Let’s see, so far I have:

10. Right fit — government, intellect over manual, system over transactions, specific files not general, manage level of personal investment

09. Environment — informal, networked, coalitions of the willing, mainly in English

While I think almost anyone would agree that “the people you work with” would definitely make it into the top ten, any one who has ever had a really bad experience would push that number much higher. Perhaps even number one. Which would make sense, in theory.

But when you choose a job, or choose to accept a job offer, do you really know? My suspicion is you don’t. I might know the boss and have good vibes. Or I know a co-worker. But I couldn’t possibly know every member of the team, all my staff, who the boss is, what the other managers are like, how the DG is on a regular basis. A friend likes to do three reference checks on bosses — with her belief that if one says they’re bad, they might not be, but if all three raise red flags, run the other way.

Which is a good way to avoid really bad bosses or toxic work environments (which might be indicated if all the staff are leaving in droves). But I don’t know if it does much to ensure a GOOD work environment, or even a great one.

And so you have to choose for other reasons, which I will be ranking higher in subsequent posts as I’m in Job Search Mode (or JSM, soon to be a registered trademark of PolyWogg Productions Inc hehehe). Yet if you asked me if a job I was doing or did in the past was good, sure, that would rise to the top. I know what bad bosses look like…vague, eccentric, micro-managing, yellers, abusers, pretty wide gamut in there. And my current job has been pretty dang good for that. Day to day, day in and day out, great team to work with and my last boss was so awesome to work with, I stayed an extra three years just because of him.

But as part of my Job Search? I can avoid bad and toxic, hard to be sure in advance it will be great. So it’s on the list, but only at number eight.

#08. The People — Balance, day to day, bosses and a good team.