This is a common complaint that I have heard from not just young professionals and entry-level employees, but from 20-30 year employees that are in various stages of management. You are responsible for doing one thing or completing a particular task or group of tasks. Everything outside of that is not really your concern. How does that give you any fulfillment and sense of completion at the end of the day if you don't know what it is you have helped to complete?
As a business grows larger and larger, managers are required to delegate tasks to new managers who then delegate tasks to other employees. This opens up the CEO's days to manage the strategy, growth, and allocation of resources within the company (or to play golf and oversee the construction of their mansions - however you want to look at it). They are the brains and the leaders of the company. They see the big picture.
As much as low-in-the-business-hierarchy employees complain about the lack of understanding of the business as a whole, I'm sure that many CEO's have the same complaint about the many smaller pictures that make up the big picture. They have to trust the processes and output created from the divisions of their company to other managers and to you - the general laborer of the company. The best CEO's are the best simply because they hire great managers, and are able to give up responsibilities to others without worrying or losing to much sleep about it.
It's the nature of the beast - the large business, corporation, or global company. We, worker bees, simply don't have time to perform our task and also take part in the larger processes of the company, and CEO's don't have time to lead the company and know how you complete the task day in and day out that allows the company to succeed. I think about this concept by comparing it to those posters which feature a larger picture made up of many different smaller pictures. The CEO has the wider perspective and sees the big picture, and he has to select which smaller pictures to focus on at a given time, but cannot focus on many of them for very long in order to keep the focus on the big picture. The general population of employees usually sees their small picture and the pictures surrounding it (related processes, teams, and divisions of a company), but only in great companies do they have access to the wider perspective revealing the bigger picture that they are a part of.
The key to a great business and company is having employees and managers that are educated on the larger issues and strategy of the company, and for the employees and mangers to educate senior management on the smaller processes and issues before they become a larger problem. Keeping that balance of working specifically on your task while still gaining the knowledge of the business as a whole leads to more rewarding work experience and understanding of how a business operates.
You need to find a company that is not afraid to let entry and mid-level employees in on the big picture. How do you know if a company is open to itself, so to speak? They are usually the ones with very detailed and exciting career pages and company information pages on their websites. Check out the press release section to see if they have press releases only about their products and services, or if they also include positive press regarding the operations of the company and about their employees. As previously mentioned, it's tough to know for sure unless you have actually worked for the company due to the lack of honest company and employer reviews.
Many companies talk the talk, but very few walk the walk.
