The 5 Ps of Job Satisfaction

“What are you looking for in your next job?” I ask this question to every candidate I interview and, in turn, I have also been asked this question in interviews. If you really know what you want (or don’t want), you can provide specifics (“I want to work with Go/Rust/Julia” or “I really dislike front-end work”). And, if the job doesn’t offer that particular opportunity, you (and the company) can walk away without wasting any more time. But, most of us, have more general wants — like good leadership, projects that have impact, compensation etc. The 5 Ps provide a framework in which to think about our wants. This list is presented in the order that makes the most sense to me but you can move the items around to highlight your priorities.

1. People — Your colleagues including your peers, your boss, and your team if you are a manager or a lead.
2. Projects — Projects determine the kind of impact you can have. Do you want to give input to strategy and tactics while remaining hands-on? Maybe you want to work on something that is part of a product? Maybe you really care about execution?
3. Progress — Career growth. This is where you can talk about wanting a well established career ladder and opportunities to grow within the company
4. Personal — Work-life balance. Number 4 on the list may be too low for some. While currently this is where I’m at, it used to be higher a few years ago, and I suspect it will be higher up the list a few years from now.
5. Paycheck — More generally, your compensation. I like to make a joke here about how the fifth P stands for Pcompensation. Mostly that joke has fallen flat but that could very well be my delivery. If you can tell a good joke, Pcompensation is a great way to check if the hiring manager has a sense of humor.

I make clear to hiring managers that putting compensation last does not mean that I don’t care about how much I make. It only means that no amount of compensation is enough to work with brilliant jerks or on crappy projects. Feel free to customize these as needed and use it the next time someone asks you what you are looking for in your next job.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of my employer.