Just about everyone says that they want variety in their jobs. In fact no one has ever said to me that they want monotony.

But when asked what they mean, that’s where the differences begin. New tasks, different locations, talking to a range of people, short projects, long projects, travel overseas – everybody’s definition of variety seems to differ.  And it’s a good job too, because all jobs are monotonous in one way or another.

The reason I’m saying this is that when a candidate says they are looking for ‘variety’ warning bells ring in the recruiters head.  The recruiter immediate dreads the phone call from an irate manager 2 months down the line, complaining that their new recruit has resigned because the job is boring!  And when the warning bells start ringing, it’s really difficult to turn them off.

So, when you’re talking to a recruiter don’t just say you want variety – say what you really mean – e.g.

‘I want to be out of the office at least a couple of times per day visiting clients/other offices’

‘I want to be able to serve a wide client group, at least XX’

‘I like to work on projects that last up to six months’

‘I like to have a number of different types of task in hand at any one time’ and so on.

As long as the type of variety you want matches the type of variety the job offers then you’re sorted.