Archive for February, 2007

Archives for Biggest Employers

A friend of mine abdicated her executive throne at a multinational corporation to pursue her dreams of working for a small, non-profit organization. Once there, however, she came to a difficult realization: she prefers the perks and resources of a larger enterprise.

I had the opposite awakening one day in the back row of a college class packed with 700 freshmen students. Large universities aren’t well-suited for every type of student: what they offer in scale they also sacrifice in intimacy. The same dichotomy applies to choosing an employer.

Although bigger isn’t always better, in 2007 we developed My Global Career 500, the first directory of the world’s largest corporate employers, keeping in mind the virtues of working for large employers.

The trade offs are pretty clear: Large companies tend to be more structured, hierarchical and standardized in their operations than small or midsize firms. Large companies have more resources but also impose more bureaucracy than smaller ones. Generally it is more competitive to land a job at a proven company than at a younger enterprise (with the notable exception of hot high-tech firms).

Yet, once in, there are more opportunities to advance your career in large companies, here’s why:

• You’re more likely to receive better benefits such as training or profit sharing
• You have more options to relocate or try different jobs
• Large companies may have programs to advance diversity and multiculturalism
• Large enterprises are often global in scope and have more jobs with global responsibilities and interaction.

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Archives for Research

I always enjoy the lists that Forbes produces, except for the ones that exclude me, such as Top Models and World’s Richest. But I digress – let’s check out Forbes’ Best Cities for Jobs report.

As you might expect, Forbes’ research was a domestic exercise and out of 100 metropolitan markets, 25 were deemed “best.” I have no qualms with their top choice, Raleigh, North Carolina. The key to Raleigh’s pole position is its proximity to Research Triangle Park, a 7,000 acre sprawl of offices, pines and parking lots, packed with R&D, high-tech and biotech global career opportunities. Raleigh-Cary deserves raves for its scenic beauty, affordable housing, and fine universities such as Duke, NC State and UNC.

Let’s not quibble too much about Forbes’ list, because it wasn’t intended to be global in its scope (or use). But if you’re evaluating your next career move would you give an “equal” weighting to these five categories: “Unemployment rate, job growth, income growth, median household income, and cost of living”?  Sounds reasonable (if you have the data), but the formula yields curious choices such as Jacksonville, Florida, at No. 3 or Oklahoma City at No. 21 (true, it has multinational oil firms). Maybe it’s my big-city bias, but unless your priorities are low-cost housing, Oklahoma Sooner football or petrochemicals, why would you choose to live in Oklahoma City over New York City at No. 75, Pittsburgh at No. 76, Chicago at No. 82, Boston at No. 83, and last, but definitely not least, San Francisco/Silicon Valley at No. 86?

As they say, your results will vary. How would you choose the world’s best cities for global work? Let us know if it’s a project we should pursue.

Archives for Relocations

William Herbert aspired to a global life earlier than most of us elect to tackle a second language. From high school on, Herbert, who grew up in Seattle, American Samoa and Guam, planned to speak and study Japanese and eventually move to Japan. Herbert, a trailblazing lawyer with expertise in global trade, realized his expatriate ambitions despite the insular nature of Japanese business culture. One co-worker compared him to a “virus … injected into the company to stir things up.”

Undeterred, Herbert spent 10 years in Japan, including several years as the first non-Japanese hire of the country’s second largest pharmaceutical company, Sankyo Co. Ltd. “I wasn’t hired to put an international face on the company,” he says, “as much as to help them understand the U.S. legal market and recognize risks in western people and society.”

He was well-prepared the day he arrived in Tokyo at the outset of his legal career in February, 2000. Armed with a Curriculum Vitae (CV) written in Kanji, Herbert, who interviewed in Japanese, received multiple job offers at a Boston career fair sponsored by Japanese employers seeking Japanese students educated in America. (We will keep an eye on bilingual and global career fairs such as this recent one in New York City.)

Of course, fitting into the Japanese legal community is easier said than done for a Caucasian, even one conversant in both the language and customs. Sankyo “socializes” all of its new hires in a boot-camp type of orientation, says Herbert for whom the experience of living in a bachelor’s dormitory with communal facilities was not a dream come true. “I went through the orientation business program and learned how to bow, how to present my business card, how to answer the phones and write email in Japanese.”

Herbert returned to the states recently, recruited for a job in Atlanta with Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP, a law firm with a global business practice. “I have been making relatively regular trips to Tokyo, once every three months to visit clients and potential clients,” says Herbert. Like a true veteran, Herbert seeks advantages in the time-zone gap. “Email helps a lot. I can send an email in Japanese to someone during the day here and at about 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. Atlanta (ET) time they will see the email and I can view their response about 10 p.m. and respond if necessary.”

He recommends a global career path to those who seek his counsel. “I think there are great rewards associated with an international career or working in a country other than your own,” advises Herbert. “Being in a country and culture other than your own let’s you grow in ways you can’t grow back home – everything from trying different foods to learning a different language. Seeing how people do business a different way. It helps you to reexamine the way things are done here.” 

Archives for Research

In an era where diversity is a strategic part of workforce planning, we take it for granted that this practice helps to engage minority workers and broaden corporate culture.

The “accepted wisdom” about diversity programs in multinational companies is that they sensitize workers about how to deal with the challenges of collaborating on global teams.

But what if this precept is wishful thinking? Research by Harvard Professor Robert Putnam suggests that ethnic diversity builds distrust and a lack of civic engagement. “The effect of diversity is worse than had been imagined,” he told the Financial Times. “And it’s not just that we don’t trust people who are not like us. In diverse communities, we don’t trust people who do look like us.”

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