Receiving a job offer is exciting! Many people are so excited that they immediately accept the offer without looking into the company any further. There are a few key elements to look for in a job offer before you accept the position.

A Cultural Fit

One of the most important elements of a job is the culture. Do your values align with those of the company? First, you have to know what your values are. If transparency is a highly important value of yours and this company does not vow to be transparent, you may want to look elsewhere.  When there is congruence between one’s core values and the organization’s values, the alignment empowers and enables high performance, engagement and job satisfaction, and that is what you really want from any company!

Engaging Work

Once you are offered a position with a company, ask yourself if you think the work will be engaging to you. If you are not interested and engaged in the work you do on a daily basis, you will never thrive at that company. How can you know if the work will be engaging or not? Although you truly won’t know until you take the position, you do know yourself better than anyone else does. You know what type of work makes you excited and what type of work is tedious and draining. If you are a writer and thinking of accepting a position to work with numbers all day every day, you may be out of your element. Whatever the position, make sure you will be engaged and content with the day to day work.

Evaluate the Employee Benefits and Perks

Before accepting any position, you want to evaluate the benefits and perks that are included. This includes retirement plans, vacation time, sick leave, maternity and paternity leave, and insurance plans. Each of these is important in its own way. For example, if you know you are planning on having children in the next few years, you will want to pay close attention to the maternity and/or paternity leave. If you love to travel and have several trips booked, you will want to look at the vacation policy. Each benefit or perk will mean different things to different employees, but you need to hone in on the benefits that are most important to you and your family.

It’s easy to feel so excited about your new job offer that you don’t think to examine the elements of the job before accepting. Do your due diligence and investigate the company before accepting the offer. The key elements to look for are: Is it a cultural fit? Does it offer engaging work? And lastly, what are the benefits and perks of the job?