A star always chooses a stage that showcases his/her best.
Introduction: Do you know how much of our life is spent in our job?
Research shows that the average person will spend around 90,000 hours (~40 years) at work over a lifetime - not to mention how that number may likely be higher for big city workers like Hong Kong, London, New York and so on.
By spending probably half of your lifetime at work, what’s your approach in career planning? Do you believe you can influence the type of job you are going to land?
Do you believe that you can and deserve to find a job that suits you or are you just looking for any job to settle?
In this article, we will guide you through the three critical aspects that are explored through our well-known DISC based Best Fit Job assessment.
What is a Best Fit Job?
Do you know the answers to the following question:
What unique experience and expertise can you bring to the table? What differentiates you from other applicants?
What are your needs as a talent?
Have you considered what would make you most fulfilled at a job?
This is where the concept of Best Fit Job comes in. In the world of GTP, we believe that each individual has their unique gift and potential to offer to their employers. And it’s only if, and only when, you learn to fully understand and tap into your strengths, motivations and preferences, that’s when you’ll be able to target and apply for jobs that are actually a good match.
The key to highlight here is the matching element. Besides considering your external needs (salary, career path, benefits etc.), we encourage you to also explore and prioritise your internal needs (personality and technical strengths, career/personal development motivators, preferred team culture and dynamic etc.). This will not only increase your chance of standing out in an interview, but also increase your chance to maximum career satisfaction and performance.
In this article, we will go through the 3 fits that are crucial to your career success and satisfaction.
Step 1: Motivation Fit
Think back on your career journey - what do you think got you to where you are today? Were there roles you naturally performed and thrived in more than others? Did your motivation fulfilment play a part?
Motivation is an interesting factor - there have been countless studies proving the positive correlation between motivation and performance. But just like any other factors, there is a part that changes more frequently and a part that is more constant.
The more evolving part is usually tied to your life and career stage.
High quality early career seekers: The best early career candidates are ones that are like sponges - their motivation tends to focus more on learning opportunities, potential career growth, and broadness of exposure - they are aware that those are aspects that will enable them to increase their skills and knowledge the fastest.
Exponential career growers: Once the foundation is solid, talents (who are now more experienced) will realize that their skills are pretty top on their rank. Top candidates at this stage are like maglev trains, they are aware of their quality and are motivated to find ways to most efficiently and effectively grow their career. Hence, they tend to focus more on scope of responsibilities, company culture, and growth opportunities.
Subject matter experts: Talents at this stage are the ones that are most motivated by impact and satisfaction. They are fully aware of their weight and leverage in their respective industry and function. At this point, it’s a matter of taking their career from good to great.
On the other hand, there is the more constant part of your motivation that is likely tied to your personality. Let me share some examples with you:
For self-motivated talents, they would value more career opportunities that require them to take on big(ger) responsibilities.
For people-oriented talents, they would value having a (more) collaborative and caring company culture.
Self- Check:
What career stage are you at and what motivators are tied to that?
What are your more constant, rooted, deep motivators that are tied to your personality?
How much motivational match do you have now?
How has that affected your performance or not?
What can you do differently to increase your motivation fit?Step 2: Personality Fit
Do you think there are particular roles that suit your personality more than others?
In the GTP world, personality fit is closely tied to role fit. This might seem obvious, but a lot of us might have fallen into the trap of unconscious bias, limiting ourselves to roles that seem like a good personality fit. “I’m a bit shy and an introvert, I can’t do people facing roles.”
“I am outgoing and talkative, I guess I should be in sales.”
“I have always been detail-oriented and I love working by myself, admin roles are good for me I guess.”
The key is to understand that a job title can mean many different things. It does not define the role, and most certainly does not define what is the best fitted personality. Just thinking of a sales role itself, there are different top sales with different personalities - some are relationship builders, some are technical and subject matter experts, some are great at digging into client needs and are great listeners. When exploring a role, I urge you to look beyond the title or the “typical definitions” society impose, but actually read through the job descriptions, the company page, and go to the interviews to identify the “personality fit to the role” instead of just applying for a job based on title matching - you’ll be surprised by how one shift in mentality can change the scope of your career search. It will also open you up with job search success with the employer who truly values “Who you are”.
Self- Check:
Is your current role a good fit for your personality?
Have you stopped yourself from applying for a job you liked because you think you are not a good fit?
Referencing the sales role example, is there an alternate way to think about it?
What is your dream role and can your personality be a good fit?
Step 3: Cultural Fit
Have you ever been in a role where you know your skills, personality, and motivation all fits perfectly, but it just doesn’t feel right? It’s like you are dispensing a lot of energy but not going far. What went wrong?
When looking at a best fit job, we often underestimate or overlook the importance of a Cultural Fit. To shine - you must first be a star, but equally important, you must also be on the right platform and have the right spotlight.
So what should you consider when thinking of Cultural Fit, or even better, how can you learn about your Cultural Fit with the company you are interviewing for?
Pacing
Pacing is probably one of the most critical determinants of a company's culture. What is their rate of change and decision making? This is something we may gauge through research, factors like the size, duration, and industry of the organisation will probably give you a good sense of their pacing before the interview.
Hierarchy
Is this a highly hierarchical or relatively flat organisation? Some may prefer a hierarchical structure so they consider themselves having more layers for promotion. Some may prefer a flat organisation so that they will be able to voice out their opinions directly with the CEO.
You may ask questions like, “how are changes normally implemented?” or “how does senior leadership interact with the teams?”
Values
An organisation’s culture should technically be a reflection of their values. Mind you, when we say value, we are not referring to the perfectly worded paragraphs on the company website. As a job seeker, you must be able to see beyond what’s on paper but truly understand the values in practice.
To summarise, if you have put in the work to look inward and truly understand your motivation and personality fit, then finding the cultural fit will be like icing on the cupcake - the additional piece that can truly bring your job satisfaction to another level.
Self-Check
What stage and spotlight do you need to shine?
What pacing do you desire or works best for you?
Are you clear on your personal values and the company’s? Is it a good match?
How does it make you feel?Conclusion:
We hope this article has given you some new inspirations to your current or future career. Journal down your insights from the self-check questions, put it aside and revisit it in 1-2 days, see how you feel differently.
If you are stuck on one or more of these questions, feel free to reach out to your career coach for support. Alternatively, reach out to us for a Best Fit Job Assessment to gain more insights on this topic.