Inside View from Outside

I meet with a career coach and many times she will plant a question at the end of our session. It’s a question to think about and then discuss at the next meeting. The last time we met her question was “how is your past employer viewed by those outside the company?” Well, you can bet I’m not going to publish my response in this blog but I am going to toss around some thoughts related to the question and why it should matter.

My first thought was the old phrase about the grass always being greener on the other side of the street. For example, does someone outside your company think it has more mature methodologies? Or do they think because it is a large enterprise, it probably has well defined and executed processes?

To a major extent project management is like a big, extended family. We meet at local PMI Chapter meetings. We move between companies both locally and nationally (and beyond). We blog and Twitter (or is that tweet? I can never tell!) When we share what life is like in our respective companies, others listen.

As we share information about our companies, we are helping others form their opinions regarding it. Certainly a wise / experienced listener will try to filter the shared information. They will consider many things when deciding to believe what they are hearing. Do they sense anger? Was the person just released? Do they suspect an agenda… hidden or not? etc.

For me, I take the easy path. I believe it is easier to tell the true than to lie. So when I talk about life in a company, I try to be as honest as I can. The reason I say “as honest as I can” is I don’t share things that can be too revealing… something that violates corporate privacy standards. But if the company has immature methodology I don’t try to hide it. I also don’t exaggerate because the listener may know better and I’d look like a fool.

So to prepare for my next career coaching meeting, I have to trade roles and think about how others view my past employer. It’s a team meeting so maybe I can go last… now that’s a plan!