Who Do YOU Want to Work for When You Grow Up?

It’s time to go back to school! Tomorrow marks the beginning of the second year of my MBA program. While I am excited to go back, I am also a little bit apprehensive because I know how quickly this year will go by and I have to decide what I want to do “when I grow up”. I know I want to do brand management because I like the strategy, creativity and psychology behind it, but I am not yet very sure what company I want to work for.

Interestingly enough, today I cam across my application for the TEC Mentorship program and re-read it. One of the questions on the application was: What organization do you most admire and why? Today, I am going to share with you what I said in response. That was a year ago, and I am glad to see that I still feel the same. It was a nice reminder especially in view of the upcoming job search process. Enjoy and take a second to think what kind of company you want to be working for when you grow up and also what it stands for.

When I applied to business school, my friend’s advice was to “get in and get out.” Yes, I did come to business school to acquire the knowledge to complement my experience, but once again I realized knowledge is not enough by itself. I need to know that I can apply my knowledge within a supportive and stimulating environment. I also have to know that I can do business without harming other people.

I do not know a great deal about any specific organization, but Google’s business motto “Don’t be evil” is what drew me to find out more about the company. Today, Google stands for innovative, fun, responsible business. It is a brand that made its way into the dictionary. It is a business idea that replaced the word “search” in everyday language. Googlers are visionaries, innovators that constantly brake patterns. They thrive in the challenging, unorthodox, fun- and amenities-filled corporate culture that was created for them.

But it is not all about the business. One lesson that I learned from my father was to never forget where you came from. That is why I respect how Google funds many projects that give back to the community, students, and the environment where it came from. I am hoping that Google’s clean and renewable energy project will become a reality that could be implemented on a large scale in the corporate world. As I mentioned before, I would not even attempt to say that I know everything about this company. However, what I know and have read so far, makes me admire the founders’ commitment to business and ethics.