All that Doesn’t Glitter Might be Gold
As I mentioned in my introductory post, I recently transferred from a large corporation to a small company with less than 40 employees. I knew that my transition would be challenging because I was use to a dysfunctional, often hectic, and large corporate machine. Down shifting to a small but larger than a startup company was something that I was unsure of but knew I didn’t want the corporate monster anymore. I have often read that some workers have trouble transitioning from a large company to a smaller company and vice versa. I wondered if I would have those same problems, but surprisingly, I have made the adjustment better than I realized.
I’m going to provide a description of how different my working environments are and why all that doesn’t have the “glitter” might actually be gold. To make this easy, I will refer to the large corporation as Brand A and the small company I now work for as Brand B.
Working Environment
Brand A is in a nice area of town where the more upscale residents of my city live. There are several different buildings with a campus that can hold (approximately) 500 people. The grounds look like something out of a postcard, and on the surface, it looks like a “smart” place to work. Like many tech companies, it has mazes of cube farms on each floor. While it’s difficult to maintain any semblance of privacy in a cube, Brand A does an OK job of providing the allusion of privacy with large cubicle walls. There is also a feeling of “newness” to the equipment: office phones, PCs, printers, etc.
Brand B is downtown and consists of one floor in a building that it shares with other corporations. It might be able to squeeze in 75 workers and that’s pushing the limit. Inside, it’s not as “smart” as Brand A. The cubicles don’t offer much privacy and are more “open” for people to communicate with each other. Of course, this has its benefits but also has its drawbacks. Brand B looks like it has purchased some items from Craigslist, and much of the furniture looks lived in. I have even spotted some very old Optiplex Dells (the egg-shell colored ones) in cubes. It’s obvious they stretch equipment life for as long as they can.
People
Brand A has some smart and good people working for them. Some of those people probably even love their jobs; however, the way Brand A treats good workers has a definite impact. Rewards are far and few between. There are no employee bonuses, and as for raises, well, those are a joke. You can have an outstanding employee evaluation, but speaking from personal experience, your pay does not reflect your outstanding work ethic. Some of the good workers take the low pay or raises because they have no choice based on the type of work they do; however, Brand A’s practice of not rewarding good workers leads to an exodus of some of the smart minds and good talent. This, of course, leads to a mad rush to fill a vacant position, and instead of being selective about who they hire, Brand A hires a “warm body” who is not as good in terms of their skill sets. In other words, they don’t always hire the best candidate for the job because they are focused on quickly filling the position. In the end, it always costs Brand A because that worker doesn’t work out, but they just don’t seem to learn their lessons because they often repeat the same hiring mistakes.
Brand B, on the other hand, is the first company that I’ve worked for who is concerned about your attitude and your skill sets. The hiring managers interviewed all of my references and asked in-depth behavioral questions. That made me aware that they were definitely concerned about how I would fit in with the team attitude wise and weren’t just looking at my experience and skill sets on my resume. Like Brand A, Brand B has some smart and talented workers, but there is one big difference: the team I work with at Brand B actually cares about doing a good job for the client. Oh, I’m not saying that everyone at Brand A didn’t care about providing good services to the client, but a large number of people I worked with often checked their customer service skills at the door. Also, speaking from my own experience, Brand B did not blink an eyelash when I asked for the salary I felt I deserved. Not only that, but they gave it to me with an incentive to raise my pay higher if I perform well. Brand A expected me to do the job I was doing and some other job(s) to get the pay I deserved.
Revenue
Brand A is a Fortune 500 company, so their annual revenue was well into the millions. The clients and contracts they went after were/are huge and varied in the type of services Brand A provided. When I first started, my eyes use to widen over the amount of money they made each year, but over time, I grew use to double/triple digit millions. Naturally, the employees never saw any of the benefits from the money Brand A made. I suspect much of those millions went into the CEO’s already bulging pockets.
From what I’ve seen thus far, Brand B’s revenues are a lot smaller. They have a niche business model and aren’t trying to expand beyond what they’re well at. Believe it or not, staying niche can actually can be a good thing. Despite smaller revenues, they can afford to pay nicer salaries than Brand A for the employees and hire contractors for work when necessary. They share some of the wealth with the people who helps provide the IT services they deliver. We can even get bonuses!
The moral to the story is simple: Just because a company has all of its polish on the outside doesn’t mean it’s the right place for you. You might end up with a pot of lead working at a company like Brand A instead of gold at a company like Brand B. Take it from someone who has been there and done that.