I used to primarily look at pay. If it was a decent increase from what I was making, I'd accept the job. then I started working at Nike and I realize that there are many more important things. Now I'm first and foremost making sure that the company has a good culture, that it sees employees as an asset, and that it focuses on merit over other things when it comes to raises, bonuses, and promotions. At least I can be grateful to Nike for teaching me the importance of that.
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My rule of thumb is reach out to people within the company prior to entertaining an offer. I recently turned down a significant financial increase from one of the top 5 tech companies. Nike attempted to match what they could but they couldn’t throw that type of cash around. I ultimately stayed after hearing the culture in that specific department within that company.
- It didn’t match my work style.
- I felt like their leadership team had a problem but thought hiring more people would solve the problem. (Red flag in my book)
- What I would be doing for that employer was a significantly higher gray area than what I would do for Nike.
Ultimately, I turned it down. Fortunately the person who accepted that position didn’t get let go with all the other tech layoffs, but the leadership team over there didn’t end up as lucky. I’ll always say look before leaping unless you absolutely know your current state is a massive burning ship. That means, leadership team not knowing how to navigate the channels, lack of clarity of the organization, or just an underperforming team (subtracting your performance from the organization).
Those are what I deem burning ship situations. I’ve been on 3 of those and survived all 3 RIF situations. The negative about living through those is it puts your career on the back burner until things become stable regardless of being a high performer. Best example is like being on a NBA team and you’re the star player, but the has a 10-72 record… you’re likely going to survive but something is going to change because it’s not working.
Those are all good points OP. Problem is, you often don’t necessarily know what a company’s culture is like or how employees are treated until you actually work there. You can certainly read up about a company and utilize other methods in an attempt to learn those things but the info you’ll get - good or bad - won’t always match the reality you find once you actually work there. I had to learn this difficult lesson myself not once but twice. It shocked me the second time too because I was 100% certain I had done a ton of due diligence and knew what I was getting into. Another poster also made a good point a few weeks ago when that person pointed out that, especially with larger companies, “culture” isn’t always a monolithic thing that’s the same throughout a company. Most large companies, including Nike, have many subcultures that can be very different from each other and can cause two different Nike employees to have very different experiences and views about the same company.
Otherwise I agree with you that pay isn’t the most important thing. My partner recently quit his job and took a small pay cut to work at a new company that only works 4 days per week. That small change, going from working 5 days per week to 4, has completely changed his mental health and life for the better. Simply having that one extra day per week made a huge difference in him not feeling overwhelmed and stressed out all the time. It’s been a great example for both of us how money isn’t the most important consideration. It has also greatly increased my own desire to look for a similar job. I’d be more than happy to give up some income if it meant regaining more control and happiness in my life.
Uhhh. Pretty sure we aren’t giving out raises or promotions to anyone, regardless of merit. Haven’t for a long time now.
But yeah. It’s a shame that we lost our culture. That used to be the main reason you’d want to work here instead of somewhere else the pays better.
Get out of here, HR.