Considering a New Job? Ask The "Bring/Get" Question Before Deciding

It can also help you determine if your current job is a danger zone or stagnation

Beyond the Pros and Cons List

Unless you’re retired or about to retire, there’s a good chance you’ll have to evaluate a job offer and decide if you should say yes. And of course you should make your pros and cons lists, and ensure you ask about salary, and travel expectations, and work hours, and whether or not it is remote or in the office, and a dozen others.

But I’ve got one more question you should ask yourself.

I’ve used this numerous times when considering a job change, and it comes up all the time in my career coaching discussions. For folks I’ve been working with for years, we’ve had this conversation more than once! It even came up in a discussion at a pool part this weekend, so clearly it continues to be very relevant.

Note: Even if you aren’t currently looking to make a career move at this moment, tuck this in your back pocket, so you can use it the next time you are. And bonus -- I have even used this with folks after they make a big change, and also with folks who’ve been in a role for awhile. I’ll touch on both of those scenarios as well in a bit, so there’s really something here for everybody!

Concept

Here’s the idea: Each of us, regardless what stage we’re at in our career, has a collection of knowledge. It might be book knowledge, maybe a degree or a certification, and we have experiences. If you’re new in your career you may only have a few. If you are later in your career, you may have more than you would like to admit to! And this collection is something you have with you all the time. Like a tool box with all the things you’ve learned along the way, that you are constantly drawing from as you do your job.

As you consider this next opportunity, ask yourself this question:

What will I Bring and what will I Get?

What is in your toolbox right now? If you take this job, that’s how you will earn your keep while you learn the ropes. And what will you get? What will you take away with you in that tool box when you leave the job?

Since I’m an engineer, I like to turn it into a simple mathematical equation.

» The Bring / Get Ratio.

The reason this is such a powerful question to ask when considering a new job is because Bringing 80% and Getting 20% is a very different situation from Bringing 20% and Getting 80%.

Knowing which is which can mean the difference between a successful career step and a disaster.

The 80/20

If you are Bringing 80%, that means you already know most of the job. So that other 20% that you’ll be learning and adding to your tool box should be something really critical that you need, in order to position yourself for something else further down the line.

This is pretty straightforward, and not high risk, aside from the risk of not fully taking advantage of all the experience you are Bringing, to negotiate for anything you might need to ensure you land that other 20%.

In some cases they want you so bad for your 80%, that you can not only get that new 20%, but you can negotiate the next move up front or some other perks you’ve been wanting!

The 20/80

If you are Bringing only 20%, the 80% you’ll be learning is a huge growth opportunity. But it also has the potential to be really dangerous, and you shouldn’t go into it without ensuring that the right things will be in place to support your success. There are specifically three things that I recommend people look for.

I’m going to use two 20/80 examples from my own career to illustrate this concept.

Example 1 (aka I got lucky)

When I was early in my management career, I made a big jump from being a first level manager in a hardware organization to being a second level manager in a software organization. I didn’t know any of the people. I didn’t know the difference between managing a team of 15 and a team of 120. Heck, I didn’t know what it meant to manage other managers. I had only managed individual contributors before. Oh, and I didn’t know the products, and I didn’t know their development process. Other than that, what could go wrong? 🤷🏻‍♀️

This was a 20/80 Bring/Get for sure, but I hadn’t yet developed that way of looking at things, so I didn’t know it at the time. I just knew that I was super excited to go learn all the new things. I also knew that I had a lot of respect for the Director of the organization who would be my boss, and I believed she would fully support me in making this transition. I even had a discussion with her prior to accepting the offer and said “I’m a hardware engineer. Are you sure you want me to come lead a software organization.” And her answer was “Once you’re over here, you’ll be one of us.” Cool.

It was after this role, looking back, that I realized that this was a 20/80, and I also realized there were three key factors that made this 20/80 an amazing growth opportunity for me, and not a flaming failure.

Success Factors

Obviously there are more than just 3 success factors when heading into a new job. But these are the ones that I believe are critical, especially for a 20/80 Bring/Get.

(1) The Boss Has Your Back

Not only did she have confidence in me, but she was also crystal clear where she wanted me to focus, and how she was going to measure me in those first 6-12 months. I had a ton to learn, but I also knew which piece she needed me to learn first so I could have an impact. And that allowed me to take my time learning the other pieces. (This one I knew I had going in. I had no idea until after the fact how fortunate I was to have the next two.)

(2) My Team Could Mind The Store

I had a team working for me that was experienced enough that I could depend on them to do their jobs and do them well. They didn’t need me to provide detailed direction or jump into intervention mode, except for the one area that my boss said she wanted me to really dig into and show some improvements.

