Puja Shah: How to figure out if a company is a good cultural “fit” for you
Evaluating the company’s culture can help us to verify whether or not our experiences within the job aligns with who we are. Company culture refers to the organization’s shared values, beliefs, and behaviors. It shapes the day-to-day interactions and longer-term experiences of your working environment. Ensuring that the company’s culture and your personal values align is key to establishing that a company is the correct cultural “fit” for you.
In order to figure out what a company’s culture is, first you should define what values are important to you. Think back to past work experiences that you have enjoyed and try to identify what factors made them great; this can include collaboration, transparent conversations, or adaptability. You can also incorporate personal values that help support career skills or areas important to you. This can include values like creativity, learning, social impact, or flexibility.
Upon reflecting on your values, begin researching more on the company’s values. You can use platforms such as the company’s website to learn more about their values, as well as how they put into practice values that you find of interest. Searching for the company’s mission as well as various initiatives and programs in place, help to learn more about how the company puts such values into action. For example, if continuous learning is an important personal career value, looking up what kinds of continuous learning opportunities exist at the company, can help to show what kinds of learning you can expect at the company, how many programs they have, and more.
Additionally, talking to company employees can help to offer the insight of another individual working at the company. Talking to an employee helps to put into perspective what it is like experiencing the company’s culture everyday and understand the differences between the intended culture and the experienced culture. Asking insightful questions during the interview or through setting up coffee chats, are a good way of doing so. For example, if you want to further learn about learning opportunities, you could ask, “What kind of opportunities for continuous learning have you personally experienced at the company?”
Spending time reflecting on such company culture research can help to put together all of the insights and personal values and determine whether or not the company has a culture that is the correct “fit” for yourself. Finding a company with a good cultural “fit” for yourself will help to make sure that you select a job best aligned with your values and goals and increase satisfaction in your job.