The point of this article is not to provide guidance on how to get a job at your preferred employer. There's plenty of that kind of advice and courses widely available, online and elsewhere. Instead, the purpose of this article is to get into the weeds on figuring out how you know what is (or should be) that preferred employer.
Whatever aptitudes, skills and work history you have is what it is. How you choose to market it is how you choose to do so. My question is, are you choosing to market yourself to the right companies? Elsewhere, I've give my list of the most elite of the best companies to work for . Knowing that though won't solve for you the question of the right fit.
Size Matters
If you're not considering size as a variable to vet potential employers, you may be making a big mistake. It can make a big difference to both the satisfaction of your work experience and your capacity to succeed at your work.
Are you more suited to working at a smaller firm? It usually has a much more hands-on focus. The working relationships you'll form will likely be much closer, almost family-like (which has two sides to it). This is not only opportunity for a close familiarity with your colleagues; you could actually know everyone with whom you work. This is a distinct work environment. An additional benefit, in the minds of many, is the chance to see the immediate payoff for your work and effort. This is something that large, impersonal firms usually can't provide -- certainly not to the same degree and in the same manner.
Though larger firms strive, and often succeed, in creating a team atmosphere within departments and divisions, the truth is that your team's success is ultimately always dependent upon the accomplishments of some other teams beyond your control and outside your shared group identity. At a small firm, the successes and the challenges are all much more immediate and tangible.
However, large firms have benefits that just are not available in smaller businesses. Being larger, there is much more room for advance up the organizational ladder into greater and greater levels of responsibility and personal accomplishment. The size of such firms will provide as well far more opportunities for specialization. At the same time, organizational diversity also allows for lateral moves to change one's specialization, opening new career vistas without sacrificing seniority and tenure.
And if you have any of the adventurer's spirit in you, nowadays it is common for very large companies to be involved in geographically dispersed business. Working at such a firm may offer the chance to travel and even to live in excitingly difference cultures and societies. This can be a once in a lifetime opportunity for your children to experience the world. It is common for such firms to provide language training, schooling and other forms of family support should you make such a move for the company. And of course let us not forget the bottom line: usually larger companies can provide larger salaries and almost always more extensive and valuable perks and benefits.
Structure Matters
As important as size can be in your decision upon which employers to target, don't neglect to consider the role of structure. It can be equally as important in its affects upon your work experience. There's a spectrum, here, where one end has more regimented companies, with exact and firm hierarchy, job descriptions and chain of responsibility and reporting.
At the other end are companies, such as the video game producer Valve, who embody fluid, adaptive working relationships. These firms are rooted in the dynamism of employee initiative and innovation. Indeed, some of them, like Valve, don't even have chain of command hierarchy. Instead they are premised upon the entrepreneurial spirit of their associates, lateral operational adaptation and an ethos of collegial mutual accountability.
Don't be misled into passing moral judgments on those attracted to one form of structure or the other. The reason that both exist is because different people thrive better in different environments. You have to figure out which is right for you.
Do you thrive best when your tasks are clearly delineated? Do you dislike being sideswiped by problems which you had no idea would be part of your responsibility? Do you feel anxious at the prospect of vague instructions or unclear expectations? Though the more open ended, horizontally structured firms may sound appealing, with their campus like lifestyle, if you answered yes to those questions, you may find such work environments too stressful. All the basketball courts and massages in the world aren't going to make your work life satisfying or successful if you're in a state of constant distress or aggravation.
The inverse set of considerations, though, are equally true: those who feel inhibited by authority, inspired by new challenges and revel in the roughshod work world of endless improvisation are not going to thrive in a button down firm of clearly delineated and firmly enforced processes and responsibilities. The increased security and stability that they may offer, likely isn't worth the price of the organizationally conservative culture. Such people will find their satisfaction and greatest success in the more fluid, flat structured organization, where they will be provoked into creative spontaneity adaptation. These are the companies most likely to encourage and reward such people's boundary defying style of intellectual curiosity.
To reiterate, this is not about right and wrong or good and bad. It's about what works and what doesn't. Different kinds of companies embody different styles and cultures, which are largely a function of their size and structure. Success and satisfaction from your work life rides upon a smart and pragmatic assessment of which set of business practices best complement your own personal dispositions. Hopefully this brief overview helps you better assess what choices of company to work for will offer you the most rewarding work experience.
