Are Small Companies More Fun?

 

Dear Liz,
I love your advice! I am the president of our marketing club on campus, and we all read your columns. I have a question for you as I get ready to graduate in the spring.
I was an intern at a public accounting firm last summer. It was great experience to work in an office for three months, but I would never want to work for that company as a full-time employee. There were only two people in the office who talked to me, all summer long. It was a pretty dreary place. I don’t know how I could learn anything or grow my flame in a place like that.
Now that I’m targeting specific employers to reach out to with Pain Letters, I am curious: do you think small companies and start-ups are more fun than bigger ones? I don’t mind dressing in business attire for work. What I worry about is the reputation that big companies have.
It seems like a lot of them are stiff and bureaucratic, not the Human Workplaces you write about. I would die if my first job was in a place where the people weren’t friendly and supportive.





















I’ve had such a great experience on campus for four years and I’d rather wait tables or be a nanny than work in a place where employees are treated like cattle. Do you think I should focus my search on small organizations, and if so, how small?
Thanks a million!
Your,
Mikaela

Dear Mikaela,
Congratulations on your approaching graduation! That’s magnificent. You’ve asked a wonderful question.
The element that you’re going to focus on as you meet with employers is culture. Culture is the feeling you get when you walk into an office or any kind of workplace. Culture has to do with the energy in the place — how people talk to one another, how they laugh and joke together (or don’t) and how people get things done.
Culture is by far the most important element in any organization, whether you’re an investor deciding whether or not to put money into the company or a new college grad looking for a job, like you. If the culture is broken, nothing else matters. A great strategy won’t have a chance in a workplace with a dark culture.
Lots of startup organizations are freewheeling and casual, but that doesn’t make them Human Workplaces. A company is a Human Workplace if the trust level is high. In a Godzilla workplace, there’s little trust and a lot of fear. People are afraid to speak their truth at work.
They’re very keenly attuned to their managers’ whims and wishes. They bite their lip rather than say the wrong thing, which might be exactly the right thing to say, but nevertheless they don’t say it!
You could never grow your flame in a place like that, and like you said, you deserve to work among people who get you!

Small companies and startups fall victim to Godzilla just as easily as big companies do. I could regale you with awful stories about the toxic and fear-driven startups I’ve seen. Sometimes the founder is delusional, with megalomaniac tendencies.
Sometimes the founder and the executive team are great people who can’t deal with the withering glare of imperious vcs who micro-manage them to death.
If you walk around an office and you see a bottle of Tums on every desk, that’s a bad sign.
I encourage you not to use broad-brush attributes like the size of a company to decide whether it’s the right place for you. When you walked onto your campus, I’ll bet you felt good. That’s what most kids say about their college choice. Other schools you may have visited just didn’t feel right.
You’re going to feel that same, this-is-the-place feeling when you walk into the company that deserves you, Mikaela.
Right now you might be thinking “But I have to know which companies to target TGT +1.8%, long before I ever step in the door!” You can target companies whose products you like to use. Choose some organizations because they’re socially responsible, no matter what product or service they provide, and put those companies on your target list, too.
The product might be really boring, but if the culture is great, it could be the most amazing job a new grad has ever had.
I worked for a modem company starting when I was not much older than you. When I took that job, I didn’t know a modem from a frying pan. I asked my brother, a software engineer, for advice. “Go work for them!” he said, and I did. I got excited about modems, because although they were modems, they could have been anything.

It was the people that made that company a great place to work.
Cast your net widely, Mikaela. Apply to large and small companies and any organization you’d like to know more about. Don’t be stingy sending out your Pain Letters! The more interviews you experience, the more confident you’ll be. Your interviews will get easier and easier. If you don’t get scooped up right away, don’t be discouraged.
You have something amazing to offer employers. The ones who can’t see it will miss out. Too bad for them!
There are pockets of awesomeness in every large organization. There are fantastic employers in every industry. Go and explore, and wait for the right match! Remember that only the people who get you, deserve you, and hats off to you for stepping into your new chapter!
Best,
Liz