Friday, April 20, 2007
Small is not beautiful but worthwhile
When a lot of my almost forgotten relatives come home or call up, the only question they have for me is- So son, what do you do now?
On being told that I am doing a job now, their inquiry doesn't stop there. Even before I can complete my next breath, pop, comes the next question- Where? Never the one to hide details or lie, I spurt out the name.
Suddenly the enthusiasm on their faces turns into an expression of sympathy. If I had been asked this same question about three months back, that same face would have turned into a we-are-proud-of-you type manifestation. The truth is that two and half months back I quit my job at a very big firm for a job at a small company. The general perception when an engineering graduate does that, in these days of walk-in-and-get-a-job, is that he has lost his marbles.
In fact during the days leading up to the change-over, many of my near and dear ones and also the people who like to give free unsolicited advice, warned me against what they thought was a preposterous move. But I wasn't going to waiver. I had my reasons not to. My previous job was too uninteresting for me to spend any more time than what I had already done. I thought of it to be too detrimental to my career.
The other day mom asked me- So son, are you happy with your current job? I didn't want to give an answer without actually evaluating the situation. Am I really better off now? Am I really enjoying my present job? If the answer to even one of these questions was a 'no', than the decision to join here, in retrospect, won't be considered a wise one.
Luckily my introspection yielded a 'yes' on both the questions. I feel my decision to join was driven by certain estimations which I now feel, have proved to be nearly 90% correct. I enumerate them below-
1. When doing your first or second job, you are not expected to immediately master the field that you have got into. It is simply not possible. Also at that age very few are aware of field that they want to get into. Unlike large corporations, small organization help you to be a jack of a lot of trades and to then decide which one you want to master.
2. Working in a small firm also means that your good performances are easily brought to the notice of the top management, unlike the big companies where you are one among many and years would pass by before some of the top bosses observe your good work. Small company job also implies that you have a much larger share in the success of the company. So your actions and work speaks louder than what they would if you were one among the 50 thousand odd engineers at an Infosys or a TCS.
3. Small organizations help you deal with haphazardness and develop the processes needed to reign in order. This task though cumbersome, can teach you things that even a management degree can't. In an ICICI or a Wipro, you are put into a pre-existing system, with pre-set rules and you have to just repeatedly emulate them until you reach a stage, many years later, when you become a policy-maker. At a small enterprise you make the rules from day one.
4. For budding entrepreneurs there is no job better than the one at a fast growing SME- small medium enterprise. The things that you learn in little time about operations, marketing, sales, etc and which would have otherwise taken you ages to learn and master, at bigger companies, prove to be invaluable when you decide to start-up.
The above list is far from being complete and there could be many more pluses which I may discover later. Also it is not always necessary that the advantages of a small firm job will outweigh the advantages of a job at a larger firm. But after having experienced both of them, I can certainly lend my perspective to people struggling with which-job-to-take-up enigma.
On being told that I am doing a job now, their inquiry doesn't stop there. Even before I can complete my next breath, pop, comes the next question- Where? Never the one to hide details or lie, I spurt out the name.
Suddenly the enthusiasm on their faces turns into an expression of sympathy. If I had been asked this same question about three months back, that same face would have turned into a we-are-proud-of-you type manifestation. The truth is that two and half months back I quit my job at a very big firm for a job at a small company. The general perception when an engineering graduate does that, in these days of walk-in-and-get-a-job, is that he has lost his marbles.
In fact during the days leading up to the change-over, many of my near and dear ones and also the people who like to give free unsolicited advice, warned me against what they thought was a preposterous move. But I wasn't going to waiver. I had my reasons not to. My previous job was too uninteresting for me to spend any more time than what I had already done. I thought of it to be too detrimental to my career.
The other day mom asked me- So son, are you happy with your current job? I didn't want to give an answer without actually evaluating the situation. Am I really better off now? Am I really enjoying my present job? If the answer to even one of these questions was a 'no', than the decision to join here, in retrospect, won't be considered a wise one.
Luckily my introspection yielded a 'yes' on both the questions. I feel my decision to join was driven by certain estimations which I now feel, have proved to be nearly 90% correct. I enumerate them below-
1. When doing your first or second job, you are not expected to immediately master the field that you have got into. It is simply not possible. Also at that age very few are aware of field that they want to get into. Unlike large corporations, small organization help you to be a jack of a lot of trades and to then decide which one you want to master.
