WORKING FOR A CORPORATION:
When a great opportunity opens to work for a large firm, you should take it. Especially in this weak economy. Corporations, now and days, will offer you not only a good starting salary, but also benefits such as medical and retirement programs (401K programs, for example.).
One of the benefits that an individual would earn by working for a corporation is knowledge. Many corporations have different systems and ways of managing their business. Because of this, one will be able to learn from the people in these institutions. Larger corporations also have resources to invest in great technological systems that one can learn about and from as well. To continue this knowledge, one will also be able to work with smart people and interact with them daily. One can encounter a lot of diversity and meet difficult people too, but all of this adds to the bigger experience. Nevertheless, you will have the opportunity to escalate to better positions throughout an organization, and because of it, promotions are always open in the corporate world.
On the other hand, working for corporations has its various cons. Depending on your position within an organization, and if you are a key employee with greater responsibilities, you must be prepared physically and mentally to execute your responsibilities and meet your corporations demands. This implies working long hours, busy agendas, and long business travels. It is also inevitable that no matter how social or friendly you are, working for a big corporation with hundreds or thousands of people means that it will be impossible to know everyone involved. This means that, at times, aspects of your job can be affected by someone you never met, i.e., your C.E.O., the head of the legal department, human resources representatives, etc. Additionally, your performance will be measured by the results of the team you get assigned to, and sadly, but certainly, most corporations will recognize a branch by its numbers and percentages as opposed to knowing or recognizing their employees by their name and person-hood. Basically, in a large corporation you become a number and one more statistic. Working for a large corporation can be a very successful career for an individual, but the sacrifices are major, and these sacrifices become even bigger when you have loved ones involved.
STAR-UP COMPANIES:
Personally, I am very excited to talk about working for a small, start-up company because I am apart of one. After many years of working for a large corporation, I took a decision that affected my life and those of my loved ones forever. By working for a company that employs a small number of people, not only will you be able to know everyone by their names, but you will come to care about their lives and stories. Alongside this caring team, you will be able to celebrate every sale and extremely care about the customers that come in and out of your doors. The success of each employee is visible and recognized, therefore one’s actions become that much more significant. As Dean Medly said, “every success you have in a small business is magnified by a hundred. When you land a new account, it’s a big deal.” With this said, working for small companies gives you the opportunity to learn more skills by cross training, and since small companies employ a small number of people to operate their business, it is important that employees learn from each other and their skills. By doing so, employees can maximize their learning and in case of an emergency, vacation and/or sick time, someone else can execute that person’s responsibilities. Lastly, one of the major advantages for working for a small start-up is that one can easily communicate with upper management. Having this advantage assures that an employee can voice their concerns and share ideas that can result in much faster movements. After all, it is great people that make great companies.
However, working for a small company also has its cons and difficulties. For example, small companies typically don’t have extensive benefit packages such as health insurance policies or retirement plans. The reason for this is because most of these small companies are still in their growth stages. To add to this, if an employee fails at their task, that failure will be that much more visible, and, as humans, employees are exposed to making mistakes, but when it happens in a small company those mistakes can probably put profit for a specific account at risk. On top of this, legal and/or human resource departments are most likely not established, so there is no one whose sole job is fielding concerns and complaints. That means that managers need to multitask because there aren’t enough people to cover these different responsibilities. Above all, there is minimum job security when working for small companies, which ultimately means that middle management and less-skilled employees are usually the targets for termination when sales and accounts plummet.
