Interviews Are A Two Way Street

I was speaking with a colleague at work the other day who was looking for a new team internally and asking around for leads on an internal transfer. Let's call him John.

"John, didn't you just move to the team you're currently on?"

He had indeed just moved, but he didn't like the team he had recently joined. "The operational burden on this team is through the roof. On-calls are terrible, and we're not shipping much. The team has also been ravaged by attrition, which I thought I could help with by joining, but we're continuing to lose people. On top of that, my manager promised me a project that would help my prospects for promotion, but it's not materializing."

I couldn't help but think that John could have avoided all this churn.

Today's job market is really tough. It hasn't been this challenging since the Great Recession, especially for new graduates. It might be tempting to take the first offer that comes your way immediately, no questions asked. But unless your reserves are depleted o…