Everyone wants to get the right “fit” at work: culture fit, interest fit, alignment fit … call it what you like.
The question is, how do we know which people and organizations really are a good fit for us?
A nice lunch with your putative boss’s boss’s boss might indeed be a nice lunch — but that’s exactly what it’s for. What does that really tell you about 3:30 on Thursday afternoon three months from now?
I don’t have a good answer to this one. I’ve been wrong-footed plenty of times by reading the signals I wanted to read rather than what was really on offer. I suspect that will happen plenty more times, too.
But surely there’s a way to get better at this — to increase everyone’s confidence that we actually are a good fit. (Remember, employers want that, too. It’s really expensive to retain an employee who doesn’t fit, and even more expensive to re-hire.)
So, the next time you wonder if it’s a fit, consider: How sure are you? And how are you sure?
Colin Steele 