Choosing the right company for you

So your CV is ready, you are prepped for the interview process, and you are now ready to start sending your CV out… but wait, there are so many companies. How do you choose where you want to work? Here are some things that should be considered when choosing a company to work for - and yes the IT industry is in demand for strong IT professionals so you can be picky.

Size does matter

As mentioned in a previous blog, the size of the company makes a significant impact in terms of roles, responsibilities, career opportunities, working dynamics etc. There is no right or wrong size; you need to find what works for you. Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of both:

Advantages of a large company:

• Mature HR procedures and policies
• Structured career paths
• Financially stable

Disadvantages of a larger company:

• Rigid, bureaucratic and inflexible as well as impersonal, with less room for visibility at the top and more layers of management approval required for every decision.
• Positions are clearly defined and developers tend to be pigeon-holed into specific areas of the technology stack and Software Development Lifecycle.

Advantages of a smaller company

• Greater opportunity for visibility by top management
• Generally more opportunity to get involved in all areas of the Software Development Lifecycle as well as all layers of the Software Architecture
• More flexibility in smaller companies and it is typically easier to get buy-in for and implement change

Disadvantages of a smaller company

• Slip ups and weak performances are also more visible by top management
• May not be financially stable

Track record

If the company primarily focuses on consulting, have a look at their website and see if they have a track record listed. Read through the most recent releases and get a gauge of the type of work and technologies the company focusses on primarily. See if the type of projects listed are in line with what you envisage yourself doing, look at the technology stack used in these projects. Is the company making use of the latest technologies and tools? Does the company work across a variety of industries and technologies or are they specialists? Are they doing recurring work for the same clients? Are they growing their client base? These are very pertinent questions that could potentially indicate the health of the company and will give great insight into whether it would be a suitable fit for you.

Training and Mentorship

Mentorship is an integral part of a developer’s growth. I truly believe that for a developer to accelerate his technical growth he or she must be working with stronger developers. This, in my opinion, is critical to laying the foundations of good software practices that will live with a developer throughout his or her career.
Training is just as important for accelerated growth of a developer - do some research and ask around to get some insight into the companies training policies. The company may not need to send you to expensive external training sessions - sometimes self-managed internal training sessions are much better. These are generally focussed sessions presented by senior representatives of staff and have the advantage of being relevant to the current industry trends. These are usually run throughout the year which can be far more beneficial than attending a 3 day course once a year.

This will be continued in the next blog where I will discuss things like company culture and values, reputation of the company and its staff, management team and employee turnover and why these should be considered when making your decision.

Using LinkedIn to find a job (Part 2 - Etiquette)

As mentioned in previous posts, LinkedIn can be quite handy to determine information about a prospective company. You can use it to look at various things like the profiles of the staff of that company (are these the kind of people you’d want to work with), staff movements (i.e. does the company retain its staff successfully), skillsets of the staff and senior management etc. The company will also probably have its own profile page which may give some more information to supplement their website as to what they do. If all the information checks out and the company looks like a viable option for you, chances are they will have the contact details of someone who will help you through a recruitment process.

However, before making contact, there are a few useful etiquette tips that one should follow:

• First check whether the company has a careers portal or email address before trying to make contact via LinkedIn. LinkedIn should be a last resort, but most companies will have an easier and less intrusive way of reaching their HR/recruitment departments.
• Send personalised messages – be original and avoid using the templates provided.
• Send messages to people at the correct level – for example sending a “hire me” message to the CEO of a company with 20,000 staff members may not receive a response.

Other etiquette rules outside the scope of this discussion include:

• Don’t ask connections that you don’t know personally or professionally for recommendations – this is considered rude.
• Don’t use LinkedIn like other social platforms. Post only headlines that your connections would find useful or informative
• Remember that it is a professional network so you must act in this manner i.e. watch your language, don’t post abuse etc.