---
title: "The Big Company You Yearn for Is Slowly Destroying You"
description: "When I was at Morgan Stanley, juniors often asked whether to join a large financial institution or a small hedge fund after graduation. I encouraged them to pursue boutique opportunities if they had multiple good offers, but most chose the so-called stability of big companies, including myself. Fortunately, in August 2014, two years after joining Morgan Stanley, I got my first promotion, but a month later I gave it all up to join the startup wave in Beijing. Many ask why I left such a big platform; the answer is that these seemingly stable big companies are actually destroying you step by step."
author: "黄海"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2017-05-04"
language: "en"
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# The Big Company You Yearn for Is Slowly Destroying You

> When I was at Morgan Stanley, juniors often asked whether to join a large financial institution or a small hedge fund after graduation. I encouraged them to pursue boutique opportunities if they had multiple good offers, but most chose the so-called stability of big companies, including myself. Fortunately, in August 2014, two years after joining Morgan Stanley, I got my first promotion, but a month later I gave it all up to join the startup wave in Beijing. Many ask why I left such a big platform; the answer is that these seemingly stable big companies are actually destroying you step by step.

When I was at Morgan Stanley, I often had juniors ask whether they should join a large financial institution or a small hedge fund after graduation. Apart from some unreliable small institutions, I would encourage them to pursue good opportunities at boutiques if they had multiple quality offers. Unfortunately, most ended up choosing the so-called stability of big companies, including myself back then.

Fortunately, in August 2014, two years after joining Morgan Stanley, I got my first promotion. If things went as expected, I would have a very bright and enviable future. However, surprisingly, I gave it all up in the second month after my promotion and joined the vast wave of entrepreneurship in Beijing.

To this day, many people ask me: What made you leave a big platform like Morgan Stanley?

It's not surprising to have such questions, because in most people's eyes, big companies mean stability and peace of mind. Humans are naturally afraid of the unknown and resistant to risk. But after going through all this, I want to say that it is precisely these so-called stable big companies that are slowly destroying you.

1. **Your so-called stability is just wasting your life**

In so-called "stable" big companies, you often encounter two situations:

**1) Overstaffing and years of mediocrity; many people fail to develop any real skills, only so-called social savvy.**

Many people in management trainee programs or simple entry-level positions in big companies often end up achieving nothing. The reasons for this tragedy are twofold. First, from a personal perspective, there is a lack of proactive work attitude. Because work lacks challenge and depth, many people just go through the motions, and over the years, they become workplace slickers. Second, from the company's perspective, there is a lack of clear basic training and career planning in job design. Over time, people working in such environments become like neglected, lazy babies, increasingly indulging themselves and gradually becoming "walking workplace infants."

When I was at Morgan Stanley, there was a very comprehensive training system after joining. New employees were usually sent to New York for two months of training, with regular sharing sessions on professional skills and qualities, and specialized leadership training after promotion. In daily work, we could directly consult a designated senior mentor with any questions. But over time, factors like staff turnover and various constraints slow down personal growth curves, not to mention in large state-owned enterprises where training mechanisms are less developed and personnel are bloated. Every time I looked back at the past year, I felt almost no growth. **Compared to money, this waste of time is often more frustrating.**

**2) Narrowing into a niche field, making career switching increasingly costly**

In any specialized field, the more refined your responsibilities, the higher the cost of switching careers later. This is very common now. Take my undergraduate classmate from Shanghai Jiao Tong University as an example. My major was Electronic and Computer Engineering, and his was Mechanical Engineering. He later got a master's degree abroad and joined Ford Motor Company's headquarters in Detroit, with a starting salary of $100,000 per year. Last year, at the 120th anniversary of SJTU, we met and chatted, and I found that he seemed very different from the person I knew back then. Now at Ford's Detroit headquarters, he is mainly responsible for improving the performance and wear of Ford SUV windshield wipers. He used to be very outgoing, often shirtless in the dorm during summer, calling everyone to play Dota. Now when he talks about work, I don't feel that old sharpness and cheerfulness. He said he wanted to change opportunities, and if he stayed at Ford, he felt there was no future. But apart from this field, he felt he had no advantages.

