at their employer. As with most questions the answer is it depends.

It depends on your happiness, the company’s prospects and your career path. For many people, four years seems to be about the right span of time. It’s no coincidence vesting periods for most companies are four years, but your decision to stay at a job should not be driven by your vesting schedule.

Don’t job hop, but don’t be miserable, either

People who are interested in maximizing the diversification of their private company option or RSU portfolios tend to only stay at each company for 1 – 2 years.  The downside of such a strategy is future employers will regard you as a job hopper.

The highest quality startups want employees willing to commit to the company’s cause.

The highest quality startups tend to have their pick of the best talent, and they want employees willing to commit to the company’s cause. Therefore, the only people who will want to hire job hoppers will be the companies you shouldn’t want to work for. As a result you may get diversification, but a diversified portfolio of stock options that are not likely to be worth anything is a poor strategy.

That is not to say that you should stay at a company if you are unhappy.  I have often heard people advise their friends that they need to stay at a job for at least a year to avoid the job hopper label. More often than not I have seen unhappy people who stick around lose their motivation, which often leads to them being terminated. Being fired is far worse than having one job on your resume that lasted less than a year.

In fact, if at any point in your employment you are unhappy because of a job circumstance that is unlikely to change, my advice is to leave. People will respect you for it. I certainly respect people who do.

Vesting is four years for a reason

Stock option and RSU vesting is most often mandated at four years because, frankly, that is what companies have observed as the attention span of most employees. The character of the employer changes significantly over four years. People who like working at startups tend not to enjoy working for an established company as much, for instance. Four years is also a reasonable amount of time to devote to a particular challenge in your career. After four years, employees tend to get restless and want to look for something new.

Your initial grant shouldn’t be your final one

You shouldn’t necessarily leave just because the vesting on your original grant is up. Life is a series of tradeoffs, and option grants are no exceptions. Enlightened companies grant stock to existing employees for notable achievements, promotions and continued service. I recommend to every CEO on whose board I sit that they should grant additional shares (vesting over four years) to employees when they reach their 2 ½ to 3-year anniversaries.

Life is a series of tradeoffs, and option grants are no exceptions.

The size of the refresh grant is often 80 to 100% of what the employee in question would have received had they joined the company as a new employee. The grant can either be made once every four years or a quarter of my proposed grant can be made each year. The logic of the refresh grant after only 2 ½ years is you don’t want to wait until an employee is fully vested to reload them because their minds may turn elsewhere once they anticipate being fully vested.

If you receive additional shares from your current employer, you need to weigh the likely value of the additional grants against what you might earn from a new company grant over the same time period. Mature company grants are much smaller than earlier stage company grants (see our Startup compensation tool), but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are less valuable. A new employee grant from Facebook or LinkedIn when they had 1,000 employees would have been much more valuable than a typical new employee grant from a startup with only 50 employees.

Economics shouldn’t be your only consideration

All that being said, your decision should not solely be based on economics. You need to consider the certainty of knowing how happy you are with your current job’s environment and challenges against the uncertainty of what life will be like at your new company. On the flip side, you should consider the career risk of staying at a company too long. At a certain point, other companies won’t even try to recruit you because they believe you won’t leave.

If you are happy, staying at a company for an extended amount of time is a reasonable decision.

Some people worry about being typecast if they stay in a particular type of job too long. My observation is most people rise through the ranks because they are great at one thing (and hire to address their weaknesses) rather than being very good at a number of things.

If you are happy, staying at a company for an extended amount of time is a reasonable decision. However only in rare circumstances are an employer and an employee a good match for a really extended period of time. That being said, environment often trumps economics if you really enjoy where you work.

You may need a few at bats

One last thing to think about with regard to length of stay is your ability to afford to live in your particular geography.  As we explained in You Need Equity To Live In Silicon Valley, you have the greatest chance of being able to afford to live in an expensive geography if you work for at least a few private companies that award equity.