One thing that I have struggled with thinking about since I have been in college is what I want my career to look like. Obviously I have a focus on Business, specifically Finance, and I have always thought that I would enjoy a career in non-profit management, however when it comes to company culture I am torn between wanting a more “traditional” 9-5 job or a job with more of a relaxed culture and work life balance. So far, we have heard from people who work in both environments, with our Docusign presentation today feeling more traditional and the Google visit feeling more outside of the norm.
I really liked our Docusign presentation today, because our speaker, Micheal Kelliher, has had a very established career in the Finance world. I was impressed to see how Micheal moved up the ladder throughout his career, and when we asked about why he chose to move on from certain jobs after a couple of years, he left us with some great advice. He told us that it is important to find the company that fits us, and that over the course of your life you will spend the majority of your waking hours at a job, so it may as well be one you love. It seems as though Docusign is continuously changing and rehiring to improve their company, which differs from the impression I got of Google’s culture.
At Google, they seem to be focused on helping their employees to grow within the company by doing things such as funding more education and providing new training and mentorships for different jobs. Google also offers a wide range of activities such as yoga classes for their employees, which promotes the desire for their employees to stay there for a long time. I think that there are good and bad sides to both Google and Docusign’s approaches to their hiring and turnover culture. On one hand, Google’s focus on growing and retaining their employees within the company helps to promote a positive culture within the company, but it does not allow for much career growth outside of Google. Docusign, on the other hand, does not provide as many “fancy” resources for their employees, probably also due to the fact that they are a smaller company than Google. Docusign’s culture allows for their employees to move on to different jobs outside of the company when they feel they do not fit there anymore, which is something that Micheal emphasized greatly.
When it comes to multi national Business, obviously Google has a leg up on Docusign due to their size differences. I think that Google has more of a platform to connect with people from other countries, and they have more staff to deal with the challenges such as language barriers and GAAP differences of international Business. Docusign’s constant growth has shown that they have the capability to continue expanding, especially due to the fact that they are very clearly the dominant player in their realm of business. It seems as though Docusign is waiting for many countries to catch up and move away from paper contracts towards e-signatures, and when they do Docusign will no doubt be the ones to capitalize on it.
Today’s presentation was awesome, and while I have loved all of the city activities so far, I am definitely looking forward to exploring more of Ireland tomorrow when we visit Kilkenny. See you then!
(PS: Today’s featured image is from earlier this morning when we met with Dr. Kelly at the Docklands to talk more about Ireland’s business culture and growth).