Check financial statements, reputation sites, as well as check-in and exit rates [Text Vlog]
One of the resolutions that many office workers set as their New Year's goal is to change jobs. No matter how thoroughly I research the company I want to change to, there are times when it is not what I expected. In addition to the company's financial statements, we also look at ratings on reputation sites and check references for the company through current employees, but there are many cases where they are different from the facts. So I prepared. We've listed 10 things you need to know when changing jobs.
1. Financial statements
Although sales and operating profit are important in financial statements, indirect costs such as labor costs can reveal how much a company invests in the welfare and development of its employees. It is also possible to estimate what the wage gap between employees and management will be after excluding compensation for management from labor costs. However, there are limitations in measuring very accurate data due to differences in salary between individual contract workers, welfare benefits, and other benefits, so it is best to use it only as a reference.
2. Recent employee resignation rate and average annual salary
The employee entry/exit rate is reliable because it provides relatively accurate figures using data from the National Pension Service. You can check it on various recruitment portal sites, job data, open salary, etc. Each site may extract data differently for the previous month or year, so it is a good idea to refer to all of them. If the recent resignation rate is high, you need to find out whether there has been restructuring or internal problems. If the hiring rate is high, you can look at the total number of employees and sales to determine whether the hiring is due to growth or to make up for those who have left the company. Also, if the company is filled only with dispatched employees, you should be careful as it may be difficult to determine the entry/exit rate since the company belongs to the dispatching company.
3. Job advertisement contents
Let’s search for jobs at the company through a search site or recruitment portal site. Use a search site to search for the company and your job, and check the period of announcement, number of announcements, and changes in job description and position. Of course, it is better if the period is not long, the same announcement is not made too many times, and the content of the announcement does not change. Of course, if you go through a headhunter, you will be able to know more details than the superficial content shown in the job advertisement. Through this, you can get a vague idea of how the company views the importance of this job and whether the problem with this position is internal.
4. Reality of the job
In the case of domestic companies, there are cases where 3-4 lines of broad job description are written without sufficient job description. Nowadays, with the development of AI, there are cases where portal sites or recruitment tools provide job information on your behalf, so be sure to check the job posting posted during the interview and ask questions to confirm. For example, if the interview questions are focused on 1-3 of the job descriptions 1-5 in the advertisement, carefully ask how much importance is given to jobs 4 and 5. If the answer to other duties is vague and broad, it may be different from the job I had in mind after changing jobs. In that case, it is a good idea to check this part because it is directly related to your career planning.
5. Find articles interviewing business owners and executives
There is a lot of information on the Internet and YouTube. Among them, the company's owner or management has interview articles or YouTube videos. If it is listed in chronological order, look for the past, midpoint, and the most recent 2-3 years to see how the company is changing. As an extreme example, on the company website, the vision is 'People are the future', and in the video, 'We will replace 70% of our company's workforce with AI and robots to innovatively reduce overhead costs (labor costs), thereby reducing the risks that may arise due to unions.' If you say 'reduced', you will be able to understand the hidden meaning rather than the externally revealed value.
6. Employee reputation site
In the case of employee reputation sites, you can see the honest reputation of employees. However, there is a blind spot in that companies can pay a certain amount to raise ratings or delete unfavorable content. This part is unavoidable because the company's sales are related to it, but no matter how much you change it, there are limits, so it cannot be said that the ratings and contents are far from reality. However, since there is a limit to the amount of data that can be viewed for free, it is also possible to pay a small amount to view data from the past few years. If there is too little content, the organizational culture may be rigid, so this should be investigated using the company's organizational chart and network.
7. Network Utilization
Let's do a 'reference check' for the company just like a company does a reference check for candidates. After going through step 6, you will actively utilize your personal connections and secure references for the company. Don't just rely on one person because it's difficult to secure connections, but if possible, target 2-3 or more people and related departments to find out. In most cases, I will try to be as objective as possible, but if you ask in detail, such as what you were curious about, on a reputation site, you will be able to get a more honest answer.
8. Organizational structure and organizational culture
Most companies post an organizational chart on their website. Through financial statements, you can roughly understand management information, their number, and their proportion of total employees. This is also something that can be figured out to some extent through employee benefits or employee reputation sites. For example, if the treatment of executives and employees differs too much in terms of welfare benefits, there may be a vertical culture in which differentiation of executives and employees is taken for granted. Of course, there are many cases where executives are given preferential treatment based on performance, but if discrimination in the welfare benefits itself appears across all fields, in addition to compensation mainly through incentives or other methods, it is worth thinking again.
9. Reflection on myself
I analyze in depth why I thought about changing jobs, what I can gain by changing jobs, what I have to give up, and whether I can deal with the various possibilities that may arise due to changing jobs. It is important to figure out in advance whether this job change will help your career in the future and how to plan the timing for adaptation and career growth. If you list the pros and cons of your current job and the one you are moving to and weigh them, you can make a more realistic and objective decision. In particular, when changing jobs from a foreign company to a domestic company or vice versa, there are fundamental cultural differences, so it is a good idea to check in advance whether you can adapt.
10. Use headhunters
If you want to change jobs while you are busy with your job, actively using a headhunter is also an option. Of course, changing jobs through a headhunter allows you to ask for information about things you can't ask the company directly, and you can also receive coaching on things like why they're hiring for this position and questions to expect during an interview. Of course, there are limits to the information that headhunters can find. To be honest, when an individual's privacy is involved, there are some things that I cannot answer even if I know them. However, since the match with the company is confirmed to some extent during a preliminary interview with a candidate who is suitable on the documents, there is also the advantage of being able to receive an offer from another company if the candidate is not a good match.
Jiyu Kim is the CEO of BIENE, a domestic and international human resource consulting company, and specializes in recruiting new college graduates for famous Japanese companies and hiring experienced Korean employees in Japan. Based on our experience in recruiting local talent in Korea, Japan, India, Vietnam, and Southeast Asia, we are actively encouraging Korean talent to advance into the global market. We always welcome coffee chats with candidates and companies wishing to advance globally to nearby Asia. .
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