Comment by Alasdair Murray on October 9, 2012 at 4:33am

If i might make a quick comment about cultural fit. An example from my own career is when I made the move from working for a national newspaper to a regional one. The roles were very similar but the environment was totally different. It was like moving from the Royal opera to the local dramatics society, so I think that sometimes there is a need to keep an eye out for the fact that you're not taking someone from a blue chip and putting them in a SME or possible vice versa, though the step up would probably seen as a positive. In short, if someone is used to a large corporate environment, or conversely a family run affair, the difference between the two can sometimes be very evident.

Comment by Mitch Sullivan on October 9, 2012 at 4:52am

Alasdair, how did you cope with the new environment?  I suspect you adapted fairly quickly.

I think most people can adapt to almost any change in circumstances pretty readily.  Most people just want to fit in.

Comment by Alasdair Murray on October 9, 2012 at 4:54am

Maybe,m but some environments are more difficult to adapt to than others possibly. Anyway, in answer to the question, I endured it for six months or so, applied for, and got, a job with a London ad agency, and never looked back!

Comment by Recruiting Animal on October 9, 2012 at 7:22am

You're right Mitch. You were on for an hour but never got the opportunity to discuss things in depth. And examples that support unproven statements, they're bad. 

So I'm inviting you to come back for a half an hour or an hour and go into all of the stuff you didn't get to say last time around. I've still got dates open this month and November is entirely free.

Just call on a landline (preferably a corded phone) or get Alan Whitebread to set you up on skype -- with a headset only. You can't call on skype unless you sound like him. I've had enough guests I can't hear.

Comment by Recruiting Animal on October 9, 2012 at 7:28am

@Alcindor I know Mitch doesn't think specifics are important but you should turn that story about culture into a full article with lots and lots of examples. It could become a classic because most people are just unsophisticated lads who make claims without proof

Comment by Alasdair Murray on October 9, 2012 at 7:36am

I think we all have our own view about cultural fit based on our own experiences. Clearly the need to be adaptable is important wherever you're working, but the move I described above was the wrong one at the time for me, and I made it in haste, without consideration for cultural fit. Hey, they did what I was used to doing, but, as it turned out, on a much smaller stage and in a much more petty way (the bonuses we were dealing with sometimes involved pences not the pounds I was used to). If anything people need a more expansive challenge when they move on, rather than doing what I did and taking what turned out to be something of a retrograde step, so I do think consideration, even if only fleeting, for cultural fit, has a part to play sometimes.

Comment by Recruiting Animal on October 9, 2012 at 7:48am

Sounds like you didn't research the most basic aspects of the job. I'm surprised.

Comment by Alasdair Murray on October 9, 2012 at 7:55am

I was young and naive! I took voluntary redundancy (not a fortune but enough to get me by for maybe a year) from the national newspaper and wasn't really looking for anything when a role came along working locally. Seemed sensible to keep in the earning loop, but in hindsight, despite filling in a blank on my CV in terms of national AND regional experience, it wasn't really a role with any long term future.

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