Answer: Rebecca is in this difficult position. We will follow her career and job-hunting efforts to learn tough lessons about decision making. We see how challenging it is to establish the criteria (and adhere to them) that a potential job opportunity must meet before starting the interviewing process.

At the end of the series a Grid outlining decision-making issues, and a Checklist of cultural factors leading to success, will be released.

We have followed Rebecca’s career rising successfully to VP Communications roles that established her expertise and seniority. Her situation is about to enter a new phase.

Due to sweeping changes in leadership, including the executives she supported, Rebecca was asked to leave. There was nothing negative about her work. This change was simply what happens when companies reorganize and install new executive teams. For Rebecca, this was a first. She was about to launch a job search and proactively seek a new position. This was unlike prior moves where excellent situations were presented to her; now she had to determine what she should consider. For all of her excellent work and sophisticated thinking about solving business challenges, she was at step 1 for how to approach job hunting.

In an in-depth conversation, she told me she had been contacted by a consumer services company that had, she discovered early on, a high turnover in the PR/Comms function. The head of the organization wanted to hire a highly skilled professional, but it turns out the title was not at the right level and the compensation was below a lateral move.

Despite all the warning flags, the CEO was charismatic, persuasive and made a special effort to convince her to accept his offer. She was very flattered by the entire process and was emotionally involved. Despite the negatives, she seriously considered accepting the offer. Fortunately, with the help of friends who looked objectively at the risk and the compensation, she decided to turn down the offer and develop a job search strategy. That’s when we connected. She also sent me the resume she had prepared, which needed serious revision. We were just at the start of doing the homework she needed to conclude with a successful search plan.