Shedding The Cachet Culture

With so many enterprise tech companies laying off hundreds of thousands of employees, I want to share some insights with y’all from my early career days at Microsoft and Amazon. This was all before I became a recruiter (and then a few years after that). To set the stage, my early career in Seattle was as a career contractor at Microsoft. As in, several YEARS there before the big co-employment lawsuit that led to their “Break in Service” policy (I was one of the first to roll off a contract and be impacted - it was originally a 30 day break, then for the longest time a 100-day break, and a few years ago it was 18/6 -months on contract/off).

I was also part of an acquisition of a startup that joined Amazon well before it employed a million people. I had my wooden door desk, I got excited when the stock rose and split, I took my cat - first one ever in the PacMed HQ , I was told - to work on my birthday. I even had lunch once with Jeff Bezos (he joined a bunch of us having a picnic lunch because he wanted to chat with our Director - this was LONG before he became one of the richest men in the world…over 20 years ago.) In addition to working at Amazon and Microsoft, I have also worked (FTE) at HP and Twitter, so my personal experience encompasses several enterprise tech giants. I was laid off from all three of the FTE roles.

Microsoft is an INCREDIBLE company - the culture, the people, the technology, the tools. I have said my entire career in tech that if I had not had the opportunity to contract at Microsoft, I don’t believe I would have reached my full intellectual potential professionally. It is an environment that demands you function at a high capacity, and I also personally believe contractors that survive there are some of the smartest, most adaptable on the planet - because you don’t have access to the same training as your FTE peers, but you still have the same deliverables and expectations for production. One of the more unique factors about Microsoft is what a complete ecosystem it is - everything works TOGETHER because it is all under the same tech umbrella. The goal of almost every contractor/vendor was to have the opportunity to become a “blue badge” - an FTE.

So here is where I am going to talk about the fact that people at large organizations get addicted to the culture, the resources, and the cachet of working at enterprise “name brand” companies. It is more than just the pay and perks. It is the pride that comes with knowing they have been hired as the “best of the best”. Not just in themselves, but also when their parents can tell the social set that “my daughter works at Microsoft” or “my son just got hired at Google!”

And the earlier in your career you join one of these enterprise brands, the more impact it makes on your professional (and self) identity. As a recruiter, I am well aware of the rigorous interview processes and standards at these companies and how many resources are poured into training interviewers, evaluating data constantly to improve processes, access to tools to build world class employment brands and uncover the best of the best talent. I also have several friends that have had horrendous experiences at Microsoft, Google, and Amazon in different roles/teams.

So for those of you that have been impacted from enterprise tech companies - you have an additional challenge - divorcing your self-identity from the “brand”, and recognizing that your next job will probably have fewer resources but more opportunity for you. It is not an easy transition, and it will take effort and time. Give yourself time to grieve, but I would also recommend you start reframing your thoughts on your next opportunity. It’s going to be a rough road if you are not able to do that.

Finally, I am adding this EXCELLENT post for more down to earth advice.