The Not-So-Great Eight

By: Paul Pompeo

Many of us can apply the saying, “Hindsight is 20/20” to some point—or sometimes multiple points—in our lives. Part of Pompeo Group’s process as we profile candidates is to discuss a candidate’s reason(s) for leaving their current and/or previous companies. The purpose of this column is to take someone else’s hindsight and hopefully turn it into your foresight. For anyone examining a career change and/or weighing more than one opportunity, here’s a chance to learn from others’ mistakes: Listed below are eight common career moves that may seem smart but oftentimes backfire.

1. Jumping jobs too quickly for small salary increases. This is probably the most common of all the mistakes and something that can give many employers pause. While initially feeling like a win, with each step bringing slight increases in compensation, this eventually leads to a resume that is like a train with many brief stops. It often leaves employers wondering why the candidate hasn’t put a stake in the ground to show they can build something and advance within a company. This scenario is akin to a single person who flits from relationship to relationship for the promise of something slightly better, eternally seeking greater satisfaction but rarely reaching their goal.

2. Chasing titles without scope or resources. Sometimes a candidate has a “next” position in mind in their career trajectory—whether it’s a vice president of sales or chief technology officer moving on to become the president of a company or a regional sales manager accepting an offer as a national sales manager or vice president of sales with a new company. The title seems appealing, but does your new employer offer the resources necessary for you to be successful for such a career step? Look carefully…the details matter.

3. Accepting a counteroffer from your current employer and turning down an offer you already accepted. I have written about counteroffers many times over the years—google “career suicide” to see more. The bottom line is that there is usually a reason you want to leave a company, and reneging on your decision to do so is not only bad career karma, but after staying, people are often soon reminded of the things that prompted them to want to make a change in the first place.

4. The promise of an agency partnership. It’s been said that the most prevalent “lie” told in lighting is, “You can become a partner/principal.” For some reason, this scenario seems much more prevalent with rep agencies than it does with design firms, but countless high-potential employees have been persuaded to stay at their agency with a promise of some sort of ownership/equity. This is similar to the optical illusion of water shimmering on a desert highway—a goal that forever keeps distancing itself as one seemingly approaches it.

5. Ignoring your executive recruiter’s professional advice. This may sound like a shameless plug, but two things can be true at once. A seasoned search professional (especially if they specialize in a specific niche) can be your career’s best friend. If the recruiter is someone whom you trust, then doing the opposite of their counsel is like ignoring what your doctor, CPA, or attorney advises. You might find you would have been better served by listening to the expert.

“Rushing into a new role at a new company without assuring if the culture is a fit—even if the compensation is alluring—may be a decision you regret later.”

6. Prioritizing remote flexibility over visibility (depending on role). Talk about the third rail! Whether a position should be fully in-office, remote, or hybrid is a polarizing topic these days, and candidates and companies don’t always see eye-to-eye on this issue. The more senior the role within a lighting manufacturer, design firm, or distributor, the more likely the company is to prefer a candidate who is willing to take an in-office position or, if hybrid, an in-office leaning model. So, as a candidate, sometimes an opportunity may be dependent on how much you really want it and if this is a hill you really want to die on. 

7. Ignoring cultural fit for compensation. This is important. Over the years, I have realized that a big part of a successful search isn’t just finding a candidate who can perform the required tasks of a role, it’s finding the right candidate whose chemistry lines up well with the hiring manager and identifying a candidate who is a good fit for a company’s culture. Rushing into a new role at a new company without assuring if the culture is a fit—even if the compensation is alluring—may be a decision you regret later.

8. Staying too long in a comfortable role. It happens frequently, when lighting professionals turn down listening to opportunities because they are “comfortable.” Now, more than ever, just being comfortable is not the safest place to be. The adage that “growth comes to you outside of your comfort zone” is often true for lighting professionals. Staying in your comfort zone often results in your company making decisions for you. One of our least favorite calls to take is from candidates who declined to listen to an opportunity because they were comfortable and are now out of work. Usually that position that they passed on is no longer available, and they find themselves outside of their comfort zone, but in the worst sense of the term.