Choosing Your First Job: Factors to Consider
Choosing your first job after graduation is a big decision. What questions should you ask in the interview? What factors matter most for job and life satisfaction? Here’s what our young professionals have to say after a few years of experience:
JJ Robinson
Civil and Municipal Engineering | BS, Civil Engineering, Messiah College
Find a firm that really invests in their people. HRG offers a lot of training, and the supervisors help a lot. You want to look for a firm with a good environment and good people. When I interviewed with HRG, I met with three people – Jason Hinz, Matt Bonanno, and Aaron Moyer. They had the energy I was looking for, and they talked about the camaraderie at HRG – the ESOP culture and the teamwork and the mindset of working towards the greater good of the company. That really sold me. My favorite part of working at HRG is the people. I have a personal relationship with everyone I work with, and we do fun team events that give us a chance to get to know everyone outside of work.
Don’t be afraid to ask about culture in your interview. Just ask straight up: How close are you with your peers? Do you hang out after work?
Lindsey Douglass
Land Development | BS, Environmental Systems Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University
When I was graduating from Penn State, I applied to basically every single job I saw because I didn’t know what getting a job looked like yet. Once I actually started doing interviews, I realized I wasn’t interested in a lot of the positions I’d applied for. They were too far away or the role was different than what I wanted to do. I wound up interviewing with four firms that were pretty similar to HRG, and I got offers from three of them. There was one place I interviewed, and they didn’t ask me a single question. They talked about the company the entire time. I thought it was so odd that they didn’t ask me anything. How do you know that you want to work with me if you don’t know anything about me? I actually had a friend who started working there, and she said she was ignored. They just didn’t seem to care about the people who worked there. I have other friends who work a ton of hours. It’s very hard for them to take vacation time, so you want to make sure a company is going to respect your time by giving you adequate time off and compensating you for overtime.
When I was coming out of school, I really didn’t know what to expect. I wanted strong mentorship — someone to train me – so I asked about that in all my interviews. Who would be mentoring me? Who would my supervisor be? When I started at HRG, they didn’t have anyone in my office who did the same job as me, so my supervisor, Ginny, actually sent me to train in Harrisburg for two weeks. She also coordinated with one of the engineers from that office to work out of our office for several months in order to mentor me. I really appreciated that they were willing to do that.
If I were going to give someone advice about choosing their first job after graduation, I’d say one of the biggest things to consider is the variety of work. In some companies, the roles are very specific. I think you want to find companies that are diverse and flexible and want you to learn different things and try different positions. You want a company where you can grow. Ask about promotion opportunities and retention rates.
Landon Hacker
Water & Wastewater Systems | BSE, Engineering, Messiah College
Look for a company that you can see yourself growing in. Company culture is important, too. Look for a sense of community. Flex time is really nice, too.
Brittany Bolmer
Traffic Engineering | BS, Civil Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University
Things that are really important for me in a job search are the manager and the team you’re working with. Here at HRG, we all work together so well and have a really good boss who’s looking out for our interests and professional growth. That makes a huge difference.
