If you could decide — where would you work?
Billion dollar company or self-employed?
Would you walk into Facebook’s or Google’s office? Would you work for Apple?
Let’s say you live in a world where you could decide where you work. No interview needed. Just you, walking into a company and starting to work.
But that’s not all: Let’s say you also won the lottery. I mean something like at least 20 million bucks. Yes, you would have a shit load of money and I guess most of us would go on vacation for some time. Traveling the world, spending money, doing crazy stuff.
But what next?
Would you return to your old job? Would you start your own company to realise all you’ve ever imagined? Would you choose Facebook to be your new employer?
To be honest, I have no idea how I would answer this question. Of course — thinking of working at a company like Facebook, Apple or Google sounds like a dream. But what would be different about Facebook in comparison to any other company? Yes, they are big and do cool stuff everyone knows. But other company’s do cool stuff too.
Is knowing the product a criteria for choosing the employer?
I guess if I had to choose, I would be self-employed. Creating own products and additionally working for company’s to help them realising their projects. Some kind of 70/30, depending on the projects. Of course it would be nice, if everyone in the world knows the stuff you you are working on. But I think the amount of people knowing your product doesn’t matter. I believe it’s way more important how they feel and what they think about it.
Having 60k users loving — I mean really loving—your product is in my opinion a million times better, than 20 million users and only some of them really like it. Well, you could say: Fuck it, I have 20 million users each month and I earn money with them. You could.
But let’s have a closer look.
Having 20 million users each month of course is a criteria for your product. There must be something, why so many people are using it. But what means 20 million users? Are they all using your product on purpose? Or just random, because they found your link on any social media timeline?
You see the difference?
It is no coincidence, that big company’s have so called “loyalty teams” — a whole team that works on making their customers or users more loyal. You know why? Because they know, too, that it is important to have users that really use/like/love/enjoy their product.
Is reach a criteria?
Is it, or not? For me personally not. I care about the love I can put into a product.
So the question for me is, which employer gives me the chance to put as much love and effort as I can into the project I’m working on? Especially for me it’s important to be able to think about what I do again and again. Having the possibility to start over and over again, without thinking about money from day one. That’s what I think is the way to create awesome products.
Do what you love and love what you do.
As I said, I have no idea, how I would answer the question. I’m not even sure, if the topics I wrote about are criteria for me.
If I’m being honest, after writing this post I am sure, that for me the most important criteria is the product itself. If I love its idea and have the urge to make it successful in whatever way possible, then I am where I want to be.
But now my question goes up to you: If you could decide—where would you work?
I really hope you enjoyed this article and might found it helpful. I’d also appreciate some ❤ from you. Thanks.
My name is Michèl Passin and I create interfaces for web and mobile applications. I have more than 11 years of professional experience in design, UI / UX and frontend development. Apart from that, I love to spend my time as a photographer. My favourite color is white.
