“Don’t tell me what you value, show me your bank statement and your weekly schedule, and I’ll tell you what you value.”  This message may be the most powerful discussion I’ve ever had with my mentor.  When you really value something, you spend our time and money on it.  However, what you spend your time and money on often disagrees with what you SAY you value. 

This line of thinking also applies to employers.  A PT company can say they value great clinical skills and relationships with patients.  However, if they don’t spend time and money to deliver and track these things, they don’t value them.

You just spent the last seven years of your life staying up so late studying that at some point it seemed like the only way you would ever truly learn the brachial plexus is if you used a marker to draw it on yourself.  You’ve done incredibly hard things and reached what you thought was your breaking point about seven times each semester.  You didn’t do all that, on top of passing a grueling board exam, to settle for a lousy job. 

To get the candidates they want, employers need to be able to ask the right questions.  The same is true for you.  Your job interview is not only your chance to show an employer what you can do for them, it’s your opportunity to see what they can do for you.  As such, there is one question you should ALWAYS ask in your job interview:

“How will you know if I am successful in this role?”

This simple question gives you great insight into the company.  When they tell you what they measure, you’ll know what they value.  It gives you the ability to see how well who they say they are aligns with who they actually are.  These are the three responses you may receive, and what you should do about each:

1. The employer has no idea how to answer this question – sad but common. This company is very likely to have the kind of work environment where your success probably has a lot more to do with your relationship with your manager than it does to any other element of your performance.  Unless you want to spend your energy sucking up to your boss, instead of helping patients and developing as a clinician, this company probably isn’t for you.

2. A purely financial measure is given. This response may be units/visit or productivity for staff positions or some measure of profit for clinic manager roles.  I’m not saying that financial performance shouldn’t matter to your employer. I’m saying it shouldn’t be the ONLY thing that matters.  When companies are relentlessly focused on driving short-term profits, bad long-term decisions are going to happen.  These decisions will negatively affect the quality of care or the quality of the work environment.  This job may start out great, but it has an expiration date. 

3. The employer uses several different objective measures to let you know when you are successful. Best-case scenario here is a mix of clinical results, patient perception, and even some productivity measures.  This answer shows you that the company can pay attention both short-term and long-term results.  When they say they care about clinical results, you can believe them.  They are likely to invest in your relationship with patients and your personal development, while maintaining a good sense of fiscal responsibility.  If you find this company in your interviews, you may have hit the jackpot.

This one powerful question will give you key insights into what your potential employer values.  If your values don’t match up, keep looking. You’ve worked too hard, for too long, to settle.