Recruitment Fatigue? How to Choose the “Right” Company
Software Engineers — I get it — you get TONS of InMail.
You also see your share of recruitment posts flooding your feed: “We’re hiring! Come join our team!”
The sheer volume is enough to make you tune out.
If you’re a talented Engineer who’s in a reasonably positive and rewarding environment, the probability of you taking interest is slim-to-none.
However, if you seek to master your craft, you know that diversity of experience, new domains, and new people can accelerate your learning and growth.
You don’t want to get too comfortable, but how do you separate the noise from opportunities that are worth exploring?
Company Growth = Personal Growth
Regardless of your career goals, your personal growth within a company is often linked to the growth of the company itself. Both revenue growth and headcount growth are worth considering.
Have any growth plans been shared publicly? What does the past 1–2 years look like?
Some companies are obviously growing, but some growth phases may present more opportunity (and excitement!) than others.
In other words, you may find it more exciting going to a company that will more than double to 10,000 employees in a few years than a company that is already 10,000+.
Think about it. Company growth profile matters.
Purpose
For a growing number of technology professionals, having a positive social impact matters.
That’s encouraging, as there are a number of issues facing humanity, from global warming and pollution, to food scarcity, degradation of soil, and of course a global pandemic.
Technology can have a significant, positive impact in confronting and addressing these issues and many more, so the companies you choose to engage with and work for is one way to get involved.
If positive social impact is important to you, and especially if your current job doesn’t deliver in this area, it may be time to start looking.
Culture
What kind of work environment do you desire?
Setting a clear direction with vision and values, and constantly reinforcing it, is an important leadership skill of great CEOs.
Does the company know its identity? Do they root their decisions in a strong set of values? Do they have a compelling vision?
Are you aligned with their “north star”?
These are important considerations for the broader company, but don’t overlook the culture of the specific team that is hiring. The manager or leadership of that team will have a notable part to play in it’s culture.
What are the manager’s personal leadership principles? Can they describe their leadership style and their own set of values? Do their points of emphasis resonate with you personally?
Technology
Of course technology matters.
Do you have affinity to a specific language or tech stack? Everyone seems to have their preferences.
For more experienced Software Engineers, current skill set is a factor and alignment often matters.
For those who pride themselves on versatility and foundational concepts of Computer Science, the specific tech stack may matter less. For these folks, the domain, business impact, and system-level challenges tend to be of greater interest.
Why Veeva?
If you’ve made it this far, you’re putting some thought into your next opportunity.
Veeva Systems is accelerating the global life sciences industry with next generation cloud-based applications. We’re also doing plenty of hiring.
How do we stack up on the above points?
- On Growth, Veeva is at 4,000 today with plans to be at 10,000 employees by 2025
- On Purpose, as mentioned, Veeva is accelerating the global Life Sciences industry, getting needed medicines to the patients that need it most. We are also exploring becoming a Public Benefit Company
- On Culture, Veeva’s vision is to “Build the Industry Cloud for Life Sciences”, with the Values “Do The Right Thing”, “Customer Success”, “Employee Success” and “Speed”. Each company meeting begins by reinforcing it, and you will hear it echoed in most of what we do.
- On Technology, Veeva is in the domain of Enterprise Content Management, but in particular by using a true software platform to rapidly build high-impact, next generation applications for Life Sciences.
If you want to read more, check out our careers site.
