Career planning: Don’t trade short-term pay for long-term career experience

With businesses across a variety of sectors reporting ongoing staff shortages, there are some startlingly good salaries on offer at the moment, even for junior positions. It’s tempting for graduates or newcomers to take a big salary offer, but my strong advice to them is to think carefully first about what they want to achieve in their career in the long term, writes Ben Lipschitz, CEO and cofounder at FoodByUs.

As the CEO of a high-growth tech startup that is constantly recruiting in the current job market, I am aware of the unprecedented cost pressures, so my intention isn’t to skew ambitious young talent emerging from tertiary education away from a tempting salary package – it is to show those young hopefuls what else is important when it comes to forging a career path.

Finding the right talent to future-proof your business

Promising candidates who are in their first, second or third role out of uni, are entering a tight market and most are juggling a number of recruiting processes at the same time.

They’re weighing up salary and benefits, job satisfaction, skills acquisition, career progression, and the level of challenge they’re ready to take on, and trying to make the best choice.

So how can they make that choice, and how can an employer assist the process?

Ask them about their other job opportunities

It’s helpful to ask the candidates you’re interviewing about the other processes they’re in. They may interpret a better salary offer to mean they’re valued more highly or that it’s a role which carries greater responsibilities. But they often admit the highly paid roles they’re being offered won’t challenge them to step up, won’t expose them to new roles and skills, and won’t create pathways that will throw open career doors in the years to come.

An employer’s role is to walk them through the scenarios, show them where each potential pathway might land their career. It can be a surprise for some to really think that through for the first time.

You may find that candidates learn through experience and months or years later, they regret turning down the bigger challenge with the smaller salary to take the better-paying role. I’ve heard people say, “I’m not growing as much where I am. Yes, I’m getting paid more, but I’m not on the development pathway.”

You can hear their sense of regret and the lingering question: “OK, what do I do now?”

Be open and direct in the interview process

To be successful in attracting extremely talented people to your company, it’s essential to be very direct with candidates about what they can expect. You can remunerate fairly, but if you’re going to ask a lot, it’s essential to make it clear that they’ll need to work hard to succeed.

We’ve gotten feedback before from candidates who say “Wow, you really gave it to me in the interview, it’s almost like you wanted to scare me off”. And in some ways we do, because the type of candidate we want to employ will lean into that challenge and look at it as an opportunity for growth.

Candidates are looking for growth and a challenge

Claudia Kent, who joined our business fifteen months ago, started as a marketing graduate, and she says the intense and honest interview process, along with the opportunities for growth, was what made her want to join the company. At just 23 she has been promoted several times and is making steps up the salary ladder with direct reports, and plenty more opportunities ahead in her career.

“I came to the interview from a perspective that I want to grow and learn as much as I can. Working for a startup brings that growth at an elevated level, because it’s a smaller team with an entrepreneurial mindset. I didn’t want to be someone who had money, but didn’t learn anything. Then you only have to start over in your next role.

“I remember I said in the interview, ‘Culture and authenticity is important to me,’ and Ben really reiterated that. In the end it was quite simple to choose growth and culture, ahead of chasing after salary.”

None of this is to say that salary isn’t important; employers still need to appropriately value their employees’ skills and abilities.

But future issues or regret can arise for those who take a job with an above-market salary, because at some point the market will go off the boil. And when it does, there’s a risk those employees will hit a salary ceiling. But those who set themselves a challenging pathway to build new skill sets, will avoid being siloed.

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to suit each employment scenario, but there is one piece of advice that works for everyone and one worth considering when building your own workforce. And that’s to weigh up whether a short-term salary gain will not only be to the detriment of your business, but also the longer-term career aspirations of your future employees.

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