Where can you make a quick career? Professions with career growth.
You can look for a job today, or you can make a career.
You can’t make a career by sitting in one place: moving up involves increasing the complexity of tasks, professionalism, circle of influence and level of business activity. If you are active, then you can make a quick career where there are many vacancies. Even faster where there are many vacancies and few candidates for these positions. But that’s not all: companies need to have vacancies at different levels of the hierarchy. Then you will have a chance to climb these steps to the top.
For example, you start with the starting position of a manager or sales specialist. Then you can become a sales representative: medical, insurance, advertising, finance or tourism - depending on your taste, capabilities and abilities. The next step is a customer service consultant (including corporate) or a sales development manager. Then you can become a key account specialist or project manager. And from there, become the head of the sales department, head a regional or territorial representative office, or become a branch director. Do you want higher? Become the commercial director of the entire company or lead the development of a regional network.
Of course, the demands of companies are dynamic, but interest in specialists from a certain field lasts for at least several years. And if you have received a profession in a sought-after field, if you are professional and mobile, then when a large number of companies open many vacancies in your field of activity, you have every chance to quickly rise to the top.
3-06-2015, 22:43 |
The research center of the Superjob portal studied the career paths of middle and top managers to determine the average time to build a career in the most popular areas of the labor market.
Having studied 7,100 resumes of applicants for positions of middle and top managers (100 resumes of men and women for each analyzed position), Superjob found out: women, on an equal basis with men, are ready to compete for the position of middle manager, but there is further promotion to top positions , it turns out better for representatives of the stronger sex. Only the position of HR director is unconditionally female (83% of HR directors are ladies), and there are slightly more women than men in the position of director of advertising and PR (55%). In other cases, the numerical superiority is on the side of the stronger sex. But women often sit in director’s chairs earlier. In those areas of activity where there are few or no women, the career growth of men in the absence of gender competition occurs more slowly.
Men are the fastest to occupy middle positions in the customer department: on average, they reach the position of head of the customer service department within 5 years from starting work (women - within 7). The stronger sex reaches the post of head of the sales department, head of the advertising and PR department a little earlier (men - 6 years, women - 7). Men quickly become managers of call centers (also in 6 years, women - in 10 years), heads of HR departments (8 and 9 years, respectively) and chief accountants (9 and 11 years). Men take the longest to achieve the position of head of the service and technical department (14 years).
At approximately the same speed, men and women achieve leadership positions in the marketing department (7 years), logistics (8 years), legal and economic planning departments (also 8 years).
Women are the fastest to head up design and training departments (in an average of 6 years) and ahead of male competitors (their career paths take 8 and 11 years, respectively). Before men, women occupy the positions of managers of Internet projects and heads of secretariats (approximately 8 years for each position, for men - 9 and 10 years, respectively). Women get the position of head of the HR department on average 10 years later, men - 3 years later. One of the longest ascents is for female procurement managers: their career path takes about 11 years, but men also reach this position in about the same time. However, on average, in 11 years, regardless of gender, you can rise to the post of purchasing director. However, this is an exception to the rule: in general, the path to top positions naturally takes longer than the rise to middle management positions.
There are traditionally more men in top positions, but women are often ahead of them in the speed with which they occupy director's chairs. The career elevator works best in the sales and customer service segment: here the positions of department heads and directors are achieved the fastest. Women become sales directors and client department directors on average after 8 years from the start of their careers, men - after 9 years. In approximately the same period of time (8 years), women achieve the position of marketing director, while for men, such an ascent takes on average 2 years longer. In 9 years, women get the post of director of the legal department, while men need about 3 years more. The post of HR director is perhaps the only full-fledged victory of emancipation: women not only make up the vast majority of managers, but also reach this post on average 5 years earlier than men (10 and 15 years, respectively). Career Olympus - women achieve the position of CEO on average 2 years earlier than men (14 and 16 years, respectively).
Men reach the post of commercial director (9 and 11 years, respectively), financial director (10 and 12 years), logistics director (10 and 13 years), and quality director (14 and 15 years) earlier than women. In the absence of competition from women, men slowly reach the positions of director of IT (12 years), information security (15 years) and general security (18 years).
