A Guide to Large Companies for Former Startup Employees

My professional career started in Silicon Valley, with its cult of startups.? For many years, I was convinced that all cool kids start companies, or at the very least work for startups, and not for large companies. ? Being acqui-hired into Yahoo only confirmed my suspicion - I did not enjoy my time there.? But as I gained more and more experience and perspective, I’ve realized that the picture is not as black and white as I thought.??

To be sure, there are good startups and bad startups.? Good large companies and bad large companies.? Both startups and large companies have some amazing people and some not so amazing people.? All true.? But the truth is, large companies and small companies are different.? So here is a list of my recommendations of how to do well in a good large company, especially if you are coming from the startup world.??

Understand the Explicit Focus on Culture

The first thing you may be surprised by in a large company is all the talk about the culture.? Explicit values, principles, whole documents about culture.? Contrast this to a startup, where a culture more often than not is implicit.? In fact, I always felt that in a startup culture is what one does, not what one says.? You model the culture, rather than talk about it.??

The challenge of a large company, of course, is that just modeling the culture by founders is not enough - the company is way too large.? If one wants to have a coherent culture and promote certain behaviors, one needs to start writing things down, and sharing them explicitly. ? I still feel sometimes large companies overdo it, and sometimes some of the values and principles are just common sense. ? But still, it’s important to understand the intent of all the focus on culture - at the very least it helps you understand the company you’ve joined.

Focus on Moving Fast

One of the biggest complaints about large companies is that they move slowly. On some level it is true - of course startups can move faster than most large companies. ? But it does not always have to be this way - a large company can move fast, but it does not come naturally to it.? It takes every explicit effort, and it has to be a part of the culture (see above).? This is why Meta’s first value has always been “Move Fast”.?

Even if you work for a large company where this is not an explicit value, always think about how you can move faster.? It’s uncomfortable, it comes with many tradeoffs, but if a large company is not focusing on it, by default it will slow down to a crawl.? Good large companies want to avoid this at any cost, and thus reward those who help them move faster.

Focus on Goals and Alignment

This is another area that may be weird to you.? In a startup, the goals are usually easy to understand - often a startup is formed to address a very specific problem. ?Also, in a startup, the number of people involved in any decision is very small.? Often a decision is made by just one person - the founder.

When you join a large company, you may discover that people talk about alignment a lot.? At first it may feel weird, and sound very bureaucratic.? I know that’s how I felt. ? But given the size of the company, and given that any non-trivial project involves many decision-makers, aligning is an essential skill.??

There are many techniques and processes for it - it’s best to understand how the company you work for aligns on decisions big and small.? For example, most companies have a planning process, with specific alignment steps.? It’s really important to understand these processes.? If you don’t have alignment, it’s impossible to move fast, or to move at all.

Focus on Relationships

The absolutely key part of working in a large company is focusing on building relationships.? I remember how shortly after I joined Yahoo, I needed something from another Director. ? I went to him, and made what I thought was a perfectly convincing case for why it was in the best interests of our orgs to do it - yet he said No.? Puzzled and disappointed, I came to my VP - what the heck, I? asked?? To which he asked me in turn: how many times have you talked to this guy before?? Zero?? So you don’t have any relationship with him?? Why do you expect him to? take your arguments seriously?

To be honest, I did not like this answer.? If my arguments make sense, I thought, they should be accepted regardless of a “relationship”.? Who has time to build all these relationships just in case, I thought?

But over time I realized that he was right, and I was wrong.? Maybe in the ideal world we would run companies without relationships - but in this real world, relationships are key.? Invest in them.? Cherish them.? Maintain them.? In a large company, getting anything done takes relationships, whether you like it or not.

Focus on Being Closer to Customers

I remember many years ago when I was building an enterprise software startup, a friendly advisor asked me: why can’t Microsoft build this?? What’s your advantage here?? I started answering about our unique technology and our strong technical team.? Nonsense, he said.? Microsoft has 100 times as many talented senior architects? as you do.? Your only advantage is that these architects sit deep inside Microsoft and don’t talk to customers - you do.??

I remembered this conversation very clearly. ? Indeed, I’ve discovered that in many large companies most engineers and even product managers (!) don’t talk to customers. ? Consequently, this is an opportunity for you: crave contact with customers.? Make your way into any customer conversation you can.? This can be your secret power for success in a large company.

(Do or Do Not) Focus on Career Growth

Finally, I want to mention the Career Growth subject. ? This topic does not even exist in smaller startups.? There is no career ladder, levels, ratings, promos.? When you join a large company, you discover a whole new world of career growth.? You may discover that some people really focus on things like ratings and promos - and it may be uncomfortable. ? Should you do the same?

Here is my advice.? If you are a manager, you don’t have a choice.? You have to understand your company’s career growth framework intimately, so that you can guide your team and help them achieve their career goals.??

But for yourself - only you can decide what’s right for you.? It’s a good idea to understand what the company’s expectations are for your level and for the next level.? But paradoxically, some of the people I’ve seen advance fastest in large companies are the people who don’t worry explicitly about advancement.? They focus on doing the right thing for the customer, for the company, for the org - and then good things happen to their career.???

The above, however, assumes that you work for a good large company.? If you managed to join a bad toxic large company, or a bad startup for that matter, my advice is to work on changing your job.? No posts will make you happy there.?