Yesterday's post over at Chemjobber's place really caught my attention. Paul Sturgeon, writing in trade mag Plastics News, opined that employers don't attract top talent due to fundamental misunderstandings in what "next-gen" employees really care about.
Made me wonder, if you asked some current science professionals about their top two workplace criteria, what would you get? Would Mr. Sturgeon be dismissed, or vindicated?
OK, readers, here's the game: Please list your top two workplace criteria in the Comments section. Once I get ~10 entries, I'll start to input them in a super-sciencey gizmo called a pie chart. Hopefully, we'll get a few more entrants, and I can start to pin down what's important (and what's really not).
I'll go first: My top two criteria are 1. interesting / meaningful work, and 2. length of commute.
Can't wait to see your responses!
(N.B. Certainly, a wide demographic visits chem blogs, but I'd argue the results will skew towards slightly younger, highly-educated, potentially job-seeking professionals. Exactly the demographic the above article argues companies wish to hire!)
1. Stability
ReplyDelete2. Type of work
Interesting/Meaningful
ReplyDeleteNo-Car Commute
location / maximum intellectual freedom
ReplyDeleteEnjoying workplace - too broad
ReplyDeletecommute
enough money
quality of coworkers / management
types/quality of problems to solve
Interesting/Meaningful
ReplyDeleteLocation - easy commute and an interesting locale
1. Freedom for creativity and innovation
ReplyDelete2. Social value (my interpretation of meaningful)
1. interesting work
ReplyDelete2. location - walking/biking/public transit available for commute and for living
wow, that makes it so that i can only live in large cities near a body of water.
Stability
ReplyDeleteAutonomy
-Interesting and challenging work that is meaningful, i.e. knowing my work is making a contribution to the research goals and is work that is making me think, learn and improve my understanding/skills
ReplyDelete-High quality and caliber of colleagues (both management and coworkers-in terms of professionalism, hard working, diligence, possessing integrity, are respectful and able to communicate effectively at all levels)
Of course sufficient money and short commute are nice but it is the first two points that allow me to roll out of bed Monday mornings with a spring in my step and eagerness to go to work.
1 - Sense of teamwork and friendliness between colleagues
ReplyDelete2 - Interesting/busy work (every day being a little different)
1. Challenging & meaningful
Delete2. Non-repetitive (ie not always measuring the mass of something)
1-Length of commute
ReplyDelete2-Cost of living in Area (house prices etc).
1. Short commute
ReplyDelete2. Job stability
Decent pay
ReplyDeleteGood Colleagues/Management
interesting/meaningful
ReplyDeletegood coworkers/bosses
Interesting/meaningful work
ReplyDeleteAbility to provide for myself and my family (combination of stability/good pay/cost of living/commute)
Interesting work
ReplyDeleteSalary
1. Location
ReplyDelete2. Feeling part of a team.
1. A job.
ReplyDelete2. Collaborative/supportive work environment. Working with people who are so competitive they're always out to destroy you gets really old, really fast.
1. Meaningful. (The work is meaningful/beneficial to society.)
ReplyDelete2. Intellectual freedom. (Management encourages employees to generate and pursue their own ideas at least part of the time.)
1. Interesting/Meaningful
ReplyDelete2. Non-Repetitive (I worked as a lab tech for two years, and I could still do a combustion analysis with my eyes closed. I want to be doing something new and exciting to get me out of bed in the morning.)
I'll second what others said here:
ReplyDelete1. Interesting/meaningful work
2. Ability to provide for myself and my family (combination of stability/good pay/cost of living/commute).
3. Collaborative/supportive work environment. Working with people who are so competitive they're always out to destroy you gets really old, really fast.
If I were to break out 2. I'd say
2a: commute
2b. pay
2c. stability
1. Academic freedom
ReplyDelete2. Interesting work
3. (Relative) lack of bureaucracy/red tape...
Two things! ;)
Delete1. Funding/Resources
ReplyDelete2. Compentent management
1. Resources (Funding, equipment, analytical staff)
ReplyDelete2. Location. Before grad school, this wouldn't have even been in my top ten, but never again will I work in the corn fields...
interesting work
ReplyDeletejob stability
Its interesting how many put interesting/meaningful work at the top of the list. Hypothetically, how many would take a more interesting job for, say, 20% less pay? Or, put antoher way, how many would take a less interesting job for 20% more pay?
ReplyDeleteMine, by the way, would be
Delete1. stable, low-stress environment
2. Interesting work
I bet there's a threshold effect on the pay. It's important to me that I make enough money to not be stressed out by lack of money. I am *ASSUMING* that this is a GIVEN for whatever I find with a Ph.D. in physics, but perhaps it is not.
DeleteI also know that there are types of job (say, finance, even though that's dried up a little) that would pay big money and crush the life out of me.
I can't imagine a situation in which I'd readily take a less interesting job for 20% more pay unless the reason why it's less interesting also means that it's enough less work to do something more interesting in my free time.
I would probably take 20% lower pay for a more interesting/more satisfying job, but I think there's a floor on that. I don't feel that I can take 20% lower pay than my current postdoc for something more interesting than my postdoc (but that would be hard)
1. interesting/meaningful
ReplyDelete2. Job security
1 Intellectually stimulating
ReplyDelete2 Openness of colleagues/management
interesting work
ReplyDeletejob security
1. it pays the bills
ReplyDelete2. it doesn't require me to do anything illegal/immoral/dishonest/evil
3. it doesn't break my back or give me a debilitating illness
1) Interesting/meaningful work and 2) location. Not sure why the location matters so much when I spend my life in planes and crappy hotels. but it is nice to come back to a Pacific sunset.
ReplyDelete1. income
ReplyDelete2. meaningful work
1. Interesting and meaningful job, one where you feel like a valued member of the team. An accomplished and experienced boss who not only empathizes with you but also shares some of your non-scientific intellectual interests can make a huge difference in my opinion (My current boss fits the bill superbly).
ReplyDelete2. Length of commute, definitely. My current workplace is only a mile from where I live (so I can walk to work or drive for 5 mins) and I generally view commutes longer than 30 mins as soul sucking contraptions crafted by satan.