When the “System” Breaks Down, Pt.III

(Cont’d)

So how does any of this relate to you and your efforts? For starters spare yourself a lot of frustration and don’t limit your focus on the usual behemoth corporations, those known not by their names but by acronym. I talk to them, but they are not on my A list, nor should they be on yours – in my humble opinion. I’ll work with them if they call or are recommended to me but I think their bureaucratic structure is self-defeating. It is not a stretch to say the bigger the company the more dysfunctional the human resource function. Furthermore big corporate structures always stifle creativity and innovation, individuality is discouraged, generally speaking. With the exception of very specialized roles they are not filling jobs, just vacancies and you’re just a number to them, not a person but an expendable commodity. Likewise, isn’t it obvious the last few years that BIG no longer means increased job security? When stock prices drop, in order to keep shareholders at bay they’ll whack a bunch of jobs without a thought of how it affects the people they’ve ditched. As for big company benefits, it’s not as it used to be and may never be again.  

Perhaps, do what I do, that is, seek more nimble companies who are ambitious, organizations that are hungry, growth oriented and are looking for the best available talent within their market sector. If you, too, are ambitious isn’t that a better fit? They’re out there but you’ve got to do your research. They might be tomorrow’s big companies and would like to be but they aren’t there yet. They offer no more or less job security compared with the big places. Who knows, you might even feel as if you are really a part of something, imagine that. I’m not down on big companies but I am not a fan of what they become when they get big, I suppose it is a natural thing to happen. In a kind of Atlas Shrugged thematic, perhaps if enough key and productive people turned their backs on big corporations and went away elsewhere, where they can ply there talents and ambition, they might realize the need to again treat people like, well, people. Nah, what am I thinking! That would never happen, or is it? Some of the best and most talented professionals I know increasingly tell me they want nothing to do with BIG companies. 

Until trends change, and they always do, remind yourself and repeat after me, “I am not just a user name, password or IP address, I am a person, I am a free and thinking individual, I have my own goals and my own dreams, I am…” 

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