As we know, the corporate world is not the same as your family or social world. People who work in small and family organisations, if they don't understand what is corporate, will definitely encounter difficulties at work. With globalisation and emergence of large entities, the corporate world is gaining preeminence.
Having worked in the corporate world all my life since the tender age of 22, I know there are many mis-conceptions about life in the corporate world. From consulting and training many global corporate entities, and learning from my past painful experience, I know what it means if you do not fit in well in the corporate world. Not only will you lose your career opportunities, you will also be faced with difficulties at work. That's why I am so passionate about this topic and want to share with everyone the 7 major differences between the corporate and non-corporate world. Know them and you will more than thrive!
Firstly, corporate world refers to organisations that have a clear organisation structure with clear lines of responsibilities and duties. It is definitely very formal and official. The 7 survival tips are:
- Corporate Culture Above All. Corporate culture is indepedent of the location of the corporate, thus all offices must follow the corporate culture regardless of how strong their local culture is. For example, in Facebook, you must share what you know without asking and in Google, everyone is free to comment on work of other departments' colleagues.
- Always be official and never be personal. Do not let any of your personal matters affect your work. For example, do not eat at your desk, even if you were working during lunch time and have no lunch break.
- Maintain High Standards of Work. For example, your English must not be mixed with other languages, even in small group meetings and e-mails. Being on time is considered not professional, so you have to be early at all meetings. But don't be on the rush to leave when meeting ends, for this is a clear indication of your lack of commitment to your work.
- Zero Tolerance of Racism, Harassment and Discreet Behaviour. If in doubt, just behave like a good school boy. If you crack jokes on race and sexual stereotyping, you will be considered as not fitting into the corporate culture.
- Teamwork Overrides Individual Work. Many people are shocked that teamwork is not only preached but practised every minute in the corporate world. Every year corporates will invest tens of thousands of dollars on training that promotes teamwork, diversity, team leadership and team sacrifice.
- Continuous Learning and Be On Top of the World When it comes to Your Work. It is not sufficient that you know your work well, you must also be ahead of the curve and apply the latest knowledge in your work. I have a friend who works in the IT department of a global bank, and his knowledge is even way ahead of Microsoft when it comes to computer networking
- 100% Involvement and Inclusion. Corporates do not exclude people that have different opinions and instead find ways to include and involve them 100%. In this pursuit of 100% involvement, corporates may appear to be tough and ruthless, but understand that this regiment is necessary to achieve its corporate culture, corporate vision, corporate strategies and corporate goals.
Written by Andy Ng, Chief Trainer Coach with Asia Trainers. Since 20001, Andy has coached and trained over 811 corporates in 14 countries.
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