Your First Role at a Big Company Will Probably Suck

Just Embrace It

If you have never worked at a big company, you’ll probably find it to be a strange and foreign land. People will do and say things that don’t make sense. They will get upset about things that seem trivial, and be unconcerned with things that seem important. If you are coming from a smaller company, you may be deeply surprised to learn just how important workplace politics are.

But even if you join a big company with years of experience working at similar-sized behemoths, your first role at the new company is still probably going to suck. Why is that and what can you do about it? 

The Dynamics of Suckitude

First, let’s explain the simple game theory that goes into the process of hiring externally at a huge corporation.

At any large company, there are hundreds or potentially thousands of qualified internal job candidates at any given time. These people have a huge leg up on someone applying externally. They will have learned most of the organization’s values and processes. They will have much better knowledge of the team’s reputation. They can casually chat with the hiring manager. 

On the flip side, hiring managers at big companies have strong incentives to hire internally for all the same reasons. They can informally check on the work quality of an applicant. They can often view former team assignments and performance ratings. They can meet internal candidates in a more informal setting to determine their interest. 

If you are a hiring manager, you probably want to hire internally. If you are an applicant, you want to be hired internally. That means that for most roles, if you’re being hired externally, you are very likely taking a role that no internal candidate wants.

Think about that for a moment: hundreds or potentially thousands of qualified internal candidates with better information than you looked at the job you’re about to take and said “nah, I’ll pass.” 

That’s a very strong signal that it’s a role that has critical problems. If you’re really lucky, the only big problem is that the hiring manager (your future boss) is really bad at hiring. More likely, there are a slew of problems: it’s probably in an org that doesn’t have a great reputation, working for a new manager, on a problem that’s poorly-understood or low priority. 

Avoiding the Suck with a Personal Recommendation

So, is there any way to ensure that your first role at a big company doesn’t suck? 

Yes, but it requires that you never apply for a job in the first place. 

If you have a personal introduction to either the team or the hiring manager, you can often break out of these lose-lose game theory dynamics.

Let’s assume that rather than posting a job and going through the normal hiring process, a hiring manager thinks “hmmm, I really wish I could convince my awesome former coworker to help us solve this problem.” 

Then, rather than posting a job description, they reach out to you and pitch you informally. If you seem interested, they finally create a job description. This job description isn’t posted to collect applicant information and go through the normal recruiting process. It exists solely to provide a way to formalize their intent to offer the role to you. 

In this case, all of the adverse signaling goes away. Internal candidates didn’t turn down your role because it was never offered to them. The problem is also probably real and urgent, otherwise the hiring manager wouldn’t be willing to stake their reputation on hiring a particular person.

Sidestepping with An Internal Transfer

Even if you aren’t able to get recruited by a hiring manager for a real and pressing problem, you can always do the next best thing: transfer internally. Here, the play is to take whatever is given to you as your first role, knowing you’ll probably need to find another one soon after joining. This isn’t as terrible as it sounds: remember that you’ll have all the advantages of an internal applicant for that next search. 

In my own career, I’ve used both of these strategies to find roles that are compelling. When I was younger and had less experience, I had to simply take what I could get and transfer later. Now that I’m more established, I’m fortunate enough to rely on personal introductions. 

Whatever your strategy for finding a big company role that doesn’t suck, just remember not to blame yourself for your first team’s dysfunction. There are powerful forces at play that make it tough to succeed in your first role in a big organization.