What is the mission of the organization?

The mission means big goals of the company. It’s important even though a lot of work (especially for younger employees) won’t be high level strategy about achieving this mission. The work done at every level should be contributing to the big goal, so it matters how you feel about the purpose of the company you work for. For example, I worked for political lobbyists and a PAC raising money for campaigns because Google’s mission is one that inspires me. I would not have done the same work for a tobacco or oil company. When you sit down to write a press release, create a new process, or write a memo, it’s important to have at least a tiny part of your mind remember the real reason you and your teammates are doing the work.

What work will you be doing every day?

You definitely won’t feel like you’re working on that big mission every second of every day. In fact, it’s often hard to keep the mission in mind. If you’re in a specialized field, you probably have a good idea of what you’ll be doing, and you’ll probably be doing something similar at many organizations. Broader functions — like operations and marketing — should try to tease out what the work looks like because they can include a lot of things. Are you joining a marketing team that is designing big ad campaigns or reaching out individually to potential new sales leads? And what’s your role in that work? This is a hard question to get a good answer to. The best opportunity is likely in interviews with employees that would be your peers, and if you get the chance to interview, they’ll appreciate you asking about what they actually do.

Who will you be working with?

It’s really easy to gloss over the people to focus on your career goals or an opportunity with an exciting company. Take a minute to consider the people you’ll be working with at every level of the company. Different companies and industries tend to hire different types of people, and it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy as those types hire more more similar people.

Ideally the leaders are people you want to work for because they approach their jobs with zeal, are ethical, and are the ones who have positions you aspire to reach one day. Maybe even more important are the people you deal with day-to-day. Consider your potential role: Is it internally or externally focused? What other departments will you be working with frequently? If you working externally, what kinds of clients or vendors will you interact with?

Where will you work?

Your dream job might be out there — do you want to live where it is? You owe yourself at least a second of reflection on this question. All the work you do and the people you do it with has to happen somewhere. On the extremes there are decisions such as choosing one city or country over the other, or considering a remote work position without an office at all.

When considering major geographic questions, this gets easier with a wide range of interests. Most major cities have plenty of organizations with interesting jobs. If you are hyper focused on an academic career in a speciality, emerging field, you might have to study at the University of Middle of Nowhere.

One way to think about this question is to compare the location of the potential dream job with the next-best-option, often a city full of friends and family or somewhere else you simply want to live. Make sure to consider how much of a dream it will be if you’re not near the people in your personal life you want to be near or other things that are important. A dream job on the east coast might fall out of favor in your mind if your passion is to participate in regattas in the San Francisco Bay.

This question also relates to where do you want to work within a city or region. Some people like the flexibility of a firm that allows virtual work, others highly value having a certain type of office, whether it’s a private office for intense writing or an open office plan that’s known to be more social.

What is the future in this job, organization, and location?

All five elements come together closely here. Of all of the things you have already considered, what does the future hold? A job with an inspirational mission and dreary work becomes a lot more appealing if you can see a logical and realistic path to change roles or seek promotions that would impact your work. Moving to a city far from friends and family becomes a lot more valuable if it’s the center of the industry you’re hoping to work in; there will be more opportunities for networking, events, and new jobs.

Another valuable part of a position is the opportunity to work with people who have jobs you might strive for in the future. I thought — like any good recent economics or political science grad — that I wanted to go to law school. I had the chance to work with a diverse group of lawyers (some in-house, some outside counsel; some legally focused, others working on legislation), and decided that it wasn’t a career I was interested. If you have a chance for an experience like this, then the position has some additional power to help you find happiness in your future.