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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Remember, this is not about what's right and wrong or good and bad here. It's about what's right or wrong and good or bad for you. Companies of different sizes and structures possess different characteristics. Your success and satisfaction at work is much enhanced by ensuring that you're working in an environment that gets the most from and gives back the most to you. This short review has been intended to aid you in making the better choice for your own dispositions and long term success.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Remember, this is not about what's right and wrong or good and bad here. It's about what's right or wrong and good or bad for you. Companies of different sizes and structures possess different characteristics. Your success and satisfaction at work is much enhanced by ensuring that you're working in an environment that gets the most from and gives back the most to you. This short review has been intended to aid you in making the better choice for your own dispositions and long term success.
About the Author:
Thomas Ryerson's work at the Best Companies to Work For blog is an invaluable resource for job hunters and career changers. Also, for anyone pondering a leave of absence from work to pursue an MBA, his article "Is Getting an MBA the Right Decision for You" is required reading.
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