Whatever one may say, everyone dreams of a successful career. But when you start your career in one field or another, be it a government agency or a private organization, you are always faced with incomprehensible phenomena. Some people work hard, stay overtime at work, bend over backwards to get their work done, and at the same time are almost (if not the) best workers, but they sit in one position all their lives. Others take their activities carelessly, and sometimes their knowledge leaves much to be desired, but they get the best positions, they receive promotions and regular bonuses. And the careers of such people go smoothly. What's going on? Everyone has an involuntary question: where is the justice? Why is this so? How to make a career?
Having gone from a hired employee in a government agency (more than 14 years of experience) to a freelance investor, I can safely give guiding advice to aspiring careerists.
I’ll immediately make a reservation that here there will be the truth and only the truth, no matter how bitter it may be at times. So, novice careerists, take on board and use:
Advice for a beginning careerist: You don’t have to be indispensable to make a career!
Tip one: If you want to ruin your career in the bud, become the best of the best, be a highly qualified specialist in your field or field.
Oddly enough, from childhood we are all taught that we need to work well and be able to do this work better than others. The child's main occupation is studying. And when these children, a guy or a girl, enter a university, they actually do the same thing. And now I’ll tell you a terrible secret of the bourgeoisie (businessmen and investors) - this is how the bourgeoisie intended it. Although why “by them” – by us, I’m also a BURZHUIN! Like this. We need excellent workers, or better yet, irreplaceable ones. The head of a department of any enterprise or institution always receives a salary greater than that of his subordinate specialists and workers. This means that a good worker can be paid less.
There is a joke among medical school students: if you study well, you will become a good doctor, but if you study poorly, you will become the CHIEF DOCTOR. Paradoxical? No way. What does the head physician of a clinic or hospital do? This position is of an administrative nature and does not require any special medical knowledge, which cannot be said about the profession of a neurosurgeon, ophthalmologist, etc. The job of the chief physician is to organize the activities of the institution itself, and there is no need to stand at the operating table independently. Now answer the main question: whose salary is higher - the head physician or the surgeon? Naturally the first one. And I dare to assure you, it will be like this for quite some time. In our country, which has an eastern economic structure, a manager cannot possibly receive less than his subordinate. If only for the reason that otherwise the subordinate will not obey his boss. This is the specificity of social relations...
An interesting example from a chain of syllogisms: if you study more, you know more; the more you know, the more you forget; you forget more - you know less, therefore, you learn more - you know less. Yes, this is, of course, a play on words based on abstract concepts. But, unfortunately, this is often the reality of life: those who studied better at one time now occupy a less significant position.
Consequently, a good specialist always has less chance of getting a management position and, as a result, increasing his salary. Tell me why? It’s elementary – what kind of leader you will be is not yet known. But you are the best and highly qualified worker in your field. By promoting you to a higher position, management gets a headache in the form of a pig in a poke. They lost a great specialist. You need to find a new person to take your place. Will he be able to fully replace you in your place? What would you do as the head of a business or organization in this case?
In general, if your career does not appeal to you and you are satisfied with everything, be sure to become an indispensable, gold-diamond specialist in your field. And start this path right after entering a university or technical school.
Advice for a beginning careerist: why is the BOSS a FOOL?
Tip two on how to make a career: You need to learn what will actually be useful.
Probably everyone has noticed that your immediate boss is a fool? This is to put it mildly! Everything related to the intricacies of the department’s activities, he is a total idiot. Personally, in my practice, “such” occurred quite often. Even my students did not ask such stupid questions in legal aspects as my direct boss asked me when I was a lawyer at a government agency.
Most likely, many people have seen the approximate situation. However, here's the problem: everyone agrees he's an idiot; but the head of the department is he, not you, an experienced and highly qualified specialist. When was the last time you wondered why?
Once upon a time, I was often puzzled by the question: you are so smart, but why aren’t you rich yet? Now I know the answer to it: yes, because we don’t pay for intelligence (at least, that was the case until recently); for teeth and claws, for the ability to walk over people's heads, for bitchiness and a complete lack of conscience - be kind enough to get money for whatever you want, but not for intelligence.
Suppose your manager does not see the difference between a legal adviser and a lawyer, does not distinguish civil law from administrative law, and stubbornly and stupidly calls the statement of claim “this bullshit.” But it’s a hundred, a thousand – even more! - once he beats you on points in court intrigues. And when I advise you to learn what will be useful, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. Ideal knowledge of arbitration law, methods and methods of applying it in disputes in courts of various instances may make you a strong arbitration lawyer, but becoming a manager-chief (at least of a department) will not help you at all.
