If you are just starting to realize your interest in tech companies, you need to do research about the culture and operations of your companies of interest. We’re going to try to categorize some of the major considerations to help get you started. You can expect companies to vary pretty widely in these areas. Remember that very small companies have much more spontaneity because small personnel changes can have great impact. I’ve only worked at 3 different ones, but will be updating this information as I get more input from our volunteer contributors.
Hierarchy and Communications
This refers to the “chain of command” or organization of the company. As companies grow, some of them add more levels of leadership than others. Other companies may grow ‘outward’ and sort of have more expansive teams but less levels of managers. Think about how these structures may impact you as a worker. Along with this, its good to understand whether decisions and priorities are always “top down” in more of a military style, or if the environment is more conducive to being shaped by employees. I’ve worked in one place where we didn’t have a lot of control and that simplified things. But I’ve also worked in places where we have more personal impact but the work is more ambiguous.
Outsourcing Strategy
One very major aspect of tech companies is outsourcing. By this, I mean the use of outside contractors or vendor agencies to perform some of the less sensitive work. If you are going to work in a less technical role, particularly in the areas of operations, the likelihood that you will work with vendors increases with the size of the company. I have been a manager where all my employees were hired through an agency instead of to the company. There are implications to this, because companies must deal with co-employment rules to avoid legal issues. The use of contingent labor has huge impact on the culture and function of teams, so please take it into consideration. Along with this, you should consider the impact of teams being potentially distributed. It is a different experience when you are working directly with people in different time zones, so you should put some thought into how you might like working in that type of environment.
Employee Flexibility
You will find that some companies have more relaxed or trusting cultures when it comes to job flexibility. This could mean that employees have more opportunity to work remote or on a weird schedule to accommodate some personal ambition. You could work for a company that tracks sick days, or not. There are studies that suggest employees actually take *less* leave when it is not tracked. It is worth your consideration how you might use the vacation policy of your options. Also think about parental leave. Every company has a culture around “work-life balance” which means people may feel more or less encouraged to do things like take time off or have an off-schedule day for personal commitments.
Compensation Strategy
Full-time employees at many companies have a host of great benefits, and of course they get paid. But salaries are not always just some base amount of pay and one annual bonus. Obviously if you are going for a sales job, you’ll have a more commission based situation. If you hire into an ops or project management job, you’ll likely have a combination of base pay, bonus, and stocks. The stocks will often be restricted units, which means they take some time to “vest” before you actually take ownership of them. If you leave the company before the vesting period, you forfeit those stocks. You generally get a percentage of these stock units over the term of the vesting period. The additional options such as bonus and stock allow the companies to keep the base salaries from going to high, and they grant a sense of ownership in the achievement of the company. Make sure you are researching the salaries and related info within your desired field so you know what to expect and where to negotiate.
