As you might imagine, headhunters are a lot like talent scouts, sorting through the marketplace to keep their clients appraised of “the really good ones.” It’s a job of selection, and the better job that the recruiter does of identifying the likes-and-dislikes of a person’s work experience, the longer that person will stick with the new employer.

As a result of this need to know, one of the most important pieces of a recruiter’s surveillance is how a candidate feels about their present job. Knowing what makes that person happy in their work tells them about the fit. That’s why thinking about your job satisfaction level before opening the door to a conversation like this is so important. You should think about what keeps you challenged and happy as a part of your own annual review of your job happiness.

If it isn’t “Show Me the Money,” what is it?

What are the factors that make you either happy or unhappy when you think about your job? While money may come to mind quickly, it’s generally not at the core of a job change. There’s usually something deeper, more to do with the respect you get in your job or how you feel about the people around you. Sure, if you are underpaid, steaks instead of macaroni and cheese can seem mighty important. But trust me, it’s not in your best interests to talk about this as your motivation.

Be careful when reviewing your present job happiness with recruiters, just as you would when you are talking to HR at your company. It’s rather private information, and sometimes releasing too much can hurt rather than help. It’s a lot like the kind of feedback you’d give in an exit interview. In that environment, people will sometimes let loose and let the arrows fly. Don’t do that.

In an exit interview with the boss and the HR department, the outgoing employee is asked about the reasons for the departure. The most common responses are always a bit innocuous, such as “a lack of challenge” or “I just needed something more,” and sometimes the old “offer I couldn’t refuse” chestnut. Personally, I’d walk that tightrope very carefully—the one between preserving good references for years to come but also giving them a dose of reality.

When asked about what you like and what you don’t like, by HR or by a headhunter, remember these elements:
• Choose careful language to describe the scenario or people you were working with. Make sure you’re not talking about “a real jerk of a boss” and instead use word choices like “an old school manager with a strong top-down approach” or “a woman who only drove her own ideas forward.”
• If there’s some issue related to compensation, don’t address it as a “money problem,” but instead talk about the effect of the money issue. An example: “They didn’t put a lot of value on the role of an Associate in the engineering department, as their focus apparently was on leadership positions only. This was responsible for a rather chaotic work environment, as people were constantly leaving and being replaced.”
• Since every job has a strong people element to it, and not just those supervisory roles, you’ll be asked about what makes you happy as a part of a team. If you are the kind of person who enjoys working alone, don’t word it that way! Here’s an example: “I’m a good team member because I know what my job is and I’m not uncomfortable if I am left alone to accomplish my part of the mission. At the same time, I can be happy as a part of a work team collaborating actively.” But these responses lead to requests for more detail, and this is where you’ll want to bring in a few example stories.

After studying employment and job satisfaction for years, I’ve concluded that staying happy with one employer is a difficult task. It is best to recognize the keys to your personal job satisfaction in advance and then use this information to determine whether the next job is a fit. Some people change jobs every few years like they are buying a new pair of shoes. To avoid those changes, it is important to recognize how dissatisfaction begins and learn how to prevent it.

Your Challenge/Mastery dial

Olympic athlete and sports psychologist Robert Kriegel, who wrote the book “Inner Skiing,” believes that anyone who has perfected their skills in one area, whether on the ski slope or in the lab, deals daily with what he calls the “Challenge/Mastery Shuttle.” Using it here, I am referring to the daily switch-off between new learning experiences and areas of our personal mastery. A chemist who loves to plan new experiments also spends a certain amount of time each day involved in running mundane tests on which she is the company expert. Therefore, she’s got areas of challenge mixed with areas of complete mastery. It’s the percentage of each that determines job happiness and that is different for everyone.

The author describes this as being much like the skier going down the more thrilling, lesser-used runs but also needing to spend time in the comfortable, well-mastered runs. Everyone has a balance of how much they like of each environment. Kriegel’s work goes into several zones that we move through in our workday, and these include the “challenge zone” and the “mastery zone.” Some people prefer the constantly changing, risk-taking atmosphere of the challenge zone, while others enjoy the benefits of mastering a particular skill.

It is when there is too much of one or the other that we experience difficulties. How do you feel about your ideal workday? Do you see yourself enjoying a non-stop mix of new challenges, or do you enjoy digging into your particular area of mastery? This is something you should think more about as you investigate any new opportunity offered you.

Work can be non-stop challenges

Sometimes companies push so hard that you get no time to enjoy your “mastery” of certain tasks. When that happens, you find yourself in the panic zone. Unfortunately, many organizations that push their people through rapid change keep their staff in the panic zone. Too many daily challenges, leading to the panic zone, can be one of the key reasons behind employee departures. The panic zone lies at one extreme of the job satisfaction scale and allows too little time for employee “mastery.”

But what happens if you find yourself with too much time spent in your area of personal mastery? This is the opposite end of the scale from the panic zone, and Kriegel refers to it as the “drone zone.” Kriegel believes that too much emphasis on mastery of a particular skill can lead to a sudden and quite unexpected feeling of job dissatisfaction stemming from repetitive work. Although it can sometimes feel great to escape the rapids of the panic zone for the slower waters of mastering a particular job skill, the opportunity to shuttle between challenge and mastery is what keeps a job interesting.

In closure

Job satisfaction is different for every one of us. Your sense of personal growth and happiness could be measured by the extent of new challenges you encounter on the job. Or, by the amount of time you get that allows you to develop specific areas of personal mastery. While considering a job change and the options in front of you, remember that those involved in screening you for that opportunity will need to know more about what makes you “tick.” Find a way to talk about that subject without painting yourself into a box—by sharing well thought-out examples and stories of what you like and don’t like.