“He’s making a career!” - these are just empty words. In reality, it is not we ourselves who make our careers, but those managers and bosses who make management decisions, while ignoring you or still taking your existence into account. Hence the conclusion - for career growth you need to be able to get along with people and be sociable.
Frankly speaking, this - communication skills - should be taught from school - the ability to think independently and make strong-willed decisions, as well as negotiate with people. In reality, our educational system loads the minds of students with useless knowledge for practical survival - sines, tangents, Bohr's laws and the names of countries on the African continent. Of course, this makes us educated, but in no case does it teach us how to earn money. Unfortunately, technical schools, universities, and academies are following the same path.
No, no - I'm not saying that our elementary, middle and high schools don't give us anything. I will say more, as an investor and businessman, I must be grateful to such an education system - from kindergarten to universities - for training flexible performers who are not able to reason. At the same time, it would be useful for a person to know how to avoid conflicts or smooth them out, comparing, for example, with the ability to multiply by hand. Any cheap “Chinese” calculator can handle this in a split second and, what is very important, without errors.
So, if you have to “make your career,” be sure to study first of all the theoretical knowledge of relationships between people. Firstly, I advise you to familiarize yourself with the works of the 16th century thinker, Italian Nicolo Machiavelli, one of the founders of the “science of the possible, of power” - political science. His work “The Sovereign” is very interesting, which sets out almost ready-made recipes for competent behavior - do not chase the love of your subjects, instill fear, do not enter into an alliance with someone stronger than yourself, etc. It would also be useful to work on practical psychology, and to gain knowledge from the works of the great classics: “War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy, “Ordinary History” by I. Goncharov, “Simplicity is enough for every wise man” by N. Ostrovsky, as well as “Imitator” S. Yesenina. Know that the seeds of wisdom are all around us, we just need to find them. For example, in the talented book “The Era of Mercy”, more often known to the general population from the film “The meeting place cannot be changed”, “Zheglov’s five rules” are very useful for careerism. Don't forget about two interesting books of laws - Murphy's Laws and Parkinson's Laws.
But I don’t recommend getting carried away with the widespread works of D. Carnegie. In my personal opinion, recommendations from there are a direct path to a clinic for mentally ill people with neurosis. They teach a person not to be himself, which in turn, under certain circumstances, can lead to dire consequences. But for general development it’s a good read. Here, the work “Anti-Carnegie” by Sjostrom will also be a good help for careerists. The latter advises the exact opposite - to remain yourself, at all costs and not be afraid of conflicts; conflicts should fear you.
I especially want to warn against NLP - neurolinguistic programming. Everything there just looks like devilry and some kind of magic. True, if you really want it, then please. However, don't complain later.
Of course, the above list is far from an exhaustive list. Yes, and I don’t have such a task. The main thing is to indicate the direction. And everyone will go their own way.
But theory is theory, but practice is more expensive - you need to learn how to build relationships, as they say, “live.” Here, full-time students will be in a better position. What potential contacts of the type “superior with inferior”, “equal with equal” and “inferior with superior” are at their full disposal. Such personal relationships as love, friendship, etc. we more or less know how to arrange things. Although you must admit that sometimes “no way” is much better than “somehow”. While clear business relationships are a dense forest for the majority of people. How can you force your opinion on your opponent? Who to bribe, who to beg, who to flatter - this is a complex science. When you master its theoretical and especially practical parts, I dare to assure you that there will be much more benefit to life than from any knowledge of an economic or other nature acquired at a university.
It’s a shame that the notorious Komsomol left our lives. This was a real school of careerism in practice. And what another! Those who have completed the Komsomol in practice show amazing success in both business and politics. Look at today's elite - most of them, if not two-thirds of them, are former Komsomol members. This is the result of vast practical experience.
But even today there are some ways. Do an experiment and get a job at any McDonald's or Magnit outlet, etc. Just set a clear goal for yourself: you are not getting a job for the money, but in order to achieve the position of manager in a particular institution. And believe me, achieving this will be very problematic. McDonald's and others like it provide an excellent practical school for aspiring careerists to test their skills. Work with personnel is arranged in such a way that there is a constant rotation of personnel - in order to ensure intensive work (the first month or two a person works with maximum efficiency), to avoid theft (it takes some time to figure out where and what is and how to take it out) and etc. Read the reviews on the forums of former employees of such companies; even in the position of a simple team worker, holding on for three months is not so easy, and growing up to a manager is completely prohibitive. But, if you were able to become a manager, congratulations! Any doors on the career ladder are open to you - be it in a government agency, in a corporation, or in politics - and you can make a career.
