Posts
This article's objective is not the usual advice on getting your dream job. The Internet is loaded with ideas on how to do that. Rather, my goal is to emphasis to you how to identify that dream job, in the first place.
You have the skills and experience that you have and effective marketing of them is up to you. But how to go about that is in fact the secondary question after knowing who your target market is. We can, and have, provided a list of the elite of the best companies to work for , but that list offers no tailoring to your own unique disposition, preferences and compatibility.
Size Matters
Job seekers and career changers don't always take account of company size, but they really should. It can make a major difference in success and satisfaction of your work experience.
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.
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.
On the other hand, big companies offer advantages which the smaller ones simply cannot provide. Their greater size embodies more opportunity for organizational advancement, up the executive ladder, with all the benefits of increased responsibility, challenge and salary. Most large firms also offer options for more intensive specialization, should that be your preference. Yet, the same operational diversity of the large firm also allows you a better option to get out of a specialization which has grown stale for you, providing the option for lateral movement within the firm. This opens new career paths that don't cost you established seniority and tenure through changing employers.
As many large companies have geographically dispersed operations, they present the opportunity to travel and live in exotic locations, making your work a cultural adventure as well as a business one. Though there are certainly exceptions, generally, larger firms will be able to provide richer compensation and almost always will be able to provide better perks and benefits.
Structure Matters
Size of a firm though isn't the only thing that matters; you should be giving consideration to the organizational structure of a firm for whom you're considering working. How will your personal disposition fit with the structural operations of a given work experience? It can have a big impact on our success and satisfaction at work The extremes go from the regimented, tightly rule bound, hierarchy that prides itself on the precision of job description and responsibility, along with a rigorously practiced chain of command, at one end of the spectrum.
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.
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? If that's a fair description of how you function at work, you're not going to thrive in the more fluid environment of the flatter hierarchies. You'd likely only find those work environments to be stressful. No number of basketball courts and massages are going to compensate for working in an environment in which you are unable to feel satisfied or successful.
On the other hand, if you feel suffocated by authority, are constantly seeking new challenges and love the thrill of relentlessly demanding work place improvisation, notwithstanding the security and stability that the more traditional, hierarchical firms often provide, you'd likely find the organizationally conservative culture to be claustrophobic. You need to be in a more fluid, flat structured work environment that provokes your creative spontaneity and encourages your 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.
You have the skills and experience that you have and effective marketing of them is up to you. But how to go about that is in fact the secondary question after knowing who your target market is. We can, and have, provided a list of the elite of the best companies to work for , but that list offers no tailoring to your own unique disposition, preferences and compatibility.
Size Matters
Job seekers and career changers don't always take account of company size, but they really should. It can make a major difference in success and satisfaction of your work experience.
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.
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.
On the other hand, big companies offer advantages which the smaller ones simply cannot provide. Their greater size embodies more opportunity for organizational advancement, up the executive ladder, with all the benefits of increased responsibility, challenge and salary. Most large firms also offer options for more intensive specialization, should that be your preference. Yet, the same operational diversity of the large firm also allows you a better option to get out of a specialization which has grown stale for you, providing the option for lateral movement within the firm. This opens new career paths that don't cost you established seniority and tenure through changing employers.
As many large companies have geographically dispersed operations, they present the opportunity to travel and live in exotic locations, making your work a cultural adventure as well as a business one. Though there are certainly exceptions, generally, larger firms will be able to provide richer compensation and almost always will be able to provide better perks and benefits.
Structure Matters
Size of a firm though isn't the only thing that matters; you should be giving consideration to the organizational structure of a firm for whom you're considering working. How will your personal disposition fit with the structural operations of a given work experience? It can have a big impact on our success and satisfaction at work The extremes go from the regimented, tightly rule bound, hierarchy that prides itself on the precision of job description and responsibility, along with a rigorously practiced chain of command, at one end of the spectrum.
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.
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? If that's a fair description of how you function at work, you're not going to thrive in the more fluid environment of the flatter hierarchies. You'd likely only find those work environments to be stressful. No number of basketball courts and massages are going to compensate for working in an environment in which you are unable to feel satisfied or successful.
On the other hand, if you feel suffocated by authority, are constantly seeking new challenges and love the thrill of relentlessly demanding work place improvisation, notwithstanding the security and stability that the more traditional, hierarchical firms often provide, you'd likely find the organizationally conservative culture to be claustrophobic. You need to be in a more fluid, flat structured work environment that provokes your creative spontaneity and encourages your 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 work at the Best Companies to Work For blog is a tremendous resource for job hunters and career changers. Also, for those pondering a leave of absence from work to undertake an MBA, his piece "Is Getting an MBA the Right Decision for You" is required reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment