The job hunt can be a grueling process to undertake. How do we select the right firm? It's a tough thing to try and quantify. Do we go off of culture, or focus more on money? Perhaps, there is a balance between the two. Professor of business psychology, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, suggests that there are specific factors that tend to play into our job selection, which he believe naturally leans toward selecting the wrong jobs:

1. Money talks. "As meta-analytic studies show, there is almost zero correlation between pay and job satisfaction. For example, lawyers earning $160,000 per year are as satisfied with their jobs as nurses making $35,000 per year. However, although money doesn’t satisfy, it still motivates," writes Chamorro-Prezumic. In short, we may be letting money dictate our career decisions to heavily
2. We tend to tolerate bad jobs. "You can put people in meaningless roles and under bad managers, and they will still be reluctant to try something else," says the professor. We tend to fear the unknown outcome of a fresh start over the dissatisfaction with a known present state.
3. We can't anticipate what to expect. Many firms spend a lot of time making their open job opportunities seem appealing and "highly desirable," but sometimes this can act as a camouflage from reality. If we take a job that wasn't presented to us in a true light, it will be tough for us to succeed.

Chamorro-Premuzic says that we all want three main things from our jobs: a sense of competence and mastery, a sense of community or affiliation, and a sense of meaning and purpose. If we can combat our natural tendencies in our decision making, maybe we can choose opportunities that closely align to these ideals. In the end, we'll all choose the path we best feel aligns with our goals and aspirations.