Advice for a beginning careerist: a person is not a tractor, he is not made of iron!
Tip three: Don’t be zealous or stubborn in your work.
That is, you should not give your all to work in order to make a career. Here's another secret of the bourgeoisie: the size of wages is by no means tied to the quality and quantity of work done. The employer pays the employee exactly as much as is necessary to ensure that the latter does not move to another job.
Because he knows very well: neither the quality nor the quantity of work done is absolutely related to the size of the salary. Any average worker performs only enough work to ensure that he is not replaced by other workers and dismissed from his position.
When I worked for my “uncle,” management’s refusal to raise my salary made me feel unfair. However, having become an entrepreneur and investor, I nip in the bud any talk about increasing salaries and do this only as one of the last in my field and under the pressure of inflation. And then, in fact, the salary remains at the same level, but I correctly and beautifully present this to my dear employees as a great favor to them. As a result, my employees, in gratitude, begin to work (unfortunately, for a very short time) better. But then everything still returns to its place.
When I first started my business, out of inexperience and a sense of responsibility for my employees, I tried to increase their salaries at every available opportunity. And what is the result?.. My hired workers at that time say about me that I am greedy and stingy, what else can I look for, and the current ones say that I am a strict but fair owner.
A hired worker is a creature in itself who is not capable of raising money (receiving a salary and raising money are completely different concepts), but has a certain talent for spending it. Example: one of the first salesmen in my auto parts store - Misha M. - initially had a salary of 200 “bucks” a month, which was enough for a tolerable existence at that time. Subsequently, I increased my salary to 350, then to 500 American rubles per month. Please note that at that time it was very good money (at that time I myself received half as much, mistakenly relying on the fact that human potential is the most important, and everything will soon pay off with interest). However, Misha, having received 2.5 times more, decided to definitely buy himself a car. Let's take into account that before this he traveled by public transport, and sometimes did not hesitate to come to work on foot. I advised him not to take such a rash step, but Misha (and understandably) turned a deaf ear. And I bought a fairly used “six”.
You should have seen what started then. Within a couple of weeks, this miracle of technology fell apart. Accordingly, spare parts were needed. I naively agreed to Mishina’s request to give him a discount on the most necessary spare parts. And he started selling them at the purchase price. However, this car increased its needs each time. Misha too, accordingly. After a short time, I calculated that I was practically paying his second salary in spare parts. Reluctantly, I was forced to stop offering discounts. Naturally, Misha was offended and, showing his character, began to buy spare parts at full price from a competitor. Spare parts are only half the problem. It was necessary to refuel the car, pay for repairs, etc. As a result, Misha began to grumble and present me to other sellers and employees as a stingy boss who pays little. And this is about me, then who raised his salary by 2.5 times in four months? Has he started to work even a little better? No way! As a result, we separated. Having hired another person instead of Misha, I assigned him the average salary in the city for workers of this level - $300 - “drawing” the prospect of increasing it if his salary was good. 10 days was the maximum that the new employee’s enthusiasm was enough for and his work went so-so, and even then, by and large, when the boss (that is, me) was in the store. He didn’t talk about raising wages, and I didn’t mention it again.
Draw your own conclusions - how hard do you need to work hard to make a career?!
Advice for a beginning careerist: on the razor's edge over the abyss.
Tip four: Make a career by joking - it won't hurt so much to fall.
Unfortunately, making a career is far from a uniform upward movement up the career ladder. Career growth often resembles children's board games like “Just a minute!”: you roll the dice and follow a path; I've landed on the right cell with an up arrow - and that's it! - just one move, but he was already 10-15 moves ahead of his opponents. And then a cell with a down arrow fell out - and hop! - you are already far behind your comrades, who walked without ups and downs and made their way to the goal with a measured step.
Remember: the higher you fly, the more painful it will be to fall. Such falls should not be taken seriously. All the same, they will someday be replaced by ups. This is a component of the game called a career. Remember the words of Napoleon Bonaparte: what is one lost battle when the whole company is still ahead!
If you are thinking about making a career, do it with a light heart!
