I recently started a new job when I moved across the country. I am now a Bay Area resident. Yes, I’m an Indian American. No, I do not work in tech. Now that we have that cleared up, let’s get to my real point. I started working for a smaller company a few months ago and it’s been a relief to get out of the Corporate rat race.
Culture in Corporate America is pretty competitive especially, if you are part of a class of recruits/analysts. I’ve always been in a competitive environment starting from high school and being part of this competitive environment continued into my college years and later into my professional life. But this competitive atmosphere didn’t really get to me until I was in my second Corporate Finance job.
At my first job I was promoted and rotated to a new role in a year and that was an unexpected turn of events. Other analysts had been in their jobs for 18-24 months before rotating so this quick climb up the ladder made me feel like I was part of the popular clique in Corporate Finance.
How things changed quickly at my next job where I was again expecting to be promoted fairly quickly as my predecessor had been. But alas this was not the case. I was not part of the popular clique anymore and my senior leadership were not exposed to my work nor did they care much to develop me. To make things worse, all the senior leaders in the team who would’ve had a say in my promotion or rotation transitioned to new roles and I was left to build rapport and trust with the new leadership all over again.
Competition is mainly driven by two ways at large companies. One is driven by the performance management system where employees are rated and ranked on a bell curve. High performers get the high ratings and even those are subjective in my opinion based on the rapport you have with your leadership team, the projects you’re working on and the visibility and impact of those projects. Many times this is out of your control. I’ve observed that strategic roles are looked upon more favorably than roles that keep the wheels spinning and you can guess which side I was a part of. There was way to make my forecasting and planning role sound sexy. Plan. Actuals. Forecast. Variance. How much sexier and cooler can it get?
The other way that competition is fueled in Corporate America is through the heavy networking and grueling internal job application process. If you think that getting hired the first time is hard, think again. Rotating to new roles within companies is like performing an elaborate dance where you have to have endless coffee chats, nod and smile your way through happy hours, volunteer for extra projects, and always put a positive spin on everything. And on top of that you have to have leadership that is looking out for your best interest so a bad boss or a bad boss’s boss is no bueno.
While competition is healthy and fuels you to do better, it can also become extreme and unhealthy. In the workplace so much is dependent on who likes you and working on high impact and visibility projects which many times is out of your control, that the dance becomes exhaustive. At least thats how I felt at my last two workplaces. For an introvert the networking aspect is dreadful. Having to make small talk with people and to ask for their “sage” advice is draining. And as someone who is not a natural at self-promotion, making my let’s keep the wheels spinning jobs sound more exciting than they were was a hurdle.
After engaging in this intricate dance and even interviewing for a role business school saved me. Unfortunately, I was back in the same boat at my job after business school. The type of competition – being rated on a bell curve and the constant need to put yourself out there naturally favors the extroverts and pushes you to shift your focus towards others instead of yourself. At least it did to me.
I constantly worried about how much others were networking, how much exposure they got to senior leadership, what ERGs (employee resource groups) they participated in and took leadership positions in. When it came time for job rotations, I wondered why those particular individuals were rotated. And given the bell curve rating system no matter how hard I worked didn’t guarantee a high performance rating which was demoralizing and forced me stop going above and beyond. Hard work and the reward system did’t align.
At my current company, the teams are lean and folks are either at the beginning of their careers or have tons of experience. At this point in my career I find this to be an advantage. I can focus on me — on what I want to learn and get exposure to, build my skillset and network in an organic way. This decreased levels of competition is healthy for now as I embark on my Marketing career and take steps to establish myself without worrying about how I compare to others. I was very much in need of a reprieve from the cutthroat Corporate America culture.
I know that in the future I will have to think about the next step in my career, which will have to include increased responsibility and decision making power — career advancement along with climbing the ladder. But until then I am happy to focus on ME, MYSELF, and I.
