What Factors Actually Make A Job "Good?"

A semi-comprehensive look.

Feel like this is a pretty important question that we seem to have a lot of articles and ideas (“thought leadership”) on, but potentially not much consensus. And to be clear, I doubt we’re going to truly get consensus. Everyone is obviously different, and most of the world doesn’t even work full-time, if we’re being honest.

We know this: in white-collar, North American, enterprise-style work — think offices, cubicles, hierarchy — the average employee tenure is somewhere between 3.6 and 4.2 years. Hysterically, the tenure of execs, especially CMOs, is often even less. We criticized LeBron for his “taking my talents to South Beach” moment — and rightfully so to an extent — but at a certain level, we’re all target-hitting assassins looking for the next big thing.

Let’s say you stay at most jobs about four years. Between 22 and 55, then (33 years), you might change jobs eight times.

The problem with changing jobs is that you absolutely positively never know the culture of a place until you start working there. Sure, the job description talks about innovation, collaboration, free tacos, and all that bullshit. In reality it’s undercutting, people avoid eye contact, some managers are collecting $115K a year and haven’t been seen since 2007, etc. We all know the drill. “Employer branding” is a campaign. It’s not the reality of what it’s like to work there.

So if you’re changing jobs, what actually matters?

Money