2. **Severe "big company disease" can easily turn people into "living dead"**

Many people, when they first enter the big companies and Fortune 500s they yearn for, often value the platform and the standardized management that differs from small enterprises. Perhaps when you first join, with a sense of novelty, you marvel at such standardized process management, but believe me, soon all the novelty will be replaced by the pain of complex processes, low efficiency, and conservative practices. After all, whether it's once-glorious foreign companies or localized state-owned enterprises, when they develop to a certain stage, they will inevitably develop "big company disease" to varying degrees.

Since childhood, we see protagonists in workplace TV series and movies portrayed as entering the workplace, working in luxurious offices, and soon getting promoted and raising salaries, dominating the capital market at a young age. This leads many to have unrealistic fantasies about big companies. In reality, big companies are like a complete state machine, with complete systems, processes, and advancement mechanisms. It is precisely because of such complete mechanisms that large enterprises can operate smoothly. I have seen more than 50 friends in investment banking write on their resumes or LinkedIn profiles that they led the overseas listing or bond issuance of XX bank, successfully raising XX billion yuan, but their actual work content is boring, uncreative, and repetitive—writing PPTs and reports day after day. If you don't have independent thinking and a vision for the future, honestly, you will slowly become like a screw, lost in the daily grind, even if the job pays well.

Humans are creatures of habit. Once you get used to this system and atmosphere, your personal work rhythm and values will be affected. Slowly, your spirit and potential will be worn away over time, turning you into a "living dead" in the big company.

In summary, working in a big company every day, especially in the early stages of your career, is like sailing with the wind in the sea. But each of us must clearly recognize that **not every wind will take you to your intended destination. And often, most of the time, it won't.** Too many people, in the long voyage, in the nine-to-five routine, day after day, lose themselves, lose their direction, and gradually lose their original intention and destination, letting the wind and waves take them anywhere. When they truly wake up, they have already deviated far from course and are powerless to change.

3. **In this era, big companies do not necessarily mean stability and excellence**

**Looking at the world with a 10-30 year perspective, you will find that in fact, no job is necessarily "stable" and reliable.**

Li Kaifu once said, "In the next 10 years, 50% of people will be unemployed." The decline of big companies like Compaq, Nortel, Nokia, and Yahoo has made layoffs nothing new. The tragic exit of RBS, which once almost changed China, is deeply regrettable. The wheel of history rolls on, and the rise and fall of many big companies cannot be changed by individual effort. So **choosing a company is even more important than choosing a boyfriend or girlfriend.**

The days of working one job until retirement are long gone. Technology changes rapidly, competition is fierce, and who knows when the winter will come? Can the frog that has been slowly boiled in warm water resist this risk?

**The stable life and platform halo you once yearned for are nothing but castles in the air; in the end, the only person you can rely on is yourself.** So your learning, growth, and ability improvement are what allow you to seize opportunities and maintain stability amidst external changes.

Returning to the question everyone is struggling with—"Should I go to a big company or a small company?"—my final advice is to **set aside the concept of "big" and "small," and choose the place where you can grow faster, treating every job as a self-investment.**

In fact, when choosing between so-called big and small companies, "big" and "small" are not the core issues to consider; rather, you should focus on your own development and growth. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. If you feel that this year's you is no different from last year's you, then you should be alert. A career is like a child: at three, you see the eight-year-old; at eight, you see the rest of life. The early sprint in your career determines your future height.

Development direction, workplace training, and the guidance of leaders are all factors you need to carefully consider, not just size and reputation. Today, the halo of big companies, like the halo of studying abroad in the past, is becoming less and less valuable, and will become even less so in the future. **In the long career development path, what is truly valuable and decisive for you is whether you have a genuinely useful skill.** This will give you a foothold in any broad field.

Huang Hai, founder of G.P.A, a planner who likes to think late at night, specializes in curing workplace confusion. He is currently CEO of "Li Xiang Jia," China's largest overseas asset allocation platform. He was previously a manager in the equity derivatives group at Morgan Stanley Hong Kong and holds a master's degree in financial engineering from Cornell University.

**Source: G.P.A**

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