Asking These 3 Questions Helped Me Score My Dream Job
Amber Grewal, who’s recently been hired as a Global VP, Talent Acquisition and Onboarding at IBM, says she feels “very, very fortunate” to be able to say that she loves what she does every day at work. She came across the position on the Fairygodboss jobs board for women, which she was using not as an active job seeker but simply because she “loved the idea that there was a community of women communicating about issues that I also felt passionately about.”
Amber knew that if she did change roles, she wanted to have a good sense of what other women were saying about the companies she was considering — which is why Fairygodboss helped her gain the insight she needed to make her career transition.
She recently filled us in on how exactly she used Fairygodboss to get informed and offered some spot-on advice for women who are job searching:
FGB: How did you hear about Fairygodboss?
AG: I found out about Fairygodboss after partnering with the FGB team at my previous employer. I wasn’t actively looking for a new role at the time, but loved the idea that there was a community of women communicating about issues that I also felt passionately about. It was refreshing to know that there is a network of women out there that had the same challenges that I faced day-to-day and a site that was providing the resources that women need to really make educated decisions about their careers.
FGB: What was most important to you in a new employer/role?
AG: Most important for me was to see how important diversity was to the company. Not just gender or racial diversity, but overall diversity in thought, product portfolios, the company and its employees, affiliations and partnerships – I really wanted a role at an organization that I felt was diverse across the board. With our careers being 50-60% of our lives, it’s so important to make sure that our prospective employer values the same things we value.
I also put a lot of clout into social ratings – specifically, what other women were saying about the companies that I was considering. Have women been successful in influencing change? Will I, personally, be able to make an impact on the broader organization? Are the women that work there satisfied with their jobs? Fairygodboss is the only place that you can find information like this.
FGB: Tell us about your dream job!
AG: Part of me feels like I already found my dream job – I love what I do every day. I feel very, very fortunate to be able to say that. I work for a company that has surrounded me with incredibly intelligent people and I’m not only able to make an impact on the business, but we have such an incredible social impact as well. IBM is changing the way society works, grows, and gives back. I feel very fortunate to be a part of that.
My ‘dream job’ though would really to be to own my personal vineyard – and spend every day just enjoying it!
Amber is a Global VP, Talent Acquisition and Onboarding at IBM
FGB: Do you have any advice to other women who are currently looking for a new role?
AG: The best advice I could give is to write down the most important things to you as an individual and what is going to make you truly happy. When you are clear in what you want on a very personal level, you can look at every employer and say to yourself, ‘do these companies/roles really meet what I’m looking for?’.
I really thought through these questions before deciding where I wanted to land:
What do I want to do?
What are the outcomes that I want to achieve?
What do my next 3-5 years look like – and will this role help get me there?
It’s not always easy to answer these questions, but clearly defining your goals will make the process of evaluating employers so much easier. Talented people have so much opportunity in today’s marketplace – employers aren’t just picking candidates anymore; candidates are picking employers.
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