Benjamin Todd

Research shows that perhaps the most important factor is whether you can get help from your colleagues when you run into problems.

A major meta-analysis found social support was among the top predictors of job satisfaction, R equals 0.56.

People who are disagreeable and different from you can be the people who'll give you the most useful feedback, provided they care about your interests.

This is because they'll tell it like it is and have a different perspective.

Professor Adam Grant calls these people disagreeable givers.

When we think of dream jobs, we usually focus on the role.

But who you work with is almost as important.

A bad boss can ruin a dream position, while even boring work can be fun if done with a friend.

So when selecting a job, will you be able to make friends with some people in the workplace?

And more importantly, does the culture of the workplace make it easy to get help, get feedback, and work together?

5.

Work that doesn't have major negatives

To be satisfied, everything above is important.

But you also need the absence of things that make work unpleasant.

All the following tend to be linked to job dissatisfaction.

A long commute, especially if it's over an hour by bus.

Very long hours.

Pay you feel is unfair.

And job insecurity.

Although these sound obvious, people often overlook them.