Ask Trish

O'Reilly School of Technology Guidance Counselor Trish Gray answers your questions about your I.T. Career goals and how to reach them.

About the Author
In addition to helping students and I.T. professionals for 13 years, Tricia Mills Gray has been the Senior Development Manager of OST since it's inception as UserActive in 1997. She was the 2002 SBA Midwest Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and is currently writing the OST PHP/SQL Series. She holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois College of Engineering.

Today's Column:

Going from Big Corporation to Small Innovation

Dear Trish:
I am 48 and recently accepted a voluntary redundancy from a major Telco. I have worked in the LAN / WAN / TCP-IP / data hosting industry for ~19 years.

Instead of working for large organisations, as I have done to date, I'd like to try my hand in smaller more innovative companies. My concern is that my age and big corporate background may count against me.

Are there any tips you'd recommend for someone in my situation?

Tim from Randwick, Australia

Dear Tim:
Thanks for contacting me. After working in one market segment for so long, it can be scary to jump outside your comfort zone -- even if that comfort zone, to you, is an enormous high-tech corporation. And since smaller companies have a reputation for fast-paced growth and fresh ideas, I can see how someone would think that only the young, entrepreneurial types need apply.

But don't believe it. By default, smaller companies are desperately seeking a way to gain market share from their Goliath cousins, and you have assets that are coveted perhaps more than any other -- the inside track. You've been there, you've experienced how the successful corporations work, and you've got the bigwig contact network. If anything, the smaller companies will probably be intimidated by *you*, not the other way around.

And herein lies the challenge. If you're going to pursue the small company route, you will need to convince them of the following:

1. That you will not try to take over. Most small companies look to their larger counterparts as successful role-models as well as competitors, and as such feel a bit insecure. While to you the company may look fresh and innovative, they as a startup may see themselves as disorganized imposters. So when it comes to someone like you, they may fear that you will immediately see through their "charade" and try to make them into a large corporate clone. For this reason, it's important for you to come in with an enthusiasm for their unique vision, and a willingness to direct your extensive experience toward solving their problems--the way they want them to be solved.
   
   
2. That you *can* work with young, entrepreneurial types. Usually, the reason smaller companies are filled with these types is simply that they have more flexibility with regards to salary and risk. It doesn't always mean that they'll have fresher ideas than you, nor does it mean that they'll be the most confident leaders. But in this case, they will be your peers--not your underlings--and they need to know you'll treat them this way.
   
   I've hired a few employees who are older than myself, and each time I was very nervous -- it didn't feel right for me to be in the position of authority, and I worried that they would resent reporting to someone younger than their kid sisters. But this was my problem, not theirs, and because they each made me feel comfortable as a peer, I got past it -- and we worked together beautifully.
   
   
3. That you won't break their bank. Probably the biggest worry with a small company hiring big-company alumni is the salary requirement. You may have expectations much higher than what they can spare, or they may hope that you will accept a more flexible payment option, like base + royalties or profit sharing. So while you shouldn't let them pay you less than you are worth, you should make it clear that you understand the risks involved with forgoing the comfort of clockwork raises, bonuses and fringe benefits, and will commit to growing the company into something that can easily take care of its staff like its larger counterparts.

Now, it can never hurt to research the companies where you'd like to work, to find out more about their business models, corporate culture, and what they expect from hires, technologically and beyond. Not only will this give you a leg up in pursuing the company, but it will also let you know if you need to supplement your experience with training in new technologies. Pursuing "hot" technologies is not always the universal answer -- it might be that the innovation happening at your target company is being built completely in, say, plain C.

It's obvious that you're ready for a change, so as long as you're willing to learn and try new things, you're already going in the right direction. You might just find your small-company experience to be less stressful and more rewarding than your large corporate background allowed you to expect.

And the small company? They'll be high-fiving their extraordinary luck in finding you.

Thanks,
Trish

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• A Programmer Feels Overwhelmed With New Technologies
• A Novice Wants to Break Into the I.T. Field
• Is Going Back to College the Answer?
• A Dedicated Mom Returns to the I.T. Workforce