Salary level
The salary levels of different industries are another important consideration, and salary levels vary considerably. If salary is a top priority, you should know that chemicals and electronics, for example, are high-paying industries, while social services and retailing are generally considered to be lower paying. This type of information should be readily available at your college placement center or your local library. It can be found in the College Placement Council's Salary Survey. Want-ads that describe similar and related jobs are another valuable source for salary data.
Atmosphere
Working atmosphere is another important consideration. Some industries and organizations are formal; others are not. For example, banks, insurance companies, and accounting firms tend to be conservative, while advertising agencies, media, educational institutions, and hospitals tend to be less formal.
Size of industry
The fourth variable you might want to consider is size. Does the industry you're interested in employ a lot of people, or are the numbers rather small? That might make a difference in your job-search efforts. For example, there are 100,000 people working in the television industry nationally, while 2.1 million people work in banking. Obviously, opportunities in banking are more plentiful.
Once you've begun narrowing down the industries that interest you, it is time to begin thinking about the type of company you want to work for. As you evaluate the companies you have already met with, you might want to consider the characteristics of an organization that are important to you.
Location
The location of a company should always be considered. The location of company headquarters and the location of its branch operations is important in terms of your access to company leaders, and your professional mobility. Most critical decisions are not made at branches, and consequently, most important executives are located at the headquarters facility. If upward mobility is a top priority for you, it's best to work at headquarters or be willing to move to headquarters further down the line.
So if a company is based in Cleveland, and if you will only work on the east or west coast, perhaps you should remove that company from your consideration. You should also be careful if you are considering industries that are specific to certain geographic locations. For example, publishing is primarily an East Coast career, while the film industry is centered in Los Angeles.
Size of company
If we can generalize, large organizations are frequently known to have good training programs, but they can also be quite rigid. Job functions are usually more clearly defined, and the hierarchy may be more firmly entrenched. Small organizations generally provide more diversity of functions, earlier responsibility, and more flexibility. However, they may not have the prestige of a large organization, and it is usually easier to move from a larger company to a smaller one than vice versa. Of course, there are exceptions to every generalization, but these are some of the variables you might want to be thinking about.
You might want to consider a few other variables, including growth record. Is the company doing well in its industry? Look at their annual report. Read industry-oriented information. Talk to the competitors. Is their product line one that you feel good about? Does it have a quality image? Is that important to you? Are they considered an industry leader? Do you care? Do you like the people you've met who work there? Do they seem enthusiastic about what they do? Once you can begin answering these questions, you can turn to the occupation you've targeted and begin asking yourself different questions still.
Will the job you've targeted be satisfying to you? Do you know enough about what the job entails to figure out if it is the kind of work you like doing? Think back to the skills and values you identified earlier. If creating ideas is important to you, will you be doing that? If taking responsibility is important to you, will you be doing that? Experiencing variety is important to you, is that part of the job? Is the salary range acceptable to you? Is there growth potential in a position like this? Is there a training program?
These are the kinds of questions you should now consider because they will help you zero in on what you want to do. Up to now, it has been healthy to consider all your options, and to explore new options as you reject the old ones. It's beneficial to keep a flexible profile of what you think you want to do, and to change that profile as you learn new information about yourself and about the marketplace. And although this flexibility should continue throughout your career as you grow and evolve, it is now time to set some limits and make some decisions. It is important to stop considering everything you might like doing, and to focus in on what you can be satisfied doing for now. The stress is on "for now", because - as was mentioned earlier - there is a real possibility that your career plans will change in the future. But even if they do change, you've got to begin somewhere, and it's far easier to begin when your goals are well-defined.