How to make a career? How can you become a director? - this question worried every employee at least once. Respectable status, large-scale tasks, respect from subordinates, high salaries - these career goals attract most of us, but not many manage to achieve them. But does anyone succeed? Is it possible to plan to climb the career ladder?
Everyone has opportunities for a successful career, but only a select few realize them. Years of experience and hard work are important components of career growth, but, alas, they are not the only ones. Don't wait until you are noticed and offered a promotion. A successful career is given only to purposeful and active employees. An equally experienced, talented, but passive professional will not be appreciated by his superiors and will not be promoted. You need to have a desire to grow, develop and move forward, gaining new knowledge and experience, and improving your communication and management skills.
A careerist (in the best sense of the word) must plan his career step by step. You don't have to spend your entire life reaching the pinnacle of a successful career. Quite the opposite. From a certain age, the chances of becoming a director will begin to decrease every year. Although there is an expression, “Never say never,” it is better to be guided by the expression, “Strike while the iron is hot.”
The most common way to quickly make a career is to periodically change companies, optimally every two to three years. It is often not recommended, since companies do not like “flyers” - those who change jobs every year, rightly believing that such an employee will not stay with them for long. The scheme for changing is simple - in the new place either the position should be higher, or the range of responsibilities should be wider. Both of these bring you closer to your cherished goal of becoming the director of a department or the general director of an entire organization. Sitting (i.e. working) in one place, becoming a director is much more difficult. This is explained very simply. Within one company, the number of positions is limited by the scale of the company itself. Career growth is simply hampered by the lack of vacancies. And if there is no movement up the career ladder within the organization itself (that is, your boss is promoted, and you take his place), you can wait for your finest hour until retirement. Do you need it? A study conducted by the HR Agency "Contact" showed that of the 200 directors surveyed, only 24 reached the director's position in their first place of work, i.e. only one in ten did not change jobs during their career growth.
The essence of the survey conducted by the Contact Agency was as follows:
- How many years does it take to become a director?
- Where can you make the fastest career today?
The study found that industry differences in the rate of career growth depend on the specifics of knowledge, the number of steps-positions that need to be completed to become a director, as well as the maturity of the industry. If the business is young, then it is much easier and faster to make a career in it.
The shortest path to the director's chair, just two or three promotions, is observed in the developing communications and telecommunications industry. The industry is young, new branches and offices are constantly opening. An employee has the opportunity to participate in absolutely all processes taking place within the new company and quickly gain the necessary experience. Consequently, with a competent career growth strategy, he has a very high chance of quickly becoming a director.
You can also quickly make a career and become a director in retail chains. Retail chains for Russia are a new industry that appeared only ten years ago. Just like telecommunications, this industry is constantly opening new branches and stores. In hypermarkets like Metro or Auchan, a salesperson can rise to the position of store director in 3-4 years. Such cases are not at all isolated. Of course, professionalism, talent and healthy ambitions are required, but where are they not required? And the director of a hypermarket is responsible for 300 people, several hundred million dollars in turnover and earns up to 5 million rubles a year.
Interesting facts about how you can quickly make a career and become a director are published by Media Markt, a large retail chain of household appliances and electronics:
About half of the store directors are our employees who have deservedly “grown up” to this position.
11 out of 46 store directors are women!
Examples of rapid career advancement in our company: from a specialist in the small household appliances department to the head of the household appliances department in a store in 2 years; from head of the cash department to the position of director in 4 years; from a legal department specialist in the central office to a manager in less than 2 years!
The two youngest directors were 27 years old at the time of their appointment!
But in the banking sector, manufacturing or real estate, it is not so easy to become a director. It requires many years of experience and comprehensive knowledge. To become a director, the career path will take about 10 years. You can really grow in those banks where there is a transparent structure and a small number of people in one department. And for effective production management, you need to have a good knowledge of technology and business processes, so it is impossible to become a director without significant experience in production. These businesses are headed by people who either started it from scratch, or came to production or to the bank very young.
The average age of today's directors is 35-50 years. Ten to fifteen years ago, the average age of directors was 30-45 years old; then, for young post-Soviet Russia, most industries were new and developing. The trend is obvious, hurry up!
It should be noted that it is much more difficult for a woman than for a man to make a career and become a director. The most important obstacle for a woman is family and children. The position of director entails a huge workload and requires a lot of dedication to the detriment of the family. To become a director, a woman must be much more experienced, proactive, and professional than a man in order to be entrusted with a high post, contrary to the prevailing stereotype.
