PurpleReset

Consider these questions before your interview to find a “9–5” you can love

Last year was a ropy one for me. I was enjoying working from home but the company I worked for did not share my values.

I would work across 3 time zones, days running from 7–7pm with no compensation for these longer days. It was EXPECTED. Now, I don’t know about you but during COVID, I started to pay particular attention to what I wanted my life to be like.

I soon realised I no longer wanted to climb the corporate ladder. I no longer wanted to work 12–16hrs for the payment of 8. So I decided to change everything.

I used Purple Blaze to map out my questions and answers. It is a great place to come back to after an interview and check that your boxes are being ticked.

Check out the collection here: Purple Reset Publishing

Journal Question – What do you want?

Take the time to imagine what you want your life to look like. Visualise yourself in a new role. What kind of team do you want to work with? What do your days look like, How much stress do you want to deal with?

Journal Question – Values

A new company needs to have similar values to yours. For me I value integrity. Doing the right thing. Not misselling or lying to a client. I wanted to be honest when speaking with a client, about the good and the bad so we can get through it together.

What are your values?

Journal Question – Time & hours

Do you want to be office-based? Hybrid or fully remote? I decided that I would only entertain fully remote roles and turned down everything else. I was also keen to have some control over the hours I worked. The role I took offered flexitime — core hours 10–12 and 2–4pm the rest of the time I can do whenever I want. If I want time off during these hours, I deal with any commitments I may have.

Journal questions – Learning opportunities

If you want to learn new skills or refine a hobby are there companies that complement this? Can you learn these skills during your working hours? I looked for a creative role — now I am a digital project manager working on website builds. The company also offers marketing services. I have access to HubSpot training materials and am also Content Management trained in Umbraco.

My role offers me the opportunity to learn as I work, to keep hours pretty much to my own tune, resulting in me not even considering it a “9–5”.

Bonus point to consider

Change your perspective of a “9–5” role: My perspective is that I have one client that pays me for 40 hrs a week.

Think about it, if you were a freelancer and you landed a contract worth 40hr pay a week doing what you enjoy would you turn it down?

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