Not that I ignored them and their day-to-day work. I spent a large chunk of time ensuring I was learning about their work. But if they had needed a lot of guidance and decision-making from me while I was still on that learning curve, the risk of a mis-step would have been much, much higher.

(3) My Peers Were Also On My Team

This was one of my favorite peer teams of my entire career. There were several other second-line managers and several deep technical experts, and these folks put those words my boss spoke -- “you’re one of us” -- into action. They each took turns teaching me how they did budgeting, how they managed the schedules, how the personnel cycles worked.

And in those personnel discussions, they didn’t take advantage of me being the newbie. They willing volunteered if one of my people was more ready than theirs for one of the limited promotion slots or salary increases for the whole org. (And sadly, I rarely saw that level of cross-team collaboration the rest of my career).

Looking back at that first big transition made me realize how lucky I had been, but once I knew those three success factors, I was able to apply them going forward.

Example 2 (aka Leveling the Playing Field)

A good number of years later, after changing companies, getting promoted to Director, and getting seriously burned out, I was considering a new opportunity. I needed a big change, so I was exploring leaving product development and taking a job in operations.

By this time in my career, I was well aware of the dangers of a Bring 20 / Get 80, and I was at a company that did not give you credit for how fast you learned in a growth assignment. You were compared to your peers. Period. And going into operations as an executive, competing against other operations executives who had decades of operations experience would be foolish.

But I really needed and wanted that kind of change. So I voluntarily dropped a level. Yup, I gave up that hard-earned Director promotion. I was burned out and needed a change and I wanted to be able to successfully ‘compete’ in the new org, without feeling like I had to watch my back. I knew that was better done at a lower, non-exec level, where my decades of leadership experience from product development would shine, while I learned the world of operations.

I also had a great boss (a retired admiral and one of my favorite bosses of all time!), along with a whole circle of folks who welcomed me into the operations world and helped me get established.

By recognizing the 20/80-nature of the new job, and evaluating the best way to support that 80% learning curve, I was able to make that transition and learn from a fabulous leader, without risking an unfair comparison against much more experienced operations execs.

Other Ways To Use It

Today as a coach, I use this to help folks decide on job offers, but it is also very helpful for other scenarios.

I recently worked with a woman who had already made the leap into a very different role. It probably wasn’t a 20/80, but it was at least a 40/60 and maybe a 30/70. I knew she was likely experiencing a bit of trepidation and maybe even overwhelm, so, as part of our work together, I mapped out an actual inventory of the skills she was Bringing into that Role and the skills she could expect to Get while she was there.

This inventory, written down on the screen in front of her had a double-impact: it grounded her in a solid confidence that she was well-prepared and had plenty to offer to this new organization up front while she was learning, and it gave her a strategic checklist of things to intentionally explore so that she takes full advantage of the growth potential of this assignment.

And I’m about to use this with someone who has been in her role for quite some time and is probably on the cusp of planning her next move. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect when I ask her to evaluate the Bring/Get of her current job she would be 95/5. Or maybe even 100/0.

Now I’m not saying you should immediately bolt when there’s nothing left to learn. Sometimes that’s a lovely place to be for a time. But it should be a choice, made from knowing that’s where you are. As opposed to a default from being a bit blind to it and plugging along on auto-pilot.

Let’s Wrap It Up

Next time you’re trying to figure out if a job offer is the right next step for you, or if you’re trying to decide between two different opportunities, and need to figure out which one is “better” -- sure, go ahead and make your pros / cons lists. Check the salary, the benefits, etc.

But before you decide, check out the Bring vs Get ratio. Make sure you have a clear view of the situation you’re going into, whether or not you’re Bringing enough to contribute during the early days while you’re learning. And if it’s a big growth curve, look carefully for the three success factors: a boss who has your back, a team that can mind the store, and peers who are on your team.

And even if you’re not actively considering a new job offer, testing the Bring/Get of your current role could be very revealing.

Are you drowning in a 20/80 split and realize you don’t have the boss, team, or peers to support you? Can you take action to effectively address any of those? Can you put in place other support to compensate for that?

On the flip side, if you’ve been in your role for a while and realize that all of the Getting is sitting firmly inside your toolbox and you’re operating at a stagnant 100%, it might be time to move on.

I’m curious - what does your current role look like right now? Are you running an 80/20, a 20/80, or something in between? Let me know in the comments below!

Love and Light,

Pat ❤️ ✨

Crossroads Guide | Former Technology Executive

Human Design Coach | Compassion Key Facilitator