2. Working in a small firm also means that your good performances are easily brought to the notice of the top management, unlike the big companies where you are one among many and years would pass by before some of the top bosses observe your good work. Small company job also implies that you have a much larger share in the success of the company. So your actions and work speaks louder than what they would if you were one among the 50 thousand odd engineers at an Infosys or a TCS.
3. Small organizations help you deal with haphazardness and develop the processes needed to reign in order. This task though cumbersome, can teach you things that even a management degree can't. In an ICICI or a Wipro, you are put into a pre-existing system, with pre-set rules and you have to just repeatedly emulate them until you reach a stage, many years later, when you become a policy-maker. At a small enterprise you make the rules from day one.
4. For budding entrepreneurs there is no job better than the one at a fast growing SME- small medium enterprise. The things that you learn in little time about operations, marketing, sales, etc and which would have otherwise taken you ages to learn and master, at bigger companies, prove to be invaluable when you decide to start-up.
The above list is far from being complete and there could be many more pluses which I may discover later. Also it is not always necessary that the advantages of a small firm job will outweigh the advantages of a job at a larger firm. But after having experienced both of them, I can certainly lend my perspective to people struggling with which-job-to-take-up enigma.
Comments:
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Hi Amit,
I totally agree with you here. My ex-boss used to always say that it's better to be a big fish in a small pond rather than a small fish in a big pond!
Cheers,
Hetal
I totally agree with you here. My ex-boss used to always say that it's better to be a big fish in a small pond rather than a small fish in a big pond!
Cheers,
Hetal
Hi Amit,
You have just told my story. This is what exactly happened to me. Thanks for the post. I totally agree with you.
Regards,
Suman.
You have just told my story. This is what exactly happened to me. Thanks for the post. I totally agree with you.
Regards,
Suman.
I totally agree with you. One more thing that I experienced joining a smaller firm is that you bond with your co-workers much more and its more family like environment that you operate in.
Amit,
Totally agree with you as I strongly believe the same. But, since I do like to discuss the pros and cons just want to put the comparison of joining a bigger firm w.r.t the same points as you mentioned for small enterprises.
1. Yes you can get noticed inside the small company easily, but then you would not want to be with the same company forever. So while hopping, a good achievement in small place could loose its sheen while competing with an average achievement in a bigger company.
2. Yes you could get to make the process and policy from day1 but then at a real young age it is really not the best thing to kickstart that way. It would become a case of learning only by committing mistakes. having worked with an established company you could learn the finer naunces of their processes which made them so big. So this would be a case of learning by others mistakes and then getting into process formation. Ofcourse if one really wants to be into process formation(I am one of those) then one will have to be quick to learn and move on instead hanging on for years and years in the name of learning.
3. It does becomes easier to move as a small fish from big pond to big fish in a small pond due to the brand name that you may carry of the big pond and possible your valuable insights from the specialities the big company had but it is a little difficult to do the viceversa.
But I do agree it is more selfsatisfying to be a part of the action grooup in a small company than being a viewer in a bigger company.
Totally agree with you as I strongly believe the same. But, since I do like to discuss the pros and cons just want to put the comparison of joining a bigger firm w.r.t the same points as you mentioned for small enterprises.
1. Yes you can get noticed inside the small company easily, but then you would not want to be with the same company forever. So while hopping, a good achievement in small place could loose its sheen while competing with an average achievement in a bigger company.
2. Yes you could get to make the process and policy from day1 but then at a real young age it is really not the best thing to kickstart that way. It would become a case of learning only by committing mistakes. having worked with an established company you could learn the finer naunces of their processes which made them so big. So this would be a case of learning by others mistakes and then getting into process formation. Ofcourse if one really wants to be into process formation(I am one of those) then one will have to be quick to learn and move on instead hanging on for years and years in the name of learning.
3. It does becomes easier to move as a small fish from big pond to big fish in a small pond due to the brand name that you may carry of the big pond and possible your valuable insights from the specialities the big company had but it is a little difficult to do the viceversa.
But I do agree it is more selfsatisfying to be a part of the action grooup in a small company than being a viewer in a bigger company.
its gud to be a ONE in hundreds insted of ONE among thousnds.as far as my case i love to create more value.i love to give more ROI.whan you are in Big leage,your contributions will generally lesser in value at the lower levels and Higher at the senior levels.
At small place your every contribution has a gr8 value.your ROI at small firm is greater than that of in the big league
At small place your every contribution has a gr8 value.your ROI at small firm is greater than that of in the big league
I totally agree with your point of view. I feel SME are the best organizations to start off for any fresher..
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