Does working for a mediocre company hinder job search for your next position?

Question

Say I'm a software engineer for 7/11 but now I want to get a better job. Does have that 7/11 on my resume hinder my job search especially if I want to work for big company say software engineer for Charles Schwab? How to mitigate this can I list 7/11's parent company to make it sound more official?

Answer 1

Does working for a mediocre company hinder job search for your next position?

Typically no. Unless the company has an specifically bad reputation (skill, ethics, business practices, etc) it falls into the same category as "company I've never heard of", which is "normal".

However the opposite is true: having a highly regarded/desirable company on your resume, will definitely help your application and (all things being equal), your resume will end significantly higher spot in the pile.

Answer 2

Being employed always helps your job search

Lying on your resume, like listing the parent company of 7/11, probably will not, though. Experience is valuable. 7/11 is a big company with millions of customers, they face big IT challenges just like Charles Schwab and all other big companies. Trying to hide the company you work for is dishonest.. If the job wasn't prestigious enough for you, why did you take it in the first place?

You've had to solve problems related to processing millions or billions of transactions. You should have plenty to talk about in subsequent interviews.

Lying or trying to hide where you worked is a huge red flag for potential employers

The interview process should focus on what you did at 7/11 and what skill-set you can bring to your new company. Don't torpedo your changes. Focus on what you did at 7/11 and what skills you bring to the table.

Answer 3

Which company issues your pay checks? That's the company you worked for.

Don't worry too much about "mediocrity" - for one thing, 7/11 is a pretty well known brand.

Ultimately, though, future employers are going to care more about what you were doing rather than where you were doing it. Make sure to show off (but don't fabricate).

Answer 4

Not necessarily, it depends how you present your work there

It doesn't really matter if your employer was just a "mediocre company" as long as the work you did there was meaningful, and the skills you acquired valuable.

Don't focus too much on the name of the brand, rather focus on the output you achieved for them and how it improved you as a software engineer.

Answer 5

I once sat at a lunch table at a software conference with a guy everyone at the conference knew because he was a featured speaker from one of the conference sponsors, and another regular conference attendee from a well-known company similar to 7/11 that you don't think of as a "software company."

What was surprising and memorable about that lunch was the regular joe from the non-software company was getting most of the attention. He had fascinating stories about solving challenging scale problems in unique ways. He had an interesting perspective on the practical trade offs of the conference sponsor's products, and had the speaker taking notes about the real world applications.

On the other end of the spectrum, I've had colleagues move on to work at FAANG companies, and when I touch base later on what they're working on, my first reaction was thinking something like, "Oh. I guess someone has to maintain that." Not some innovative project with a lot of interesting engineering decisions, that the company is known for, but a small, solid, reliable product where most of the interesting decisions were made long ago, and now someone needs to make incremental improvements.

Not that there's anything wrong with maintenance projects. They are most programmers' bread and butter. Just to bring it back to your situation, the mere fact someone works at a flashy company doesn't mean they have actual flashy experience. Some of the most interesting engineering work is done in unlikely places.

Answer 6

There's really 3 cases here.

1)A top company in the field. For tech, this would be FAANG, Microsoft, etc. Possible a few of the higher flying unicorns like Uber. These add values to resumes. And to anyone who's saying they don't- I can compare my salary with 3 FAANG companies on my resume to my coworkers who are just as skilled and without it. The difference is very large. (Whether they should add as much value is of course a different debate).

2)Any other company in the field. For tech it would be anyone known for writing software or producing electronic devices. These are neutral- they provide experience but provide no special value to your resume.

3)Any other company out of the field. For tech, this would include 7/11. There is a stigma in the tech field about working for non-tech companies. Again, not saying there should be, but a resume that says you were a senior programmer for a grocery store will be less than the value of a senior engineer at anywhere that's known for their software.

Employed is still better than unemployed, and you won't lose value for working at a company in slot 3. You just won't compare as favorable against someone in type 2.