Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.
Steve Jobs
It‘s likely as a Microsoft Dynamics CRM professional you will move jobs several times, particularly with recruitment consultants on LinkedIn sending potential jobs to CRM professionals on a regular basis.
What should you consider when evaluating job offer’s, why should you take one job offer over another?
Moving
We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.Walt Disney
In this article Job Hopping Is the ‘New Normal’ for Millennials: Three Ways to Prevent a Human Resource Nightmare has a great quote
Ninety-one percent of Millennials (born between 1977-1997) expect to stay in a job for less than three years, according to the Future Workplace “Multiple Generations @ Work” survey of 1,189 employees and 150 managers. That means they would have 15 – 20 jobs over the course of their working lives!
The Dynamics recruiters Nigel Frank do a survey of Dynamics professionals every, it has a lot more detail than just the average salary Dynamic CRM Salary survey 2016
34% plan to leave their current job within 12 months (if you listen carefully you can hear recruitment consultants cheering)
34.3% said the reason to move job was lack of Leadership & vision
You need to manage your own career because it‘s unlikely you stay at one company for your whole career you can’t let your employer manage it. The question of who you work for? is important because you work for yourself and you should ensure you are doing what’s best for your career.
Identify your dream job and work out
- What skills and experience do you need for that job
- Who do you need to network with
- What is the career path to get to the dream job
People struggle to come up with an answer or don’t know their dream job, it‘s difficult but you should persist., this questions can help
- What roles have you enjoyed working in?
- What roles don’t you like?
- What have you enjoyed doing in your job?
- Do you like the technical side of Dynamics CRM jobs e.g. coding?
- What job do you see yourself doing in 5 years, 10 years?
here is a list the common Microsoft dynamics CRM roles, do any appeal?
Senior/Lead Developer
Consultant
Solution Architect
You will need to climb the ladder of Junior, standard and senior for most roles.
The more thinking you do the closer you get to understanding what you like and don’t like and what your dream role will involve doing.
Once you identify your dream job you can work backwards and plot your route and make a plan. You can use this information with you current employer and work out ways they can help you get the relevant skills and experience in your yearly appraisal.
When you know you perfect job, you can focus your time and effort in moving towards that role.
Don’t just move for more pay
You should know the average wage for your current position and the wage for roles you applying for, knowing the average wage is a useful bargaining tool to take into your review. It gives an anchor to the discussion and offers an impartial view of an average wage in the industry. If you move somewhere which is paying below the market average then you could get more if you moved somewhere else.
Money is important and you should make sure you are getting the going rate for you position but money won’t make you happy in a role.
Money isn’t the most important factor, unless you find out someone in the company is getting paid more than you for the same role #HoskWisdom
Money will stop motivating you and there are many other aspects of the jobs which can make work enjoyable.
You are at work at least 8 hours a day, you should try to ensure you are doing work you enjoy.
What to consider on job offers
When you have a job offer(s), compare the job offer(s) with your current job. I like to make a list of the pro’s and the con’s of each position and give them a value between 1-10. I use a general list (below) and add extra points if they are relevant.
I use a list because it allows you to compare different roles using the same criteria and give more points to factors which are important to you.
This list below is useful as a guide to help you create some questions for the company before your interview.
Job role
Role is important because what you will do and the experience you will get from the role.
Salary
compare salary and benefits
Career progression
What is the potential for career progression, what is the companies view of promoting internally. How do your bosses see your potential and future at the company.
Experience
What experience will you get in the role, what projects you will be working on. Experience can be measured on project size, role, technologies used.
Culture
What is the culture of the company? does it fit with how you like to work and your values.
Location
Location is important because if you can reduce commuting time you will save hours of your life you can spend with your family, friends or doing something else
Company size – Pond size
Do you want to work for a big company or a smaller company? This will effect your impact on the company, in a small company you will have responsibility because there isn’t anyone else to do it.
Larger companies have bigger resources and usually pay better but you might have to accept you are a smaller fish in a big pond.
Structure
How is the CRM team structured?
Learning potential
What is the potential to learn at the company? Is there training material, will you go o n training courses? are there senior CRM professionals for you to learn from?
This blog has some other factors to consider
16 Factors to Consider When Comparing Two Or More Job Offers
You can add other points to consider, the list above its a list to start with.
List done, then what?
Once you have created the list you should have a score for each role and this can give you something to think about.
I recommend sleeping on it and looking at the results of the list again the next day.
Do some research on the company and see if anyone in your network has worked there or is currently working there, they will be able to give you a first hand account of what its like.
Talk the decision through with other people in your network, other people can often give you a considered opinion and can often give you a different perspective on your different options.
Finally
Finish a role the same way you started the role with enthusiasm and effort. You will be asked for a reference and you may work again with the company or quite likely with some of the people from the company. People who leave jobs badly are not easily forgotten
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