I may the pessimist here, but I don't believe I personally would turn down a job simply based on the type of company it labels itself as. In this day and age, especially for people fresh out of college, landing a job in any field, even engineering, is taxing. This is made even more difficult if students never undertook any internships, co-ops, etc. relating to their field while as a student. In my case, I would take a job no matter the type of corporation it is. I would rather base my application on the company's mission, ethics, and opportunities offered. I think looking at the type of company a business is comes into play when you are a venture capitalist and you're searching where to invest your money, which 90% would be to C-corps. Otherwise, although looking at the type of company a business is can give you an idea of what that business is all about, for engineering I don't believe it applies as much as it would for a business person.

Depends.

If you are looking to work in medical devices and it is a well established company such as a conglomerate like Johnson and Johnson, then you don't need to worry about their stability or financial history since it is been around for years. In terms of stock price and revenue, this is a very small part of indicating how well a company is doing for certain periods of time. If you want a quick glance at what working for a company would be like or owning ownership of the company I personally look at the companies yearly dividends. See if they have historically increased their dividend yield over the years. If they have increased their dividend yield on a yearly basis then they are doing a very good job of appeasing the shareholders. I would strongly suggest that working for a company like this is very low risk of personally affecting you.

If you are in partnership, you and your partner assume all risk. Therefore, there is no corporate veil to protect you when someone goes after you for whatever reason. However, one of the advantages of the partnership is you can easily split all profits. If I was coming in as a partner, my acceptance as a partner would depend on the company or what the business model is. If it doesn't spark an interest in me or I don't see any potential in it such as a viable cash flow then I wouldn't take that type of job.

As Gabriel said, choosing a job can be difficult for newcomers. As such, a decision to join a company based on its specific characteristics is often a luxury that only experienced employees can have. Barring any massive red flags, such as a history of fraud, an engineering student will generally not have a huge amount of options regarding choosing a company to join. Most students will engage in any job, even if they are miserable, to build a credible resume that can then be used to join a better company.

The situation, of course, is very different for an experienced employee. Employees with particularly valuable experience, such as a past FDA role, have a great degree of latitude in choosing who to work for. They can choose to join a major corporation with a well-known name (which may help them climb the corporate ladder), join a small company and obtain a stake in it, or work as an individual, self-employed contractor. While the benefits of joining a larger company are well-known, an LLC or s-corp may offer partial ownership to particularly valuable employees. These employees would then be incentivized and expected to work especially hard, as their success would be directly related to the success of the company. Which of these options would you pick, if you were in this fortunate position?

For positions out of school I believe it is more important in determining the type of experience you will receive from the company and the depth of your role, rather than the type of company. Initially you want to gain experience in the industry and a proper role is the greatest step you can take to ensure that you are on the correct path. The point in your career when you would look into the differences listed above would most likely be when you are seeking a long-term more stable position in the industry. Personally in my time in industry I have taken on various roles and worked at different companies because I believe it's best to gain experience in different functional positions, which helps in gaining a better understanding. Once you settle into a position and after several years experience you would start considering factors that were mentioned in this weeks lecture for an optimal employment scenario.

Personally, If I had a similar type of job offer from two different companies, one is a start up and the other is a big corporation and if they both paid me similar amount of money. I would choose the start up, because there is a lot more room for growth and become a leader in a startup then in corporation which is already at its height. But at the same time, if you want job stability and good paying job, a big corporation is way to go.

This question can have vastly varying, subjective answers. For example, a person in my demographic might not have the luxury to turn down a job offer. The first demographic being a recent grad. Many recent graduates have a dream job they would love to have and usually have an action plan to get there. However, for many graduates, the first couple steps is to just find a job in the field of which their dream job is located in; or in simple terms taking whatever they can get. For example, jobs in research and development are harder to get as a recent grade, therefore a person can start by getting a job in quality or manufacturing and gaining experience to apply for that research job. The second reason and biggest reason why a person like me might not have the luxury is that I am an international student or F1 student from Canada. Many internships and job positions refuse to sponsor students. This can be tough because a recent grad can be very qualified and have an impressive resume, but due to their status in the country cannot; have a very difficult time taking the first steps to gaining the experience. Therefore, I would not turn down a job in medical devices due to the status of the company. Once I do have the work experience where companies are more willing to sponsor, then my answer would be a yes.

