This depends on what you consider obvious. (Many things that seem obvious to me now, would be a great advice 10 or 15 years ago; sometimes even 1 year ago.) Also there is a difference between knowing something and feeling it; or less mysteriously: between being vaguely aware that something “could help” and having an experience that something trivial and easy to miss did cause 50% improvement in results. So at the risk of saying obvious things:
Don’t be needy. Search for a job before you have to; that is before you run out of money. Some employers will take a lot of time; first interview, a week or two waiting, second interview, another week or two, third interview… be sure you have enough time to play this game. If a month later you get an offer that is not what you wanted, be sure to have a freedom to say “no”.
Speak with more companies. If you get two great offers, you can always take one and refuse the other. If you get two bad offers (or one bad offer and one rejection), your only choices are to take a bad offer, or start the whole process again, losing a month of your time. How many companies is enough? You probably don’t want to make repeated interviews in 50 companies; but if you contact 10 companies, and only 4 respond, then 2 of them reject you and 2 of them give you a bad offer, that’s also not what you want. This may depend on the region where you live and a position you seek, but I would recommend getting to the first interview (not just sending job application) with 7 or 10 companies. (Alternatively, if you are satisfied with your current job and don’t mind staying there, and you are just curious whether there is a better opportunity, then contacting just 1 company is OK.)
Make a good CV. An afternoon or a weekend well spent with CV can bring you years of increased income. Try to get a feedback what kind of information do your employers want. -- For example as a programmer, I used to write a list of companies I have previously worked at; which is almost worthless to the next employers. My next iteration was focused on the technologies I have used, because this is what they often asked me at interviews. This is better, but only for junior positions; for senior positions it is also necessary to focus on my responsibilities in given projects. Essentially, your CV should describe why you are perfect for the position you apply for; it should make your whole life seem like a track towards this goal. You have enough time to describe things from the angle that shows them in the best light.
Know what you want (and what you want to avoid). There comes a moment in interview where you are supposed to ask questions. Be prepared for this moment (prepare your questions in advance). -- For example I would ask how many testers the company has, if people work in open spaces (how many in one room; I might want to see it), who will give me commands (one person or more?), whether I am supposed to work on more projects at the same time (how many?), what is the company policy for overtime, and what benefits does company provide: could I get more vacation days, or work from home? I want to know exactly, in a near mode, what will happen to me if I accept that job. Know your utility function, so you can make reasonable trade-offs, e.g. money for overtime.
Write down everything. Memory is unreliable.
Listen to your intuition, and if something feels bad, don’t ignore the feeling and try to find out why you have it. -- For example in one interview the employer’s first question was “What is your opinion about overtime?”. It’s a legitimate question, but it still felt weird that they started with this question. I responded diplomatically, but later I turned down the offer. Then I met an employee from that company, desperately searching for another job, and their description confirmed my suspicions: total chaos in the company, high-ranking employees neglecting their responsibilities, leading to a lot of overtime for low-ranking employees.
Know what you are worth. Try to find out salaries and benefits of people in similar positions. Yes, there is a taboo about sharing this information; and it is no accident that this taboo hurts your negotiating position. Find a way to overcome it (rich people are those who know when and how to bend rules). For example you could ask people about their salary in their previous job. Or you could use someone else (not working in the same sector) to ask this information for you; they will not feel like a competitor. If you absolutely have no way to get this info, just ask 50% more than you are making now, in 10 different companies (to avoid making statistics from 1 data point).
Have a long-term strategy and choose your job according to it. Some jobs only give you money. Some jobs give you money and increase your long-term worth at a job market. (You at least get the money even if you are wrong about the long-term consequences.) The strategy should fit to your personality traits. Also try to get a long-term perspective on what makes you happy; it’s not as obvious as it seems. Beware of advice of other people: they don’t know what makes you happy. (For example some people love work-related travelling, I hate it. But even after I tell them, they recommend me a job which seems cool to them, because it includes a lot of travelling.) Sometimes they even don’t know what makes them happy; they only tell you what they think they are supposed to tell you.
Think out of the box. Is “having a job” your only way to make money? And even if today it is, what about tomorrow? In addition to choosing between a few jobs, it might be useful to also have an opportunity to choose something else.
Don’t be afraid to ask too much. There are some things you would (almost) never do, such as things morally unacceptable to you. Then there are things that you wouldn’t like to do under normal circumstances, but if someone offered you $1,000,000 a month, you would be happy to take them (if only for doing them for one month or one year, and then quitting). In the latter situations, try to estimate the amount of money that would make you satisfied. It is too high? Ask anyway. You lose nothing by being rejected. And you might be surprised. Generally, most of “no” answers can be replaced by asking a very high number.
