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.
Sure you have to have a solid grasp on your aptitudes and skills. That purely functional approach though could leave you in an unhappy place. Elsewhere, I've listed the elite of the best companies to work for . Anyone can do that, you have to figure out what's the best company for you to work at, based on your own disposition, preferences and compatibility.
Size Matters
Whether or not you've previously weighed it as a consideration, company size does make a big difference in both the quality of your work experience and the standard of success implicit in your employment.
First, consider the virtues of small companies, with fewer employees there are few layers of organization, which means the opportunity for a more immediate encounter with customers, suppliers and collaborators. As well, you'll be able to have much closer personal working relationships with your peers. This is a distinctive work experience; the feeling of family can be quite palpable. An additional benefit, very valuable to many people, is the opportunity to directly enjoy the fruits of your labor. The consequences of your work are experienced in a way not available within big, impersonal businesses.
It is certainly true that big companies aspire to compensate for this cost of scale by attempting to cultivate a team spirit in their various departments and divisions Sometimes there is notable success in these efforts. However, in such a context, your team's accomplishments will always be conditional upon those of other departments and divisions, over whose work and efforts you and your team have no influence. So, even the best intended efforts at such scaled team building can never really capture the immediate and tangible experience of gratification from meeting challenges and achieving success experienced from work at a small company.
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.
Another benefit of large firms, especially for those with a little of the explorer in them, is the opportunity for travel and residence abroad. So many large companies now are geographically dispersed in their operations that there are frequent opportunities for you and your family to experience life in a very difficult culture. This is the learning experience of a lifetime for your kids. And most large firms provide a wide range of support services for the family of relocating employees, including language training, schooling and orientation counselling. And of course we mustn't forget the bottom line. In general, large companies provide richer salaries and better benefits.
Structure Matters
In addition to the size of a potential employer, it is important to take into consideration its structure and how that will affect your own work experience. At one extreme end of the spectrum are highly regimented, hierarchical firms, with precisely delineated job descriptions and chain of command.
The other end of the spectrum has very differently structured companies, such as the video game producer Valve. These are businesses conceived as fluid, adaptive association arrangements. Their success depends upon very high levels of employee enterprise and innovation. Indeed, in some of these firms, such as Valve, there is no chain of command hierarchy. Initiative and responsibility are generated from within a culture of collegial collaboration, supervision and accountability.
Sometimes those who feel a more natural fit with one structure or style than another are prone to dismissive moral judgments on those attracted to the other kind. Aside of the obvious vanity in such judgments, they reveal a short-sightedness about the virtues of organizational diversity. Such different business methods exist precisely because different strokes suit different folks. The point isn't to denigrate those different than you, but to figure where in that tapestry of possibility you will fit most productively and comfortably.
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.
Likewise, if you're a person who gets claustrophobic in the face of authority or if strictly delineated job descriptions cramp your love for the excitement of work place improvisation and adaptation, no amount of security and stability from traditional, hierarchical firms is going to compensate for the feelings of choked creativity and spontaneity that you'll likely experience trying to work there. You need a fluid, flat structured work situation to provoke and support your boundary transgressing intellectual curiosity.
Again, there's no right and wrong or good and bad here. There's only what works for you. The different kinds of companies possess different qualities. Your work success and satisfaction depends upon a thoughtful and realistic alignment of those qualities with your own dispositions. Hopefully this quick review has given you food for thought that will pay off in a more rewarding work experience.
Sure you have to have a solid grasp on your aptitudes and skills. That purely functional approach though could leave you in an unhappy place. Elsewhere, I've listed the elite of the best companies to work for . Anyone can do that, you have to figure out what's the best company for you to work at, based on your own disposition, preferences and compatibility.
Size Matters
Whether or not you've previously weighed it as a consideration, company size does make a big difference in both the quality of your work experience and the standard of success implicit in your employment.
First, consider the virtues of small companies, with fewer employees there are few layers of organization, which means the opportunity for a more immediate encounter with customers, suppliers and collaborators. As well, you'll be able to have much closer personal working relationships with your peers. This is a distinctive work experience; the feeling of family can be quite palpable. An additional benefit, very valuable to many people, is the opportunity to directly enjoy the fruits of your labor. The consequences of your work are experienced in a way not available within big, impersonal businesses.
It is certainly true that big companies aspire to compensate for this cost of scale by attempting to cultivate a team spirit in their various departments and divisions Sometimes there is notable success in these efforts. However, in such a context, your team's accomplishments will always be conditional upon those of other departments and divisions, over whose work and efforts you and your team have no influence. So, even the best intended efforts at such scaled team building can never really capture the immediate and tangible experience of gratification from meeting challenges and achieving success experienced from work at a small company.
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.
Another benefit of large firms, especially for those with a little of the explorer in them, is the opportunity for travel and residence abroad. So many large companies now are geographically dispersed in their operations that there are frequent opportunities for you and your family to experience life in a very difficult culture. This is the learning experience of a lifetime for your kids. And most large firms provide a wide range of support services for the family of relocating employees, including language training, schooling and orientation counselling. And of course we mustn't forget the bottom line. In general, large companies provide richer salaries and better benefits.
Structure Matters
In addition to the size of a potential employer, it is important to take into consideration its structure and how that will affect your own work experience. At one extreme end of the spectrum are highly regimented, hierarchical firms, with precisely delineated job descriptions and chain of command.
The other end of the spectrum has very differently structured companies, such as the video game producer Valve. These are businesses conceived as fluid, adaptive association arrangements. Their success depends upon very high levels of employee enterprise and innovation. Indeed, in some of these firms, such as Valve, there is no chain of command hierarchy. Initiative and responsibility are generated from within a culture of collegial collaboration, supervision and accountability.
Sometimes those who feel a more natural fit with one structure or style than another are prone to dismissive moral judgments on those attracted to the other kind. Aside of the obvious vanity in such judgments, they reveal a short-sightedness about the virtues of organizational diversity. Such different business methods exist precisely because different strokes suit different folks. The point isn't to denigrate those different than you, but to figure where in that tapestry of possibility you will fit most productively and comfortably.
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.
Likewise, if you're a person who gets claustrophobic in the face of authority or if strictly delineated job descriptions cramp your love for the excitement of work place improvisation and adaptation, no amount of security and stability from traditional, hierarchical firms is going to compensate for the feelings of choked creativity and spontaneity that you'll likely experience trying to work there. You need a fluid, flat structured work situation to provoke and support your boundary transgressing intellectual curiosity.
Again, there's no right and wrong or good and bad here. There's only what works for you. The different kinds of companies possess different qualities. Your work success and satisfaction depends upon a thoughtful and realistic alignment of those qualities with your own dispositions. Hopefully this quick review has given you food for thought that will pay off in a more rewarding work experience.
About the Author:
Thomas Ryerson's writing at the Best Companies to Work For blog is a tremendous resource for job seekers and career changers. Also, for anyone considering a leave of absence from work to undertake an MBA, his piece "Is Getting an MBA the Right Decision for You" is a must read.
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