Candidate

Some career opportunities are easy to recognise. A promotion. A significant salary increase. A bigger company. A more impressive title. A role with considerably more responsibility. You look at the opportunity and immediately understand why it could move your career forward. Others are less obvious. The job title might be almost identical to the one

At some point in your career, doing your current job well stops being the only question. You start thinking about what comes next. Senior Executive. Manager. Senior Manager. Head of Department. Perhaps your company has an opportunity available. Maybe you’re looking externally. Or perhaps you’ve simply reached the point where your current responsibilities no longer

Company culture is difficult to evaluate from the outside. Almost every employer describes itself using similar words: collaborative, supportive, fast-paced, innovative, people-focused, flexible. The careers page shows smiling employees. The office looks impressive. The company values sound sensible. Then you join. And sometimes the reality is exactly what you expected. Sometimes it isn’t. Culture affects

You can like your job and still know you’ve outgrown it. Perhaps you have a good manager. You get on with your colleagues. The salary is reasonable. The company has treated you well. There isn’t one obvious problem pushing you towards the exit. But something has changed. You want to manage a team, and there’s

There’s a version of career progression that looks very tidy on paper. You graduate. You get an entry-level job. You earn a promotion. You become a manager. You move into senior management. Eventually, you reach whatever position represents the top of your profession. Each role is slightly more senior than the last. Every move makes

Not every job works out. Sometimes the role you accepted turns out to be very different from the one you interviewed for. Sometimes the company restructures. Sometimes your circumstances change. And sometimes you simply realise fairly quickly that you made the wrong move. Whatever the reason, a short stay on your CV can feel uncomfortable

You find a job that looks genuinely interesting. The responsibilities make sense. The company appeals to you. The salary is right. You can imagine yourself doing the work. Then you reach the requirements. Five years of experience. You have three. Experience with a particular system. You’ve used something similar, but not that exact platform. Industry

Most job descriptions are fairly predictable. Communication skills. Organisation. Attention to detail. Teamwork. Experience with particular systems. Perhaps leadership or stakeholder management if the position is more senior. They tell you what the employer needs someone to do. What they don’t always tell you is what makes someone genuinely good to work with. Because once

A new job can look like progression on paper. A better title. A higher salary. A bigger company. More responsibility. But none of those things automatically mean you’re moving forward. Sometimes a role that appears to be a promotion can leave you doing much the same work with greater pressure. Equally, a position with the

A bigger salary can make a new job difficult to turn down. And understandably so. Compensation matters. Your salary should reflect your skills, experience, responsibilities and market value. For many professionals, increasing earnings is an entirely legitimate reason to consider moving jobs. But there’s a difference between a better-paid job and a better career move.