What to look for in a company when changing jobs

If you are a senior executive with a proven record, more often than not you get a call from an executive recruitment firm with a great opportunity available. It could be a start-up that is looking for professional management team to take it to next level or an established public company that hit a roadblock and they need someone with an outside view to correct the things. Either way, the challenge for you as a candidate is to assess the opportunity and see if it is a good fit for you.

There are lot of factors one might have to consider. I normally look for three factors as a preliminary check: products, customers, and management. Coming from software industry, my observations and analysis are based on my experiences in this industry.

Most of the software companies start with one person having a great idea, which she develops into a product sitting at her home. Sooner or later, every product reaches its end of life. Most successful companies introduce new products within the same space to keep the growth intact. Hence I look for if the company has been one trick pony or has successfully demonstrated introduction of new products. 

Next I look at customer base. Most of the founders of software companies come from product development background. Their biggest weakness is sales. They normally are able to acquire their first few customers easily and hit a wall after that. Two things I look for in this area are the number of customers that they have as well as how many of those customers are buying new offerings from the company. That repeated buying from the existing customers is a great sign of customer satisfaction.

Finally, I look at the management team. Unless, you are interviewing for a CEO position, the best place to start looking is the CEO. From his past, you can find out what kind of CEO he had been. What was his exit strategy for the companies that he ran in the past? Did he create shareholder value - either by taking the company IPO or selling it to another company? How does he achieve growth - organic or through acquisitions? How many of his old leadership team follows him when he takes up a new opportunity?

These three factors are just starting points. You normally have to consider many other things: your compatibility with the company culture, your skills match with the situation present at the new opportunity etc.. For those of you, who are actively looking, I would recommend reading Michael Watkins’ book Your Next Move. That is one of my favorite books along with his other book First 90 Days, which discusses how to successfully transition into your new role.