The Fortune 500, the granddaddy of all business listings, touts size over innovation, quantity over quality, staggering profits over contributions to society.
Such is life. We’re a “quant” nation - one that celebrates home runs rather than on-base percentage; horsepower over mileage; busty blondes (even if they’re recently deceased) instead of - well, you get the idea.
Job creation is happening across the board in our economy, but in the nation’s 500 largest revenue generating public companies - record profits are fueling expansion plans. Years of employee cutbacks, coupled by infrastructure investment, and process refinements are clearly paying off for shareholders of billion-dollar enterprises.
If you’re job prospecting, the F-500 is a useful list, but you have to know how to navigate it for your purposes. On the other hand, if you just like big companies I hear Wal-Mart (No. 1) is looking for some friendly people.
This is where I should mention that there is a list available on this site - ranking the world’s largest employers. Frankly the My Global Career 500 is a quant-list too; note that Wal-Mart rules my roost too but not for its innovative employment practices or for its financial performance. That’s about all the two lists have in common, however, because MGC500 features links to each employer’s job board, and of course, F-500 is for investors rather than job seekers.
To my mind, the most useful part of the F-500 is called the Fortune 1000 - a (larger) ranking of U.S. companies by industry that is organized by revenue (of course) but also, usefully (for our purposes), employment. It shows the total number of employees and the percentage of increase or decrease on a year-over-year (YoY) basis.
I wouldn’t automatically steer clear of companies that are shrinking: quite often, companies scale up or down based upon shifts in business models or skill requirements. Your skills might be in their sweet spot for 2007. In a data sidebar, Fortune also includes a ranking of the top 20 corporate employers in the U.S., but it lacks links to the company’s employment sites.
From the Fortune 1000 - Employment Growth by Industry
Fastest Growing Industries - Year over year % change
- Pipelines 25%
- Savings Institutions  19%
- Computer Peripherals 13%
- Computer Software 13%
- Real Estate 12%
Shrinking Industries - Year over year % change
- Homebuilders -7%
- Paper Products -5%
- Building Materials, Glass -3%
- Tobacco -2%
- Transportation Equip. -2%
Note: Median Employment Change by Industry
Source: Fortune 1000, April 2007
As a researcher (one of my hats) I can relate to ranking companies by size because to do otherwise requires more information than companies are typically willing to share. A ‘Best Places to Work’ type of study, with inputs by corporate executives, won’t satisfy true quants, but it may provide a deeper glimpse into the cultural practices or values we seek in a future employer. On the web, Fortune includes a useful “Best Employers” chart, a mash-up of its Best Companies to Work For study and the F-500. For US$599 you can download the F-500 data (or $999 with executive contacts), but the website is probably the best way to go for most job seekers.
When it comes to evaluating companies are you a quant head too? Do you find the F-500 ranking useful?
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I am exactly two years from presenting myself to select F-500 companies as a managerial candidate. Your article has been very helpful in planning for this. Thanks.