What makes a candidate choose one job or employer over another?

This is a good question to ask yourself whether you are looking for a job or looking to recruit a new person in to your team.

A candidate I met recently summed up her expectations and her foundation for choosing one position over another: “If I am not going to be home with my children then I want to be part of a family (at work)”. We are in a market which is candidate driven and candidates have choices often with several offers and positions to choose from. I hesitate to oversimplify what is often a daunting and an anxious time for both candidates and clients however it consistently comes back to “how you make me feel” and that works both ways. Underlining this statement is a whole stack of emotions and I dare anyone to fully understand the complexity of emotions and why we feel like we do!

From the very first interaction, usually from an advertisement a candidate has seen the way the firm or company has projected itself in print – the tone, the style and the sound of the words to a prospective employee. The application process can be long, arduous, and feels like jumping hurdles or can actually be engaging, personal, timely and tailored. When you answer the applicant’s email, is it responsive, welcoming and engaging or a stock standard reply?

Get the feeling!

In the interview the candidate will be nervous and as the interviewer you might be too. Building rapport is the first step and an important step - some might call it the small talk. Not to be underestimated, the candidate is measuring the engagement on how they are feeling in the room and the relationship that is developing. The interviewer is also forming an impression on who this person is who has applied. Put simply, “do you like me and do I like you?” and “are we on the same page?” (that’s value driven). There are many articles written on how to run an interview and on how we can get it wrong – chosen the wrong job or offered the job to the wrong candidate. Savvy candidates know when you are looking and talking with them (not at them) and understanding what they want and a proactive employer knows how to engage, really engage.

Not only do you need to feel that you like your colleagues, you also need to like the clients you work with too - even enjoy socialising with them. A candidate is looking for a collegial work environment. Now that doesn’t mean that they have to feel the love with everyone all the time but it does mean there is respect both ways for diversity; diversity of work style, thinking, practice and so on. You need to understand and relate to the clients you are working for. If you don’t then you are never going to perform to your best. For example, if you take a relaxed, personable and at times, fun approach then maybe you are more suited to working with small to medium sized organisations or firms and private individuals.

The work environment needs to reflect your values as does the job needs to utilise your skills – that’s the “fit”. It could be your ‘family away from home’. A set of values might be described as open and honest, having respect and being recognised for who you are. Values are what you stand for and can’t live without. If you join a team or firm that has different values, then you may not stay long term. Obviously, you need the skillset for the role because without that it will become apparent very quickly that you can’t do the job. Candidates will get a feeling about the ‘personality” of a firm or team and if there is mutual trust and understanding by the way you make them feel.

How you make someone feel outlasts anything that you might say. Feelings come from the values that you hold. As too in a candidate choosing one role over another; all the thinking and analysis of which job and where, the pros and cons, the money, the location, progression opportunities, it is often how you make them feel that sways the decision on which job or employer to choose.

Filed under Blog

September 1, 2026

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Is your workplace changing you?

By Sarah Bartlett • September 9, 2026

Does your workplace change you? This was written (full disclosure by another consultant) a while ago but I feel is still relevant now, what do you think? I was watching the movie Fury, a very good yet very disturbing film set at the end of the Second World War. The main character, Norman, is a reluctant young soldier trained as a typist but forced to become the assistant driver/gunner in the tank "Fury" after the death of the previous gunner. Initially, he refuses to shoot the enemy, but he is forced by his Sergeant, "Wardaddy" (played by Brad Pitt), to shoot a Nazi in the back as he kneels begging for his life. As the movie progresses, he realises he has to kill in order to stay alive and save the lives of his crew, and begins to relish killing Nazis. I was fascinated by the transformation from Norman to "Machine," his nickname from the crew. He had to change, and change fast, in order to survive. The typist who refused to fire his weapon became a ruthless, efficient killing machine. What disturbed me more was the thought that this transformation could happen to any of us in the same horrific situation. Many of those who fought would have been considered ordinary men, not trained killers, before they joined the army. To survive in war, soldiers must be prepared to kill the enemy, and to do that, you have to dehumanise them, view them as lesser people. An interesting counterpoint comes at the end of the movie, when Norman is hiding under the tank and is found by an SS soldier (the worst of the Nazis, according to Wardaddy). Instead of dragging him out and shooting him, or worse, torturing him, as he'd been told would happen, the soldier leaves him alone. The movie ends with Norman being rescued and labelled a hero. It's easy to see how war could change someone dramatically, but how much do other changes in our environment change us? We all know people in relationships who have changed, for better or worse, when they started a relationship with someone new. Sometimes change is necessary to make a relationship work, compromise is essential, you have to think of someone else, not just yourself. Other times, one or both people are forced to change, and not for the better. One test of a good relationship: do you make each other better people? It's a bit of a stretch to compare work to war, but there's no doubt in my mind that your workplace can change you. At the extreme end, some people become depressed, overwhelmed, or burnt out by their work, whereas others grow, thrive and become better people. Sometimes it's just called the culture of the organisation, you either fit, or you don't. Those who don't "make it" weren't cut out for the environment, or didn't have the right attributes to succeed. If you don't think your workplace changes people, take a look at the senior people in your organisation, especially those who've been there a long time. Are there similarities in values, working style, management approach, communication? Is that self-selection, recruiting people who are all similar or is the organisation moulding people to fit, or some combination of all three? Do you find yourself wrestling with your conscience, bursting with the need to disagree, challenge or object, but suppressing it because you know you'd be swimming against the tide? Are you justifying decisions to yourself that you'd previously have called just wrong? Do you feel the need to comply with the company line? It might not be an ethical dilemma, it could simply be that you feel you need to suppress who you really are to fit in. You might manage that for a while, but eventually, it becomes suffocating. If you find yourself in this situation, you have three options: Adapt, change and compromise - just like Norman did in Fury. Stay and swim against the stream , becoming an internal agent of change. (In my experience, unless leadership is also swimming against the current with you and genuinely trying to change the culture, this is futile.) Get out and find a place where you can be yourself, thrive and excel. There are plenty of workplaces that don't make better people, some even do real damage in the pursuit of winning. But there are others that make people better, not worse. If you need help getting out of an environment that's changing you, and not for the better, get in touch, let's talk about your options.