There is the twenty-first century. Corporations
rule the world. People have had enough time to admire the
corporate world and to get sick of it. Once young people have dreamed of taking a
corporate career, climbing to the higher positions and gaining various
titles. It seemed that this is the best way both to meet ones ambitions and
to
earn a lot. Today we can feel the wind of change - corporations are seen as
places where you cannot spread your wings, places which
are overwhelming and dehumanized. Nowadays young people more often dream of
running their own companies or being freelancers.
Internet is full of advice of “how to survive in the corporate world”. Is it really so bad? Are
corporations the twenty-first century factories, in which only exploitation and
hard work awaits?
There are tons of articles about the cons of working
in a corporation - a stupid and / or lazy boss, incompetent coworkers, raging
bureaucracy, lack of empowerment, increasing frustration and burnout. Not
without significance is the moral evaluation of corporational activities and their impact on the modern world.
The pros are not so much discussed, especially when
compared to self-employment. First thing is money, and all things connected –
premiums, social surcharges, severance pay. Also having a
full time job, you are protected by law as an employee and you get
paid regularly, which is not the norm everywhere. Corporations provide easy access to training and development. In addition, more and more are
trying to take care of the comfort of its employees by, for example, creating
private kindergartens.
For a lot of people running your own business is like
a dream coming true or a culmination of a career. But this work also requires
many sacrifices and spending much time at work. People not
always are aware of it. Much higher responsibilities, the need for a wide range of skills, including the ability to manage,
always being at work, and a big trouble to have a vacation – those are few of many examples of problems associated with this
form of work. On the other hand, it looks like people running their own
business usually feel more self-fulfilled and happy about what they do.
This kind of work is also usually more prestigious.
The situation may vary in different branches of
business. Still, the key to being happy with your career path is a clear
understanding of its pros and cons. The assessment of this is also
affected by the current crisis - corporations are becoming attractive because
of higher salaries and welfare packages, but they are also a symbol of the
bloody capitalism which is to blame for the bad economic situation of many people.
Questions:
- Where do you work (if you do) and where do you wish
to work – a corporation, a small firm, your
own business?
- Do you have any experiences with corporate life, any
absurd and frustrating situations, or on the contrary- exceptionally
nice ones?
- Have you ever thought of running your own business? Do
you think it’s worth a big effort?
Sources and additional articles:
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ReplyDeleteThank you Łukasz :)
ReplyDeleteYou have a lot of experience and that makes your opinion very reasonable.
I have also worked in few places (small advertising agency, jewelery shop, a pub) and I used to be a freelancer for a while. Now I work for a big company and that's why I wanted to write about it's good sides, because I see the difference, just like you.
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ReplyDeleteAs far as I remember I'm working for corporation. It's not that long … it's just my first job :) I think I can say something about corporation life. It's rather different reality. We corporation people used to say “In Corporation time sometimes stops but sometimes turning back”. It’s strictly connected to procedures, if something exceed formal procedures and requires a decision involving responsibility this proverb applies to this situation. I can give you few examples od corporation reality: If you solve problem but problem wasn’t described in system, you didn’t do anything. With everything you do, you are sentenced to success, some of them (numerous successes) are your job but rest of them are jour boss job . All failures are your fault but all wins are thanks to your team.
ReplyDeleteAnyway I think that experience in corporation life is best practice before starting their own business. Most important is to have contacts, references, experience with bad and good people. Corporation guaranties all of that.
I have very little work experience and so far I have been working only as a freelancer. Also, I am doing an internship in a big corporation, and although they treat me well, in the future I would prefer to work in a smaller company or to start my own one :)
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I just want to finish my education and after I will take care of my professional career, and only time will tell where and for whom I will work in the future :)
Yes, I indeed do work for a big corporation. I have been working for small companies before as well. One thing I have never tried so far is to start my own business activity. Though my very own brother is right now trying to spin off his third idea for his own business. So I have got an outline of how does it look like.
ReplyDeleteWell I think its much better to have good own business then working for somebody else welfare, still you have much longer and bumpy road to get to stability on your own then while trying to reach the same point working for a big organization. On the other hand when you are already there, it is like the end of the game when in corporation (or almost), and like beginning of new great adventure when you are on your own.
One more thing I want to mention. There are many different big companies. Some of them are fossilized indeed. But there are more and more companies nowadays, that really understand their good, talented workers are most precious asset they can have and they really struggle to make you feel like in heaven when you come to work. Maybe I am exaggerating a bit, ...a small bit.
- Where do you work (if you do) and where do you wish to work – a corporation, a small firm, your own business?
ReplyDeleteI am currently working on casual contracts. I really like my job, because thanks to it I know a lot of new people, new places, I can travel and visit. In the near future, after defending a thesis, I want to work as a graphic designer, but certainly not in large corporations, preferably in some prestigious company, with which I'll be able to work remotely. I also take into account the work in another country. A little bit further in the future when I will gain the experience I would have to set up my company and have my own business, yes this is my dream
- Do you have any experiences with corporate life, any absurd and frustrating situations, or on the contrary- exceptionally nice ones?
I don’t have such experience.
- Have you ever thought of running your own business? Do you think it’s worth a big effort?
I think about running my business activities, I think the worth and that if someone really wants it, it certainly reaches the intended target. You need to have clearly defined goals, motivation and willingness to act.
