Individual Contributor

Standing out from the crowd

If you scored highly in this category, you are looking to be a 'rock star'.  You feel you have special talents which, if you could fully exploit them, could change the world.  Some other characteristics:

  • You consider yourself to be a leader and don't mind responsibility
  • You are creative and entrepreneurial
  • You are self-motivated, but you value the accolades that success brings
  • You want an environment that provides the resources you need to achieve your vision, without a lot of interference from other people
  • You want to make an impact - on technology, society, finance or somewhere else
  • Achievement and success are your most powerful rewards
  • Vacation, benefits and retirement packages are for other people
Not surprisingly, you'll thrive in places where your talents are recognized and are freely allowed to be expressed.  Big companies are not for you.  Some Individual Contributors can succeed in professional services (like law, medicine, or accounting) and many are artists (true 'rock stars').  You might also thrive in teaching and research (either academic or industrial). Highly structured and methodology-driven organizations will not be attractive, nor will places where you are one member of a large team.  
 
The kinds of corporate cultures that should be attractive to you are:
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