The survey revealed that in marketing the ratio of male and female directors is equal, in personnel management there are an overwhelming majority of women, and in sales and finance there are many more male directors than women. On average, women take two to three years longer than men to become a director.
A similar study, “How to make a career in fast food,” was conducted by the Unity personnel center. If a person is attracted to the fast food industry, he is ready for a large amount of work and constant learning and development, then only three years of career path from student to director of a fast food restaurant is enough. At the beginning of your career path, no special knowledge is required. Leading Russian fast food enterprises train their managers themselves, following the example of the recognized industry leader – McDonald’s. Fast food employees are mostly students without work experience or qualifications. Companies constantly conduct trainings. An employee always knows what awaits him in a month, a year or two if he shows zeal and interest.
A standard career development scenario for a member of a restaurant team - the most junior employee: the first six months of work - training instructor, six months - swing manager, one year - second assistant director, two years - first assistant director, three years - director. The average monthly starting salary of a restaurant crew member is 15–20 thousand rubles, and the salary of a director is 70 thousand rubles, not counting bonuses and bonuses.
Don’t forget, no matter what industry and profession you choose, it should give you something more than monetary compensation in order to be happy: interest, the opportunity for self-realization, a feeling of being needed and in demand, or something else that is very important to you.
With best wishes for your successful career as director or president,
Lyubov Oteva
Head of Recruitment and Personnel Engagement at INTOUCH Insurance Company
When joining a large company, a young specialist automatically receives a certain guarantee of quality in the form of the company’s brand. Moreover, large companies with a well-known name can often afford to use O greater investment in a new employee. There is a built-in adaptation system, an assigned mentor, and a clearly defined career growth structure. There is also the possibility of additional training and professional development - this can be organized either by lateral movement, or by communicating with colleagues from other departments during common projects or internal events. In addition, we must not forget about the advantages of a developed corporate culture of branded companies: experience in diverse communication, a broad outlook, solving many issues - all this provides excellent opportunities for career growth.
When it comes to salaries, you can often see the opposite picture: small companies often offer newcomers b O more money. But the salary here is not always “white” and rarely does anyone provide a social package
(in the form of voluntary health insurance, discounts on services, payment for food, etc.). As for growth prospects, the smaller the company, the less room for development. Of course, there are exceptions when a new person in a small company is responsible for a lot and gains extensive knowledge. But in a small company, novice careerists often lose their understanding of the structure and clear distribution of tasks, and then it can be very difficult to rebuild. As a result, it turns out that at the first job a person was, say, deputy director of a small company and received a high salary, and then he cannot find either such a salary or a position.
Ivan Fil
director of new products at Intech
You should start your career looking not at size, but at quality. Starting a career in a smaller company can be more interesting. There is an opportunity to participate more actively in the company’s business, which means your personal results may be more noticeable. On the other hand, working in a large or medium-sized office can, in a short period of time, provide you with the amount of knowledge and skills that you would have to spend years acquiring on your own. And career prospects may arise where you don’t expect them.
Personally, I managed a project in telecom: we created storefronts, websites, software for mobile operators. But there was always interest in new products and trending directions. And the ideas that live in our heads tend to materialize. As a result, over the past year and a half, we have completely rebuilt the business and now, in addition to our core business, we are developing in three completely new directions: the Internet of things, mobile payments and insurance. I advise you to look not for the company that will pay 10 thousand more, but for the one that will give you prospects, interesting products and personal growth. As author Tom Peters says, you are the director of your life (no matter the size of the company you work for today).
Tatiana Belousova
HR Director of Comunica agency
How to start a career is something everyone must decide for themselves, depending on their personal values and priorities. Working in a small company or in a large one has its pros and cons. Once in a well-known large company, an employee receives a magical entry in the work record book and a line in the resume. With such a record, it will be much easier to get a job at another large eminent company. In small companies, the main advantage is the opportunity for rapid career growth. In small companies there is less bureaucracy, all processes are more fluid, so it is much easier to prove yourself. Salaries are higher in large companies, as a rule, there are also more social benefits such as insurance, fitness, food and the like. In large corporations there is high competition, career advancement will be very slow: people are in no hurry to leave leadership positions, so few positions are vacated. At the same time, the depth of immersion in the profession in such companies is usually greater, since a mentoring system is developed, and newcomers undergo training and education. As a rule, a beginner has the opportunity to try himself in different areas of activity and choose the optimal activity for himself.
