Ranking Work

Today I was asked by a recruiter what was important to me in a career, and I wasn't sure what to say; I had never considered the question, and it took me walking a few miles around the city to figure it out! :)

The question was: rank from most to least important the following in relation to a career/job:

• Money
• Technology
• Benefits
• Company

This took me aback, for I had always views them as a weighted sum rather than as a ranking. (All items were important I would have said without thinking.) However, a weighted sum is not a ranking!

I knew right away that I'm not motivated by money. It's nice of course, but it's not something worth devoting a career too. I don't worship money.

Technology too, was easy to rule out. I realize there are people who eat, sleep, and breathe technology, coding even when they get home. That's fantastic; I used to be like that myself, but now I view technology merely as a tool to accomplish a larger purpose. Technology for the sake of technology has its place, but I don't worship tools.

Now benefits are important. Quality of life is important. I.E., time on, time off, work environment, health care, location, location, location, and opportunity for growth. As a former academic, I place very high value on these qualities in my life and before today would have ranked them first. (That's why when I left academia, it was to work for myself.)

To me, company means, "how well the company's ethical values line up with my value system." Do they encourage employees? Are their products ethical? Do their products make the world a better place? Enable knowledge dissemination? Reach all world citizens?

Although companies with particularly undesirable locations would require an otherwise ideal job for me to consider them, I would never consider working for a company that conflicted with my ethics and value system. In fact, I've already been turning a few down!

Thus, I would rank the items as follows, from most to least important:

1. Company
2. Benefits
3. Technology
4. Money