Company selection is a critical part of your success and, unfortunately, you only have a handful of chances to get it right over your career. As a specialized marketing talent firm, RevelOne has a deep understanding of what it takes to match the right candidates with the right companies. We also understand the difficulties candidates face in deciding which company to join.

This article offers important criteria you should consider when choosing a company to work with. We also provide information on a tool that collects insights on top companies in the country that will help you make more informed career decisions.

Criteria and Questions to Help You Choose a Company

When you work for a great company, you gain access to meaningful opportunities, an invaluable network of smart people, and compelling financial rewards. It’s a decision that should be strategic and well thought out.  Although we can’t promise we will help you pick the next Airbnb, we can provide advice and tools that will increase your chances of success and happiness.

While our criteria and questions are helpful in guiding your decision-making process, you will still need to decide how to weigh and prioritize them. You won’t make the best company decisions if you haven’t thought deeply about how these factors fit with your personal goals, career stage, and risk profile.

• The People – What are the founders and management team like and do you share their values? What are their leadership styles and backgrounds? Have they built and led companies before or will you be living through a first-time CEO’s learning curve? ‍
• Investors - Do they have investors / VCs with proven track records? Blue-chip backing is a good indicator of a company with promise since investors have a broader and more informed perspective of identifying company potential.‍
• Role Fit – Is your function or channel important to the company’s business? Does leadership value it? Is it properly resourced?‍
• Market Size – Is the company going after a large opportunity or targeting a niche market? This could mean tackling a huge addressable market with many competitors or substitute options. It could also mean solving a problem that is very important to a smaller number of customers, who can later become your evangelists.‍
• Product Fit – Is the product or vertical personally relevant to you? Is the company’s broader mission something you believe in? Do you find the business/tech problems that the company is solving compelling? Bigger picture, does the company’s solution effectively solve a meaningful customer pain point and can it win?‍
• Traction – Are there tangible signs of success (e.g., customer/revenue growth, big deals signed, margins, investor demand, profitability)? A faster growth trajectory can certainly mean more opportunities for personal growth. Less traction isn't necessarily indicative of failure. It can simply signify that the company is in an earlier stage of development, which comes with different types of advantages. So, it’s ok to have less traction, just be aware of where you are on that risk curve.‍
• Company Type – You should think about B2C, B2B or some hybrid depending on your areas of interest and the implications for what the product/marketing/sales model means for your role. Enterprise/B2B companies involve higher consideration/lower volume marketing and often include supporting a Sales team. B2C marketing often involves a higher transaction volume with greater channel complexity, testing, and analytics.‍
• Culture Fit – Do the culture and values fit you? What type of people get promoted to leadership roles? This is actually more important than most people think, which is why we devoted an entire article to it. ‍
• Life Factors – Consider the broader elements that may affect your mental state more than you think, such as location and commute. For example is the job located in a city where you want to live (e.g., interesting people and access to things you enjoy doing)? Is there a commute that you can handle or flexibility in where and when you work?

About RevelOne

RevelOne is a leading marketing advisory and recruiting firm.  We do 300+ searches a year in Marketing and Go-to-Market roles from C-level on down for some of the most recognized names in tech.  For custom org design, role scoping, and retained search, contact us.