What to Expect - Taking a Sales or Marketing Job at a Large Company

There are vast differences between working at a larger organization and a smaller, more entrepreneurial firm.

Just like anything else in both employment and life, each has its pros and cons.

Here are a couple of each when you choose to work at a larger, more established firm:

• Pro: Formalized Training

For those who are just entering their career, taking a job at a larger company may be a good bet, in that larger firms typically hold more formalized trainings.

Smaller companies sometimes overlook the importance of hands-on employee training.

This is not always a rule of thumb, however many small companies lack the resources and time to provide training sessions, which often assist the employees in the firm when executing their daily tasks.

• Con: Bureaucracy

Although unwieldy bureaucracy is not exclusive to larger companies, many bigger firms carry this less than ideal setup.

An overly complex internal bureaucracy often does not bode well for employees who are less savvy at interpersonal politics.

Many employees at larger firms will wait years and years prior to even getting the smallest of promotions. Worse, some will wait and consistently get passed over.

As a job seeker, what is one of the best ways to gauge how bureaucratic a company is?

Find out how long certain individuals have been at their particular roles.

Remember that there is usually a direct relationship between number of years each employee has been at their current role and the ease of advancement within the organization.

• Pro: Name Recognition

Name recognition, for sales employees especially, makes business development easier.

Companies tend to feel more comfortable hiring more established organizations when choosing vendors, and getting your foot in the door is easier when your potential client has already heard of your employer.

However, name recognition can prove to be a negative for marketing employees who wish to be more hands-on with building policy.

Bigger firms tend to have their marketing campaigns in place, thus making the job a little more stagnant than marketing at smaller and start-up companies.

• Con: Commission Packages and Raises

Due to the name recognition that sales representatives often enjoy working with larger companies, they are often compensated less in the area of sales commission.

Many larger firms have set bonuses for those who meet their quota and only a small increase for those who exceed their numbers, leaving paychecks somewhat stagnant for the business development employees.

The key in determining whether a larger company is right for you is in the details.

In the end, making sweeping generalizations that rule out all large companies or all small companies is not good job-search sense.

Take the individual pros and cons of each firm and let the general pros and cons of working for larger firms be signposts along your job search way, not step-by-step directions.