Small and medium-sized entities are very popular employers. In a survey conducted by JobScout24 almost fifty percent of people looking for a job said that in their opinion small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) provide the best work environment. 31% of these favour a company employing between 50 and 500 people, 17% fancy working in a company employing up to 2000 people. Just 18% prefer international companies. Only a fraction say that they would like to work as a freelance.
Personnel consultants recommend SMEs employing up to 500 people as the perfect starting point for a professional career, given that in contrast to major international corporations decisions and responsibilites in SMEs are often assigned to a rather manageable circle of people. Employees are given the possibility there to gain insight in business processes, to develop rapidly and to shape company decisions.
Even personnel officers just give mediocre marks to major companies in terms of career potential: only 16% of chiefs of staff consider traditional major companies to provide first-class career opportunities. With regard to self-employment 22% of personnel chiefs think that having experiences in this respect opens up excellent career opportunities while many applicants, however, shy away from taking this risk. 