This depends on what you consider obvious. (Many things that seem obvious to me now, would be a great advice 10 or 15 years ago; sometimes even 1 year ago.) Also there is a difference between knowing something and feeling it; or less mysteriously: between being vaguely aware that something “could help” and having an experience that something trivial and easy to miss did cause 50% improvement in results. So at the risk of saying obvious things:
Don’t be needy. Search for a job before you have to; that is before you run out of money. Some employers will take a lot of time; first interview, a week or two waiting, second interview, another week or two, third interview… be sure you have enough time to play this game. If a month later you get an offer that is not what you wanted, be sure to have a freedom to say “no”.
Speak with more companies. If you get two great offers, you can always take one and refuse the other. If you get two bad offers (or one bad offer and one rejection), your only choices are to take a bad offer, or start the whole process again, losing a month of your time. How many companies is enough? You probably don’t want to make repeated interviews in 50 companies; but if you contact 10 companies, and only 4 respond, then 2 of them reject you and 2 of them give you a bad offer, that’s also not what you want. This may depend on the region where you live and a position you seek, but I would recommend getting to the first interview (not just sending job application) with 7 or 10 companies. (Alternatively, if you are satisfied with your current job and don’t mind staying there, and you are just curious whether there is a better opportunity, then contacting just 1 company is OK.)
Make a good CV. An afternoon or a weekend well spent with CV can bring you years of increased income. Try to get a feedback what kind of information do your employers want. -- For example as a programmer, I used to write a list of companies I have previously worked at; which is almost worthless to the next employers. My next iteration was focused on the technologies I have used, because this is what they often asked me at interviews. This is better, but only for junior positions; for senior positions it is also necessary to focus on my responsibilities in given projects. Essentially, your CV should describe why you are perfect for the position you apply for; it should make your whole life seem like a track towards this goal. You have enough time to describe things from the angle that shows them in the best light.
Know what you want (and what you want to avoid). There comes a moment in interview where you are supposed to ask questions. Be prepared for this moment (prepare your questions in advance). -- For example I would ask how many testers the company has, if people work in open spaces (how many in one room; I might want to see it), who will give me commands (one person or more?), whether I am supposed to work on more projects at the same time (how many?), what is the company policy for overtime, and what benefits does company provide: could I get more vacation days, or work from home? I want to know exactly, in a near mode, what will happen to me if I accept that job. Know your utility function, so you can make reasonable trade-offs, e.g. money for overtime.
Write down everything. Memory is unreliable.
Listen to your intuition, and if something feels bad, don’t ignore the feeling and try to find out why you have it. -- For example in one interview the employer’s first question was “What is your opinion about overtime?”. It’s a legitimate question, but it still felt weird that they started with this question. I responded diplomatically, but later I turned down the offer. Then I met an employee from that company, desperately searching for another job, and their description confirmed my suspicions: total chaos in the company, high-ranking employees neglecting their responsibilities, leading to a lot of overtime for low-ranking employees.
Know what you are worth. Try to find out salaries and benefits of people in similar positions. Yes, there is a taboo about sharing this information; and it is no accident that this taboo hurts your negotiating position. Find a way to overcome it (rich people are those who know when and how to bend rules). For example you could ask people about their salary in their previous job. Or you could use someone else (not working in the same sector) to ask this information for you; they will not feel like a competitor. If you absolutely have no way to get this info, just ask 50% more than you are making now, in 10 different companies (to avoid making statistics from 1 data point).
Have a long-term strategy and choose your job according to it. Some jobs only give you money. Some jobs give you money and increase your long-term worth at a job market. (You at least get the money even if you are wrong about the long-term consequences.) The strategy should fit to your personality traits. Also try to get a long-term perspective on what makes you happy; it’s not as obvious as it seems. Beware of advice of other people: they don’t know what makes you happy. (For example some people love work-related travelling, I hate it. But even after I tell them, they recommend me a job which seems cool to them, because it includes a lot of travelling.) Sometimes they even don’t know what makes them happy; they only tell you what they think they are supposed to tell you.
Think out of the box. Is “having a job” your only way to make money? And even if today it is, what about tomorrow? In addition to choosing between a few jobs, it might be useful to also have an opportunity to choose something else.
Don’t be afraid to ask too much. There are some things you would (almost) never do, such as things morally unacceptable to you. Then there are things that you wouldn’t like to do under normal circumstances, but if someone offered you $1,000,000 a month, you would be happy to take them (if only for doing them for one month or one year, and then quitting). In the latter situations, try to estimate the amount of money that would make you satisfied. It is too high? Ask anyway. You lose nothing by being rejected. And you might be surprised. Generally, most of “no” answers can be replaced by asking a very high number.