How to Plan a Career 10: Write Employer Descriptions

This continues our series on how to plan a career that will bring you happiness & satisfaction

That is to write an employer description. An employer description, in reverse of a job description, explains what you want from an employer. Stephen Covey describes this as “begin with the end in mind”. It becomes the template that you compare to all offers. I alluded to it in step 7 when I recommended you prepare a one page description of what you want. I will expand on the idea today.

List the duties you love to perform

• Allocate what percentage of your time you want to spend on each duty you listed.
• That will enhance the chance that you will spend time doing what you love
• It also decreases the possibility that you spend a lot of time doing duties you detest.

Describe the environment you desire in terms of

• Values: that your Occupational Values Test indicated you always value
• Skills: that you will use most frequently to skills you will use least frequently
• Facility: office building, production plant, storefront, outdoors
• Workstation: an office, cubicle, counter, work bay, machine space, assembly space
• Work team: aloof, collaborative, individual oriented, team oriented, no team
• After hour norms: drink, play sports, travel, or do nothing together
• Pressure: high pressure to succeed, calm—no pressure, cooperative success attitude
• Company size: big company environment; big company but small environment, small-business, owner operated, manager operated, government, or self-employed

Define what your want for compensation:

• List a salary range from the minimum salary you will accept to the salary you want
• performance or annual bonuses and frequency of raises
• health benefits, life insurance, 401K or retirement package,
• professional membership dues, subscriptions, and expectation to attend meetings
• training conferences, seminars, materials and other
• car or expense reimbursements
• memberships to country club, health spa, or other
• Work schedule: 8-5 M-F no exceptions, evenings, weekends, flexible, rotating, etc.

Prioritize which of those things are

• Required: You must have these things in your career. If not you will be unhappy
• Highly desirable: You really want this, but will consider dropping it for the right tradeoff
• Preferred: You would like most of these in your career, but will settle for less than all
• Include no designation: You want, but would not regret it if you did not get them

Review what you wrote with family, friends, former colleagues or others working in your field to compare your expectations with their reality. Compare your current and future jobs to your employer description.

Join me on Wednesday to learn more about how to plan a career with your current employer