Choosing the right company to work for: A brief guide for the perplexed

Most of us are never going to work at a Google or a Goldman Sachs. Just getting a job at a place like that is really hard, and plenty of people don’t even aspire to work in these types of companies.

It’s important to remember that big superstar companies are not the only option for a viable career in the modern economy. What is essential is not that you necessarily end up at one of those mega-firms, but that you understand what type of company you’re in — and adjust how you think of your time there accordingly.

I tend to think of companies in three buckets. There are the winners, the superstar firms that are large, well-managed, and technologically advanced. There are the aspirants, smaller companies that aim to either topple the winners from their perch or, more commonly, be acquired by one. And there are the afterthoughts, companies that have faded from prominence or are struggling in some way, but may have some hidden strengths nonetheless.

It can be good for your career to work in any of these three types of companies; what is crucial is to have correct expectations.

It’s a lot like investing. The winner companies are the equivalent of growth stocks — successful companies expected to remain successful far into the future. The aspirants are like venture capital investing — risky, but with lots of upside. The afterthoughts are like value stocks — companies that may not be thriving but which, as a result, are often undervalued by the market.

With your career, you are like an investor who can only pick a single stock—you’re putting 40 or more hours a week of your life into one basket. Here’s what you should expect from a job in each of the three types of firm.

Working at a Winner

A hallmark of these large superstar firms is that they will tend to have a clear existing hierarchy. You are slotted into exactly the role you’re slotted into, and your goal will be to move, whether laterally or upward, in a pre-existing system in which it can be easy to find yourself in a silo.

That’s one of the downsides of this type of employer. It is increasingly important in the modern economy to be a “glue person,” the kind of worker who understands how the different moving parts of creating a product fit together. Especially at junior levels, it is harder to get that kind of varied exposure—if you work in finance, for example, you’ll probably only work with other finance people, rather than also gaining exposure to engineering and marketing and product development.

You’re probably going to have access to cutting-edge technology and thinking around your field. Part of your goal will be to suck up as much of it as possible.

Given that this is probably a name-brand firm known around the world (or at least within your field), having this experience on your resume will enhance your credibility over the long-run.

Your odds of being laid off are lower than at the other types of firms; your desire for job security may help determine how much value you put on that.

“When you’re at a very safe company with options vesting, it is, for all intents and purposes, zero risk,” said Nick Caldwell, who spent the first 15 years of his career at Microsoft and is now chief product officer at a company called Looker. “You have to trick yourself into thinking it’s a risk by moving around.”

These companies tend to pay well, though in predictable ways. The big money has already been made by early employees; your salary will probably be good and any stock or bonus compensation unlikely to result in a windfall.

Working at an Aspirant

Smaller, early-stage companies have a different set of tradeoffs.

The organizational structure of an aspirant is likely to be fluid and still forming. The job you accept may turn out to become something completely different as time goes by and the business’s strategy changes. That’s great if you have the right attitude, but it can be scary if you prefer to know exactly what you’re getting into.

Because those lines of responsibility are fluid, it’s really easy — almost required — that you will get to understand more of the interlocking parts of the business than you would at an equivalent level of seniority at a winner firm. Even a junior person on the finance team, to use the above example, is likely to have exposure to how all those other departments work. That can pay big dividends later in your career.

“Being involved with product strategy is something I could only have experienced in a startup at the ideation stage,” said Amy Bohutinsky, who was one of the earliest staff members of the online real estate firm Zillow. Despite having a background in public relations, she gained a deep understanding of all parts of the company and would eventually become chief operating officer as it grew. “We were just a group of people in a room without a lot of walls or lines, and that set me up for a future of realizing I had a voice in what we created that wouldn’t have ben heard otherwise.”

On the downside, if the firm never really takes off, you may find yourself out of work (or, given how quickly an aspirant’s business model can change, even if it does). And if it doesn’t succeed, it may not help with your future credibility on your resume — a future employer who sees you used to work at Apple or Amazon is more likely to be impressed than “Random Failed Startup Inc.”

Finally, there is the potential, if you’re receiving stock-based compensation, for a significant windfall if the company succeeds. But mentally, many people I’ve spoken to with experience at aspirants say you’re better off not really building too many expectations. There’s a good chance, after all, that those stock options will be worthless.

Working at an Afterthought

Whether it’s a once-dominant company that has come upon hard times or a mid-tier firm limping along, plenty of people are inevitably going to work at one of the companies that isn’t thriving in the modern economy. The key for your career, as in value investing, is to look for underappreciated opportunities within those firms.

One downside of this type of company is that they can combine both the bureaucracy of a winner firm and the lack of job security and strategic consistency of an aspirant.

But sometimes difficult business situations open up real opportunities. A company facing challenges might be willing to take a chance on someone to do a job that they have less conventional qualifications to do. They can offer opportunities to take a leap up, in terms of seniority and compensation — a chance to prove your ability at a higher level than a winner firm would ever allow.

“I think you have to look at each job opportunity for its experiential value first,” said Mark Mason, who has made a career of working in troubled firms in need of a turnaround, and is now chief executive of Seattle-based bank HomeStreet, which was on the verge of failure when he joined it in 2010. “Because what happens in turnarounds is people get opportunities, though it’s far from assured, of having a much better experience and professional outcome than they would have working in a healthier company.”

Compensation can vary widely, but afterthought firms compete in the same labor market as the rest, so they tend to be generally consistent with the rest of the market.

And finally, there is pride in helping a troubled but respected company emerge from its problems, or at least live to see another day. The winner-take-all economy isn’t one where literally one company wins all the business. “Winners-take-most” would be more precise.

It can be a reward in and of itself making sure “most” doesn’t become “all.”

Neil Irwin is the author of "How To Win in a Winner-Take-All World: The Definitive Guide to Adapting and Succeeding in High-Performance Careers," from which this article is adapted.