I work for a big corporation which employs almost 1500 programmers in Warsaw. There are many situatuons which could be classified as frustrating but only if you don't truly understand this system. If you are aware of many things like bureaucracy everything starts to be more logical.
ReplyDeleteFrom other side thare are many positives which could not happen in
small company. Like party for all 1.5k employes or business trips to asia :)
I thought of running my own buisness, but as Paulina said this is profitable for people which have "clearly defined goals motivation and willingness to act." I don't consider myself as such person so I rather work for someone and in free time do my hobby.
- Where do you work (if you do) and where do you wish to work - a corporation, a small business, your own business?
ReplyDeleteFor several years I worked in small and large companies, I have also adventure in corporate work. After these years of experience, I decided to start my own company and work as a contractor. From my perspective, this work is no different from my previous professional activity. Unfortunately, when I worked for an employment contract did not feel additional benefits, which is why I decided to change the form of employment.
- Do you have any experiences with corporate life, any absurd and frustrating Situations, or on the contrary-exceptionally nice ones?
I have experience in corporate work, most of my experience is very good to work with people from corporations. However, I noticed the attitudes of people who work just to come to work and have 8 hours to myself.
- Have you ever thought of running your own business? Do you think it's worth a big effort?
I thought, and once I started a company, it was the advertising agency. Unfortunately, due to problems with acquiring new customers was forced to do so to close it. Currently run self-employment only need to change the form of employment.
- Where do you work (if you do) and where do you wish to work – a corporation, a small firm, your own business?
ReplyDeleteI work in a services and business and technology consulting corporation S&T. It is my first job, and I'm very happy of it even tough I have less time for my hobbies and simply for leisure. Still, I would like to work for bigger corporation - I dream of working for Microsoft or IBM in Project Management.
- Do you have any experiences with corporate life, any absurd and frustrating situations, or on the contrary- exceptionally nice ones?
I have no problems in my corporation ( or maybe I didn't notice any so far :) ), the only thing which could be considered as 'frustrating' is a fact that pressure is sometimes too strong and management is too much focused on tasks.
- Have you ever thought of running your own business? Do you think it’s worth a big effort?
I wouldn't like to run my own company. I think it is safer and more comfortable when You work for somebody. You can learn from other people as well in such situation.
Currently I work for the medium publishing company. The firm has some subsidiaries in many countries in Europe and aspires to run business in the United States. But apart from it the directors follow the rules of typical small companies - what is important in my job is cooperation, trust and personal touch between the employers and employees. It is exactly what I am looking for in a workplace. I cannnot imagine working for a huge corporation and devote myself only to work and not to people. Some of my friends are working in corporations and they often complain about long working hours and impersonal atmosphere in the office. Quite often they earn a lot of money but they do not have time to spend it... No spare time, many stressful situations and sleepless nights are not worth it. A much better solution is to start my own business, to be independent and to follow my own rules. It involves a lot of effort and commitment but that is the only way I could work truly the way I want to.
ReplyDeleteI don't like the idea of freelancing because working around others makes me significantly more productive. I know there are offices where you can work around other freelancers. I'd want to go there and see whether it actually helps.
ReplyDeleteI've always liked the idea of working for a large company. I believe the complexity of some of the things humanity makes could not be achieved by a small group of people and specialisation is the way to go. I want to be a part of something big, even just a small part.
For some reason though I've always stayed with smaller ones or made deals directly with clients. I'm working at a startup now. I've worked at another small business before (about 10 employees). I really do enjoy that i get to see how projects work from different perspectives. The one I work in now has people with great legal and programming knowledge. I've already learned a lot and surely will even more soon.
Starting my own company is not out of the question. However, I wouldn't like to find clients and work on their products. I'd rather push a few ideas of my own out to the world and see what happens. I believe it can be done while working for someone else. I have read a few stories about this eventually paying off.
For me (so far) the best environment to work is small group of people focused on particular task. Creating any projects alone is sometimes difficult without proper motivation and support of others which are involved. I don't have any experience in work in huge corporation but after few stories from my friends it is not something that I would try in close future. Now I work in medium company, every few months I can expect special trainings, help and support from more experienced co-workers and interesting, unconventional tasks
ReplyDelete"Corpo" we love talking about that. I work in my own company. This has pros and cons. Pros is way i work. Being own boss lets me decide about my time, for the other hand sometimes I cant just quit at 16 and have free mind. Small firm don't have many opportunities to travel and learn. Now for me this is one of the reason i look for some job in corpo. I don't agree that in corpo is harder to spread the wings. This depends how we can do this, and always are we enough good?. I know that people think own business is the greatest way to work. For sure it is, but not when we wont to have friends, working, studying, training or even beeing in some relation. Last year there was a week that I prepared with college to Poznan fair. We worked 46H without sleeeping trying to finish job. After that I was terribly sick.My body said enough. Working in own firm has also pros and cons, but different than corpo. For sure in future this is the way i would like to work. Now I am chosing easier way to work.
ReplyDeleteI work as freelancer in multimedia and web development. I always wanted to run my own thing, however I think that corporation is a good way of getting experience and its a quick way to get in to the industry right away. I don't have much of experience working in corporation. I never thought that corporation is a place for me to be in. However regarding your last question, if You want to do your own thing, and you really like doing it, you have all what it takes to run it, than do it. All big corporation started as small companies. Perhaps if you have what it takes, your small start-up become a corporation one day. And you get to choose how to run it and how to deal with your staff.
ReplyDelete