Now small companies are appearing on the market that are not inferior in social packages and training programs for employees. The opportunities for rapid professional and career growth are higher here, and in the absence of crazy competition for tasty positions, relationships between people are more humane. In PR, the task is rather like this: start with the agency or the PR department of the company. An agency is definitely a broader and more varied experience, acquiring a lot of useful skills that no one, even a specialized university, teaches. Then you can continue your career in a larger agency or join a company. Working in a company will teach a young specialist how to navigate the field in which she works, and further development can be built in the same area. It all depends on the person’s goals and career plans.
Maria Zaikina
Head of the press service of Svyaznoy
The advantage of a large company is clearly configured processes (otherwise a big business simply will not be able to work) and algorithms, plus a large bank of knowledge - successful solutions that are available to any employee. Also, large companies always have a program for quick and comfortable adaptation: trainings, educational programs, mentoring, informal activities to quickly join the team (for example, joint sports activities).
In small companies, adaptation will be more spontaneous and will depend on the personality of the manager or the wishes of colleagues. At the same time, there are fewer regulations and procedures; many decisions are made at the level of a personal conversation with the manager, very informally. For many people, it’s easier this way: at work you can behave as you would at a meeting with friends.
In large companies there is a more obvious division of labor due to the scale of tasks. It is unlikely that a newcomer will be asked to combine the functions of a clerk, event manager and marketer. This makes it possible to quickly understand the essence of the profession and grow faster in it. In a small team, combining functions is inevitable - this is suitable for those newcomers who are in the process of “career guidance”: after trying several directions in practice, they will choose the path further.
Career growth in a small, growing company can be faster. But in a small company you will reach the ceiling faster, but in a giant it may not stop for ten years. Here you can move from division to division, move to another region, or become part of a new project team. From the point of view of the further demand for a specialist, it all depends on where you want to develop. A large company would rather prefer a person with corporate experience. A smaller company will not require you to work with multimillion-dollar audiences. In any case, listen to yourself and choose where you are more comfortable and where your desires will come true faster.
Victoria Sidyakina
Corporate Director for Human Resources at Nestlé in the Russia and Eurasia region
In Russia, young people start looking for work much earlier than their peers in Europe. And often the choice of the first job is not conscious. Working in small companies allows you to quickly grow to a leadership position. But then it will be difficult for a person to find a job in a similar position in a large company due to a lack of knowledge in a specific area. The adaptation process can also cause difficulties due to differences in business processes: small companies differ in the speed of decision-making, the huge structure of large companies requires an in-depth risk analysis.
Working in a large international company opens up many career opportunities both in Russia and abroad. For example, Nestle regularly conducts career building seminars, and we make sure to train all managers to help their team members develop.
In 2014, every tenth Nestlé employee in Russia received a promotion within the company, and more than 1,300 people received formal training. Now more than 40 employees of our company are gaining work experience in other countries, and about 50 Nestle employees from other countries work in Russia. However, the process of building a career in a corporation can be longer than in small companies.
Victoria Filippova
coach and partner of the recruiting company Cornerstone
There are specialists who do not consider a career in large organizations, and there are those who want to get into a huge structure immediately after university. Each option has its pros and cons, and to a greater extent the choice here is determined by psychological factors and the personality type of the candidate himself.
In a large company, candidates are primarily attracted to the brand. This is a kind of guarantor of stability, increasing the market value of a specialist, wide networking and an application for serious career achievements. A large staff, multi-level hierarchy, employee training programs and the likelihood of expansion create an extremely positive backdrop for career development. However, very often it is easier to build a career in a small but active company. There is less competition, much more opportunities to prove yourself, and there is direct access to top managers, which together plays a significant role in building a career.
Of course, in a large company, employees receive more benefits in the form of extended insurance, travel allowances, they can be sure that wages will be indexed on time, and all obligations will be fulfilled. At the same time, in most large companies there is a clear division of labor, everyone is responsible for a certain area of work, and expanding functionality is not so easy. If you are an active young specialist who is just deciding on a specialization, then it makes sense to start a career in a medium-sized company, where you will have the opportunity to try on different functions. In addition, when choosing a large company, be prepared for the fact that decision-making is greatly extended over time, everything is certified at different levels.
