Dear Dave Column: Small Company vs. Fortune 500 Job Search

Dear Dave,
I've spent my career climbing the ladder in a Fortune 500 company and for the past month I've been spending my time with the outplacement team provided by my former employer. I'm being advised to search for positions in smaller companies and leave the big corporations out of my search plans. This advice makes me nervous. I don't have experience in a small company and I only know the games big companies play.

Am I over reacting? Your thoughts on this advice would be appreciated.

- Bill M.

Dear Bill,
The advice from your outplacement consultant - to look for a job in a small, high-growth company - makes sense. However, I would also recommend that you keep your network very active in the "500" world, not because it is likely that you are going to end up in such a company, but because of the "linkages" that these contacts represent in the building of your network - you never know who someone might know.

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It's smart to turn your attention to the small company job market because most companies in the United States are small and the growth rate of these companies can be terrific. As you may know, even in the times in which we currently find ourselves, it is the small companies who are creating most of the new jobs. As big corporations downsize, merge, acquire, and adjust to competition and economic uncertainty, smaller companies are moving faster to dodge the bullets and rebound.

I would suggest that as you network, you ask everyone about the culture of their company and why he or she chose small or big organizations. Often you'll hear executives and managers in smaller companies acknowledge that they enjoy the fast pace of the business due to less cumbersome decision channels. Others comment that they love seeing the fruits of their labor every day. You noted that you know the "games big companies play," from my experience, these games can be very frustrating. In a small company, you're likely to have greater visibility, broader responsibilities, and your personal relationship with the president or CEO tends to matter more.

If you are looking for some different ideas on this subject, one of the books we suggest to our members is John Thompson's The Portable Executive. We like it because it helps explore these different avenues and provides a unique perspective on life after the Fortune 500 - and believe me there is plenty! If you want to check it out, you can go to http://www.execunet.com/cmb.cfm on our website - you'll find it listed in the section on Career Advancement Strategies.

Best,
Dave

Dave Opton is CEO and Founder of ExecuNet, an online career services center for executives. For more information on executive career management visit execunet.com. Questions can be sent to Dave Opton at deardave@execunet.com. He can't answer each individually but look for yours in an upcoming column.