The Easiest Route to Heart-Felt Cover Letters?

Les Green

This is a true dilemma. Should I look for the job I want? You know, right salary, right title, room for growth, great benefits, utilizes my skill set, challenging, etc. Or should I look for the company I want to work for? Great brands, exciting culture, perfect location, industry leader, industry challenger, sexy office space, great name to drop on resume, etc. Actually, this is more of a chicken and egg scenario -- which one should you look for first? Further more, which one is more important? Well, I am taking a position. I stand (or sit) before you and say, "Company first, job second."

Here's why:

Companies are more consistent than jobs. How many times has your role changed after being hired for a certain position? Many. How many times has your company decided to go in a very different direction? Probably not so many. Think about how much better you would feel about trying to find a different role or position within a company you really believed in and felt comfortable with. That sounds a lot less complicated than trying to find a new company that has a specific position that you are very happy with.

Your passion comes through when talking about a company. So during a potential job search, those cover letters, follow up e-mails and thank-you notes will be filled with the truth. You can probably talk for days about why a certain company or brand or agency philosophy resonates with you. To do the same thing for any random company that just happens to have a job you are interested in may be a lot more difficult.

So I say suspend your job search. Launch a company search in its place and find the places you like to work, the people you would like to for or the brands you would like to work on. You can worry about the "finding a job part" later.