Whatever aptitudes, skills and work history you have is what it is. How you choose to market it is how you choose to do so. My question is, are you choosing to market yourself to the right companies? Elsewhere, I've give my list of the most elite of the best companies to work for . Knowing that though won't solve for you the question of the right fit.
Size Matters
If you're not considering size as a variable to vet potential employers, you may be making a big mistake. It can make a big difference to both the satisfaction of your work experience and your capacity to succeed at your work.
Are you more suited to working at a smaller firm? It usually has a much more hands-on focus. The working relationships you'll form will likely be much closer, almost family-like (which has two sides to it). This is not only opportunity for a close familiarity with your colleagues; you could actually know everyone with whom you work. This is a distinct work environment. An additional benefit, in the minds of many, is the chance to see the immediate payoff for your work and effort. This is something that large, impersonal firms usually can't provide -- certainly not to the same degree and in the same manner.
Though larger firms strive, and often succeed, in creating a team atmosphere within departments and divisions, the truth is that your team's success is ultimately always dependent upon the accomplishments of some other teams beyond your control and outside your shared group identity. At a small firm, the successes and the challenges are all much more immediate and tangible.
However, large firms have benefits that just are not available in smaller businesses. Being larger, there is much more room for advance up the organizational ladder into greater and greater levels of responsibility and personal accomplishment. The size of such firms will provide as well far more opportunities for specialization. At the same time, organizational diversity also allows for lateral moves to change one's specialization, opening new career vistas without sacrificing seniority and tenure.
And if you have any of the adventurer's spirit in you, nowadays it is common for very large companies to be involved in geographically dispersed business. Working at such a firm may offer the chance to travel and even to live in excitingly difference cultures and societies. This can be a once in a lifetime opportunity for your children to experience the world. It is common for such firms to provide language training, schooling and other forms of family support should you make such a move for the company. And of course let us not forget the bottom line: usually larger companies can provide larger salaries and almost always more extensive and valuable perks and benefits.
Structure Matters
As important as size can be in your decision upon which employers to target, don't neglect to consider the role of structure. It can be equally as important in its affects upon your work experience. There's a spectrum, here, where one end has more regimented companies, with exact and firm hierarchy, job descriptions and chain of responsibility and reporting.
At the other end are companies, such as the video game producer Valve, who embody fluid, adaptive working relationships. These firms are rooted in the dynamism of employee initiative and innovation. Indeed, some of them, like Valve, don't even have chain of command hierarchy. Instead they are premised upon the entrepreneurial spirit of their associates, lateral operational adaptation and an ethos of collegial mutual accountability.
Don't be misled into passing moral judgments on those attracted to one form of structure or the other. The reason that both exist is because different people thrive better in different environments. You have to figure out which is right for you.
Do you thrive best when your tasks are clearly delineated? Do you dislike being sideswiped by problems which you had no idea would be part of your responsibility? Do you feel anxious at the prospect of vague instructions or unclear expectations? Though the more open ended, horizontally structured firms may sound appealing, with their campus like lifestyle, if you answered yes to those questions, you may find such work environments too stressful. All the basketball courts and massages in the world aren't going to make your work life satisfying or successful if you're in a state of constant distress or aggravation.
The inverse set of considerations, though, are equally true: those who feel inhibited by authority, inspired by new challenges and revel in the roughshod work world of endless improvisation are not going to thrive in a button down firm of clearly delineated and firmly enforced processes and responsibilities. The increased security and stability that they may offer, likely isn't worth the price of the organizationally conservative culture. Such people will find their satisfaction and greatest success in the more fluid, flat structured organization, where they will be provoked into creative spontaneity adaptation. These are the companies most likely to encourage and reward such people's boundary defying style of intellectual curiosity.
To reiterate, this is not about right and wrong or good and bad. It's about what works and what doesn't. Different kinds of companies embody different styles and cultures, which are largely a function of their size and structure. Success and satisfaction from your work life rides upon a smart and pragmatic assessment of which set of business practices best complement your own personal dispositions. Hopefully this brief overview helps you better assess what choices of company to work for will offer you the most rewarding work experience.
About the Author:
Thomas Ryerson's work at the Best Companies to Work For blog is a tremendous resource for job hunters and career changers. Also, for anyone pondering a leave from work to pursue an MBA, his piece "Is Getting an MBA the Right Decision for You" is required reading.
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