WHY DO SOME PEOPLE SPEND THEIR ENTIRE CAREER IN THE SAME COMPANY?

I first wrote this article for 10 Minutes With, a global education and career matchmaking platform with Headquarters in the United Kingdom

****

Recently, while reading the profile of Christophe de Margerie, the late CEO of Total, the multinational oil giant, something struck me: He joined Total just after school in 1974 and had his entire career in the French company. The question of why people have their entire career in one organisation is actually one that I have been interested in for some years now; Margerie’s case just activated my research into it.

The current Country Chairman of Shell Companies in Nigeria, Mutiu Sunmonu, also has a similar story. He joined Shell in 1978, the same year he completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Lagos. He rose through the ranks to become the CEO of Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria (SPDC) and Chairman of Shell Companies in Nigeria. He is still with the company, 36 years after.

Solomon Oladunni, another Nigerian executive, joined Mobil Producing Nigeria in 1972, shortly after completing his BSc in Economics at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and stayed with the company for 29 years, rising to become the Executive Vice Chairman, before he retired in 2001.

In a job interview with Shell six years ago, my interviewer introduced himself as a recently retired executive after 30 active years in the company. I know many other top executives that spent that many years in top International Oil Companies (IOC).

• They studied in the 1970s.
• They joined their companies straight from school.
• They are (were) not the founders of the companies.
• The companies are multinational oil and gas companies.

• Does the millennial generation (those born from the 1980s onwards) have such patience to work for so long in the same organisation?
• Does it have anything to do with their employers being oil and gas companies, which are generally regarded as the most comfortable places to work, especially in the oil-producing third world countries?

This tendency to spend many years in the same organisation is more common among the Generation X than the millennial generation. In an article published on Entrepreneur.com, Sarah Rose Attman listed “impatience” as one of the traits of the latter. I agree with her. In fact, it is that trait that reduced the tendency to stay long in one organisation. I belong to the millennial generation and I have changed jobs, voluntarily, three times in the last 7 years. I am very familiar with Corporate Nigeria and it is very rare to see anyone spending 10 years in the same company, unless it is a multinational oil company like Shell or Total. And that answers the second question. In Nigeria at least, comfortability – usually defined solely by the pay – will determine how long people will stay on in a job.

Now, while staying long in one organisation is common in the oil and gas sector, it is actually not limited to that sector. At a career event that was held in Lagos in September last year, I asked two corporate executives who had spent 15 years in an investment bank which they had joined straight after school: why had they remained in the same organisation for so long? They separately answered that it was because their organisation had a corporate culture that suits their personal career objectives, one where they are assigned new roles and challenges every two or three years.

• Corporate Policy and Culture: The corporate culture of an organisation – whether written or unwritten, will affect the retention of employees. Policies that encourage people to grow within the organisation will make it easy for them to stay with the company for a long time to come. Companies that prefer internal promotions to sourcing externally in filling up a vacant position, will more likely to deter employees from being on the constant lookout for a higher position outside their organisation.
• Job Satisfaction: The level of job satisfaction determines how long an employee stays in an organisation. No doubt there will be times when the employee will be unhappy about one thing or the other in the organisation, but the general feelings he has of the job will keep him going. Job satisfaction includes the incentives available on the job, among others.

*****

For my and other global education and career experts’ articles on similar subject, check out 10 MINUTES WITH BLOG.  10 Minutes With is an innovative global career matchmaking platform built for graduates with offices in London, Beijing and Singapore. Partners include established brands and top academic institutions in more than 23 countries and 3 continents. 

Sign up to their website to get useful resources on education and career. You can also follow them on twitter, @10minuteswith