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    Many larger, more decentralized companies will spread decision-making power and opportunities for advancement somewhat more evenly. However, such companies often encourage competition among workers, rather than focusing their collective energies on competing organizations, products, or services.
    If managers regularly spend half their time politicking or writing self-serving memos to the boss, it’s a survival-of-the-fittest (or survival-of-the-best-memo-writer) atmosphere. People attuned to corporate infighting might relish such a company; those who just want to do their jobs and be rewarded for the work they do will find it an unfriendly place to work.
    Some companies are bursting with energy. Their offices seem to reverberate with a steady hum of activity. Such a high-key environment is right for aggressive go-getters who are unafraid of such a fast pace and more than ready, even eager, to jump into the fray. Other workplaces are calmer, quiet, almost studious in nature. Such low-key firms are probably better choices for more laid-back personalities.
    While a high-energy or low-key atmosphere says little about a particular company’s chances for success, it may have a lot to do with your own on-the-job performance, success, and happiness. Matching dissimilar corporate and individual personalities usually results in a new job search.
    If you run across a company that seems to give off no signals at all, beware! This is usually the directionless organization, one that lacks both an agenda and dynamic leadership. Without such leadership, you can be certain that this organization will founder, usually when things start going wrong and the timely implementation of company-wide decisions is required.
    Clearly, the more you know about the companies you’re considering, the better off you’ll be. For those of you—and that should be all of you—who want to research a specific company and/or job description, Chapter 3 will give you the necessary hints and resources.
    After you’ve analyzed yourself and investigated a targeted company’s culture, a simple but extremely important question should come to mind:
How does your self-description match that of the culture at the company you’re thinking of joining?
    If you are laid back and not particularly driven to overachieve, a company that describes itself as “hard-charging” may not be for you, even if you can actually convince them to hire you.
    The Gallup Organization is a unique example of corporate culture. When my good friend Tony Rutigliano was recruited by them, their offer was so enticing that it seemed like a “no-brainer” . . . until Tony asked exactly what he’d be doing, his job title, and to whom he’d be reporting.
    “Well,” the recruiter confided, “we work a little differently here. We expect that you’ll wander around for a while, maybe a few months, and then you’ll tell us what you really want to do. We don’t really have formal job descriptions. And you can use any reasonable title.”
    Needless to say, Tony, a veteran of a number of traditional magazine publishing companies, was a bit taken aback. Wander around? Create his own job description? Choose his own title?
    Since Tony was a bit of an entrepreneur at heart and a confident bloke to boot, he decided to give it a try. Luckily for him, Gallup’s corporate culture, as unusual as it was, turned out to be a great fit for him.
    Would it have been an equally rewarding and ultimately successful move for you? Not if you were someone who expected or required a rigid organizational chart. Anyone too uncomfortable to just “wander about” would probably have run for the hills after a couple of days (presuming they were crazy enough to take the job in the first place).There may be nothing inherently wrong with an organization you’re considering—it just might be a horrible fit for you, one that could throw you completely off the career track you have outlined. Maybe you will survive,