This is an interesting question. In my opinion, when recent graduates apply for the positions in the related field, they do not necessarily look whether the company is Limited Liability Company vs Corporation. In today’s world, it’s very challenging to land a job without having internship or co-op experience. Furthermore, for recent college graduates, it’s important to get industry experience and one shouldn’t decline the opportunity based on the type of corporation of the company. One should look at the company’s mission, explore the opportunity for career growth, and ethics to see if work environment is adequate. Personally, I believe in the engineering industry, it doesn’t matter on the type of corporation. However, it’s important to know recent mergers and acquisition activity to see what’s next for the company.

I don't think that I would turn down a job based only on the type of company that they are. Like others have said most people specifically recent college grads don't have the luxury of turning down job offers. After gaining 2-3 years of experience, most people would be marketable and have more options for job offers and chose to decline job offers based on something like the type of company offering them the job. At that point I might consider whether I would want to work for a specific type of company, but I would likely consider other factors before considering company type.

I agree with what gaberuiz13 says. In this time and age, it is really challenging to land a first job offer as a recent graduate especially not having any industry experience from internships or co-ops; especially true in engineering. Even having average to good credentials/grades right out of college is challenging in landing that first job that sometimes people settle for jobs outside of the industry that they studied for; or go back to school for a different degree. I think that if a job is offered take it, gain experience then start applying for other positions from a different company if you think that the company is not what you like. Because, I think industry experience is so valuable right now.

This is my third position, and not have I ever looked up the type of company it is. I dont think personally it matters to me because what matters is the position and what kind of work I am going to do. Job description is certainly more important for me than the type of company.

Going through all the posts in this tread I agree with the majority of what everyone is saying- that I would not turn down a position based on the type of company. I would focus on the role and the kind of experience I can get from the role. The company's stability would matter to me if I was being offered a partner or Chief position but otherwise it would not matter much. I have worked with a sole proprietorship company before and with a c corp as well. I did not see much of a difference for me as an employee.

When deciding which company to work for, either the company has to be a reputable/well-known one, or the position/work has to be in line with the goals/desires of the individual. Ideally, you have a job that meets both of these. However, when starting out on a career path, getting experience is the most important thing to keep in mind. If the experience that you are getting isn't exactly what you want to do, but it is at a good/reputable company, this will still help you when moving onto other positions early on in ones career. I am currently in this position. I work for a very reputable company with a strong name in the industry, but I am not doing the type of work that I would like to do long term (more bench science, less engineering). However, I realize that a year of experience at this company will make my resume significantly stronger. I am also using other avenues within my company to gain the experience that I wish. Ultimately, gaining quality experience at a good company or in the job role you wish to have are indispensable and either should be the primary objective of an early career engineer.

I think this is an unbelievably interesting question to discuss. I do not I have ever looked into a company’s corporate structure, possibly due to a lack of knowledge on the subject, but I have definitely looked into the stock prices and income statements of companies I applied to. I believe a lot of the need for answers comes from the idea of job security. Working for a profiting company, especially a larger one, gives you the confidence that the company will be able to employee you for a longer period. Also, those larger more profitable companies tend to have a larger resume value. A company will commonly look at work experience with a company like Stryker over working on your friend’s Kickstarter funded technology company.

When choosing a job I do typically research the history behind the company but I have never thought to look into the company’s financial history, revenue, stability, or stock prices. After this weeks lecture, I see now that I would want to would for a company that is stable financially with a good reputation. Financial stability in a company is extremely important because the better the company does the better the will pay their employees and the more employees they will hire. One of my good friends graduated from NJIT 2 years ago and accepted a job as a process engineer at a medium pharmaceutical company and after she accepted the job the company’s finances started to decrease so the company had to lay off a bunch of people and has been on a hiring freeze since she was hired in 2015. What was good for her is that this was her 1st real engineering position and she wasn’t fired, but she also hasn’t received a pay increase, bonus, or promotion since her 1st offer with the company.