Question – How many jobs will I have before I’m fulfilled?

How do you know what you want?

Think over your past experiences and ask yourself ‘what have I learned about the kind of culture I find fulfilling?’

Because culture is such a broad topic, you can think widely and include experiences from your study, sports, hobbies, and volunteering as well as internships and work experience.

Interrogate your own answers. Don’t settle for, say, ‘a collaborative culture.’ When have you experienced that, what specifically did you like about it? What don’t you like? What consistent themes come up for you? Come up with a list of 4-5 must haves and 2-3 definitely nots…

How do you assess culture?

What would indicate that an organisation has or does not have the themes you identified?

Indicators might be the way the organisation talks about itself, the ways performance is measured, the ways information is shared or decisions get made. The org chart, the hiring process, the office layout…lots of things can give away the culture.

Speak to people who work at the organisation and enquire about those indicators. This is a way of approaching the topic obliquely, and it’s much more likely to give you genuine information than asking them ‘what is the culture like?’ outright.

Remember culture isn’t just down to the organisation. Different functions have their own culture. Sales, Operations and HR departments all have their own idiosyncratic cultures for example.

And the same is true for industries. Banking, Media, Tech, Manufacturing, Retail… all have their own culture. And what about the country, region, city? Or how fast the organisation is growing?

It’s a broad topic, with many variables – another reason to reflect on what you want, and develop the skill of assessing culture.