Goldman Sachs HR head: Choose a job based on the people

It can be even more
important than the work you’re doing, said Dane Holmes,
pictured.
Dane Holmes/Goldman
Sachs

• Goldman
  Sachs‘ head of human resources, Dane Holmes, spoke to
  Goldman interns this summer about his best advice for launching
  a successful career.
• Holmes said the single most underrated factor when
  choosing a job is the quality of your prospective
  coworkers.
• In fact, Holmes said the particular job you’re doing
  can be secondary to the environment and the people.

“Working hard feels very different when you like the people
around you and when you don’t.”

That’s according to Dane Holmes, who is the global head of human
capital management and the leadership development group Pine
Street at Goldman Sachs. This summer, Holmes shared with
Goldman Sachs interns his best advice for launching a
successful career.

Holmes told interns that the single most underrated thing that
people fail to account for when they’re choosing a job is how
much they like their prospective coworkers.

He advised interns to ask themselves: “Do I think, if I take this
job, people are going to invest in me and I’m going to grow and
learn? Do I like the people that I’m going to show up with every
day?”

You want “a team that wants to invest in you and wants to see you
do well,” Holmes said.

All this makes intuitive sense: Who wants to spend most of their
day with people who are checked out, or overly competitive, or
downright mean?

There’s also some research behind this idea. A 2016
report details findings by career services site Monster and
social intelligence company Brandwatch, who analyzed more than 2
million Tweets that mentioned work.

Results showed that “people” was one of the most frequently
mentioned words in Tweets about loving or hating a job.

And a 2004 Gallup
survey found that 51% of employees who strongly agree
that their organization encourages close friendships at work are
extremely satisfied at work. Compare that to just 19% of
employees who disagree.

Holmes suggested that the caliber of your colleagues can be even
more important than the work you’re doing. “Whatever particular
job it is may be a little bit secondary,” he said, “to, ‘Do I
like the environment that I’m in?’ and ‘Do I like the people that
I’m working with?'”

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