any <\/em>job<\/strong> might make a good fit.<\/p>\nBut many times a leader will want to evaluate a job\u2014either the job he\u2019s in, or a job he\u2019s considering\u2014to make sure it\u2019s a good fit.<\/p>\n
Over the past years I\u2019ve developed a checklist of 5 ways to evaluate a job.<\/p>\n
For easy recall, the checklist follows the acronym P*A*P*E*R.<\/p>\n
When it comes to a job, look for:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
P\u2014PROVISION<\/strong><\/p>\nA paycheck is a huge reason for working. Does a job provide for your financial needs?<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t get paid enough at a job, and you aren\u2019t able to scale back your lifestyle, it will become difficult to remain in that position over the long haul.<\/p>\n
You might need to raise your skills so your value rises to your employer. Or perhaps it\u2019s time to look for another line of work.<\/p>\n
A\u2014APTITUDE<\/strong><\/p>\nAptitude means you can do a job, (or you can learn<\/em> to do a job), and your temperament is suited for the work.<\/p>\nYou might want to be a fighter pilot, but you wear glasses as thick as Coke bottles. That cancels out the aptitude question. Or you might work as a trial room attorney, but you find you have no stomach for confrontation. Not a good fit.<\/p>\n
You have natural and learned talents, abilities, propensities, and preferences\u2014all those factor into how you are able to do a job.<\/p>\n
P\u2014PARTNERSHIP<\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s easy to think only of yourself when it comes to a job. But a wise leader factors in what his spouse thinks about a job situation too.<\/p>\n
If you love a job but your wife hates it, (or vice versa), it probably won\u2019t be a long term fit.<\/p>\n
For single people, this is still something to consider as you evaluate a job or career direction.<\/p>\n
With some jobs, it\u2019s virtually impossible to do the job well and have a family. For instance, a friend works as a military contractor and is gone overseas for up to two years at a time. He\u2019s often forbidden to disclose his whereabouts or even to have contact back home. That makes it tough to be an effective husband and father.<\/p>\n
When seeking a job, factor in the partnership equation. Will this job allow you to handle your responsibilities at home and enjoy your family?<\/p>\n
E\u2014EXCITEMENT<\/strong><\/p>\nBeing passionate about a job is a good thing. If you absolutely hate a job, chances are it won\u2019t be a good fit long-term.<\/p>\n
You might not love everything about a job, but maybe you\u2019re excited about what you\u2019ll learn there, or the opportunities it provides, or where it might lead. That\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n
Similarly, sometimes a job carries a level of excitement only for a season, and then the excitement wanes.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re not excited about your job, that may be your nudge to seek something new.<\/p>\n
R\u2014REASON<\/strong><\/p>\nLast, but perhaps most importantly, does this job matter? Are you doing a good work? Does it affect people in positive ways?<\/p>\n
If you see your job as purposeless, it will be hard to sustain over time. But if you see your work as purposeful, it can help overcome other difficult factors that may be present in a job.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The most satisfying jobs will have all 5 factors present.<\/p>\n
Sometimes that\u2019s not possible, of course, and concessions need to be made.<\/p>\n
Still, it\u2019s good to know what you\u2019re getting yourself into. Or what you need to get yourself out of.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Question: What\u2019s your job right now? Do you consider it a good fit? Why or why not? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a downed economy, any job might make a good fit. But many times a leader will want to evaluate a job\u2014either the job he\u2019s in, or a job he\u2019s considering\u2014to make sure it\u2019s a good fit. Over the past years I\u2019ve developed a checklist of 5 ways to evaluate a job. For easy recall, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,44],"tags":[50,49,51],"class_list":["post-592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-career","category-leadership","tag-business","tag-career-2","tag-job"],"yoast_head":"\n
5 Ways to Tell if a Job is a Good Fit<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a downed economy, any job might make a good fit. But many times a leader will want to evaluate a job\u2014either the job he\u2019s in, or a job he\u2019s\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/2012\/09\/5-ways-to-tell-if-a-job-is-a-good-fit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Ways to Tell if a Job is a Good Fit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a downed economy, any job might make a good fit. But many times a leader will want to evaluate a job\u2014either the job he\u2019s in, or a job he\u2019s\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/2012\/09\/5-ways-to-tell-if-a-job-is-a-good-fit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Few Grown Men\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-09-13T07:01:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-09-04T23:27:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/files\/2012\/09\/timeclock2.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"marcusbrotherton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"marcusbrotherton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/2012\/09\/5-ways-to-tell-if-a-job-is-a-good-fit\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/2012\/09\/5-ways-to-tell-if-a-job-is-a-good-fit\/\",\"name\":\"5 Ways to Tell if a Job is a Good Fit\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-09-13T07:01:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-09-04T23:27:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/#\/schema\/person\/dbf1044b76873c8545930da27b272da4\"},\"description\":\"In a downed economy, any job might make a good fit. But many times a leader will want to evaluate a job\u2014either the job he\u2019s in, or a job he\u2019s\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/2012\/09\/5-ways-to-tell-if-a-job-is-a-good-fit\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/2012\/09\/5-ways-to-tell-if-a-job-is-a-good-fit\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/2012\/09\/5-ways-to-tell-if-a-job-is-a-good-fit\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"5 Ways to Tell if a Job is a Good Fit\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/\",\"name\":\"A Few Grown Men\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/#\/schema\/person\/dbf1044b76873c8545930da27b272da4\",\"name\":\"marcusbrotherton\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5a2c1d93eef8583e03724fbab2db7d8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5a2c1d93eef8583e03724fbab2db7d8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"marcusbrotherton\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/author\/marcusbrotherton\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"5 Ways to Tell if a Job is a Good Fit","description":"In a downed economy, any job might make a good fit. But many times a leader will want to evaluate a job\u2014either the job he\u2019s in, or a job he\u2019s","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/2012\/09\/5-ways-to-tell-if-a-job-is-a-good-fit\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"5 Ways to Tell if a Job is a Good Fit","og_description":"In a downed economy, any job might make a good fit. But many times a leader will want to evaluate a job\u2014either the job he\u2019s in, or a job he\u2019s","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/2012\/09\/5-ways-to-tell-if-a-job-is-a-good-fit\/","og_site_name":"A Few Grown Men","article_published_time":"2012-09-13T07:01:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-09-04T23:27:39+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/files\/2012\/09\/timeclock2.jpg"}],"author":"marcusbrotherton","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"marcusbrotherton","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/2012\/09\/5-ways-to-tell-if-a-job-is-a-good-fit\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/2012\/09\/5-ways-to-tell-if-a-job-is-a-good-fit\/","name":"5 Ways to Tell if a Job is a Good Fit","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-09-13T07:01:51+00:00","dateModified":"2012-09-04T23:27:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/#\/schema\/person\/dbf1044b76873c8545930da27b272da4"},"description":"In a downed economy, any job might make a good fit. But many times a leader will want to evaluate a job\u2014either the job he\u2019s in, or a job he\u2019s","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/2012\/09\/5-ways-to-tell-if-a-job-is-a-good-fit\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/2012\/09\/5-ways-to-tell-if-a-job-is-a-good-fit\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/2012\/09\/5-ways-to-tell-if-a-job-is-a-good-fit\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"5 Ways to Tell if a Job is a Good Fit"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/","name":"A Few Grown Men","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/#\/schema\/person\/dbf1044b76873c8545930da27b272da4","name":"marcusbrotherton","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5a2c1d93eef8583e03724fbab2db7d8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5a2c1d93eef8583e03724fbab2db7d8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"marcusbrotherton"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/author\/marcusbrotherton\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}