2. The Internet is full of advice on how to prepare a resume
and rehearse top interview strategies and so on. This
article is not another contribution to how to land your
dream job. It's about how to know what that dream job
is in the first place. Being adept at landing the job isn't
much of a virtue if you're landing a job at the wrong
firm.
3. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. On the other side of the coin, though, for some people
the large company is the place to be. It provides benefits
and opportunities that are simply unavailable in smaller
businesses. Larger size means more employees, which,
due to scope of management limitations, usually mean
more managerial layers, which means many more rungs
on the executive ladder to be climbed, for superior
compensation and benefits. Increased size also offers
greater opportunities for professional specialization. At
the same time, though, it can provide escape from a
specialization that has grown stale. Lateral moves can
open up new career possibilities without compromising
seniority and tenure.
9. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. Perhaps you thrive most when tasks are clearly
prescribed? Are you stressed when blindsided by
problems which you had no idea were going to be your
responsibility? Are you anxious when given vague
instructions or encounter unclear expectations? If so, no
matter about all the great perks you may have heard
about at some of the flatter structured firms, it's
probably not the place for you. No number of ping-pong
or massages tables will be adequate compensation for a
work life that feels constantly distressed. That's not a
recipe for either satisfaction or success.
15. 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
17. 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.
