Before you apply for a new job, work out this one simple thing

If you crudely divided up the working population, most people would fit into one of two categories. There are those who seek the safety and structure of working at large companies, and those who crave the speed and autonomy of smaller ones.

Of course, you’re likely to see-saw between working at businesses of all different sizes throughout your career, but I’m certain that deep down you know which type you prefer.

Do you love the hustle and bustle of a big office, or the peace and quiet of a small team?Credit: iStock

When I was running my media company, I became pretty good at predicting the likelihood of how long a new staff member would last. We were a fast-paced team of 60, accustomed to making quick decisions in the morning that would often be implemented by the afternoon.

One of the biggest predictors of a new team member’s success was how much of their career they’d spent in similar-size businesses. If they arrived at the job with full knowledge of the pros and cons of working inside a small organisation, their chances of thriving would increase dramatically.

Smaller to medium-sized businesses, or those with less than 200 staff, are usually the best places for people who desire strong life-work balance, flexible conditions and who want the ability to influence decisions quickly and easily. The drawbacks are that the pace in which it operates can be dizzyingly fast, with less support around for those who need it.

Larger companies, on the other hand, tend to have more structured career advancement, higher remuneration and more time for big decisions to be interrogated from all angles. The flipside is that the business often moves at a snail’s pace, as well as a long list of frustrations that come alongside bureaucracy and office politics.

The size of the business you work for is important, but so are the values, people, work and mission that underpin the organisation.

I know clearly which type I prefer, mainly driven by the fact I’ve spent almost all my career so far in smaller businesses, ranging from one to 100 staff members. I adore the short distance between idea and execution, and that you can gather all the decision-makers into a single room to make collective decisions on the spot.

These are the conditions that I thrive in, and work researchers call this person-organisation fit. This is how well who you are as a human lines up with a company’s culture, mission and vision. There has been study after study that shows how getting this right has a direct and strong correlation to job satisfaction, performance and retention.

Understanding if you’re a big or small company person is not an exact science, and just because you began your career in a company of a certain size doesn’t mean that you’re destined to only ever work in similar ones for the rest of it.

But clearly understanding which type of company you like and, more importantly, why you prefer working for these, can help you find the best person-organisation fit that works for you.

Yes, the size of the business you work for is important, but so are the values, people, work and mission that underpin the organisation. And if you can get all these basics aligned with your own, you’ll start to thrive at work no matter what the company size.

Tim Duggan is the author of Work Backwards: The Revolutionary Method to Work Smarter and Live Better. He writes a regular newsletter at timduggan.substack.com

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