
Ask HN: Programmers who worked at small and big companies, which do you prefer? - chundicus
As someone a little disillusioned by the advertised advantages of working at a startup, I&#x27;m curious to hear the perceived trade-offs as well as how people&#x27;s preferences led them to prefer startups, mega-corps, or anywhere in-between. Or, if company size isn&#x27;t a factor to you when seeking out a company I&#x27;d be interested to hear why.<p>Obviously mileage will vary based on the company, but try to generalize if possible.
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mjmj
Depends on what you’re after. Small companies can be very nimble, enabling you
to have more of an impact within the company as you wear many hats. Sometimes
less is more and you’ll perform better when you’re forced to work within
staffing, budget or time constraints. Often a small company can feel like
family. Sometimes stock options can turn into a golden ticket. But with all
that comes additional stress and sometimes not great base pay.

Large companies some of the above can still remain true, you get job security
through company stability, total comp packages can be much higher and more
reliable. Company budgets are bigger so your products can sometimes have a
much larger customer impact globally. More availability to move between teams
and meet new coworkers or switch offices without much risk.

Medium sized companies are my favorite where the hair on fire foundation was
already laid, product market fit is establish, but company is still private
and growing quickly. Less risk here but still decent upside and less of the
large company regulatory and compliance annoyances that impede velocity.

And in my experience sometimes the size of the company has less to do with
quality of life than work culture.

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burntoutfire
I prefer the big ones. They have a lot of money, so they can afford to move
slower. Also, there's ton of inefficiences inside which means that they you
really can't be expected to perform too well. All this adds up to ending the
day much more rested that in a startup.

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gas9S9zw3P9c
I worked at FAANG as well as several small startups (<100 people).

The perhaps biggest downside of working in a big company is politics. You are
no longer working to provide value to customers. Instead, you are playing a
game of politics to get ahead of your peers. Sometimes these are correlated -
you can get ahead by providing value to end-users, but often there is no
correlation at all. After a while this really started to get to me to the
point I could no longer stand it.

In terms of learning, I found both environments to be similar _if you are
motivated_. It's true that in a startup you are forced to wear many hats and
learn about things outside of your comfort zone. However, big companies will
often give you these opportunities as well, they just won't force you take
them. It's easy to become complacent. In a startup environment you can't do
that.

In terms of risk-adjusted payoff, working for a big company is probably a much
better choice than working for a startup.

Personally I prefer startups or small companies at this point, I don't think I
could deal with the politics in large corporations again.

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iateanapple
Startups are faster paced and provide faster general skills growth.

For example I was running a team of five devs a year after graduating - that
would not have happened at a big company.

I also got the chance to architect complex systems within my first 2 years -
again that would not have happened at a big company.

On the other hand by moving to a large tech company my pay _quadrupled_ and I
was able to focus on growing my pure coding ability.

I’ve also had the opportunity to solve complex dev problems that we would have
just ignored/hacked around in a startup.

Probably my most frustrating experience is that big tech companies are biased
towards big tech company experience. My extensive management experience was
heavily discounted and I had to join as an IC. It took me almost 5 years to
get to the same management level (director) at my current big tech (non-FAANG)
company.

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matt_s
I worked at two Fortune 500 (> 50,000 people) public companies and now work at
a medium-small sized private company (~500 people). I prefer medium-small
company. Also - what number would be small? like < 100?

The only advantage to large companies is if there is a large presence in your
area, moving internally between jobs is relatively easy if you want to change
things up.

Advantages of small company:

\- Privately owned so no stockholder BS or the constant downsizing/offshoring
accounting games.

\- Most time-wasting corporate stuff is very minimal at a small company. At
large corp you could spend hours upon hours doing the mandatory annual
security training which ironically required Flash installed to run the big
brother tracking video course. Same for ethics, HR and other corporate-y
trainings.

\- No real politics. Large corp it was common to run into people that didn't
contribute anything to the products/solutions. It appeared they existed to
slow things down and act out Dilbert comic strips. This can really wear on
you. Watch the movie Office Space.

\- Want to try a new tech out? Talk with a couple people, give it a whirl - it
has to have some purpose though. Large corp: "no, we use XYZ, we've always
used XYZ"

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photawe
I personally hate big companies. I don't like red tape, and they've got lots
of it. Also, I hate politics, and they have lots of that too.

I _love_ small companies. Clearly, not _any_ company will do - there are small
companies that generate quite a bit of profit, so you don't need to worry
about tomorrow as long as you're doing your job.

I'm not into startups - AT ALL - (at least, the US version of them), which
basically pretty much promote "work your ass off - overtime, and the like -for
pretty much low pay", with the possibility of making it big being insanely
small.

(disclaimer: I do have a company, with a single employee - me, but I don't see
myself as a startup; I do have collaborators; I don't ask for overtime, we
always agree on "this is the task at hand, and this is what that will cost
me")

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Chyzwar
You want to join medium-size organizations (< 1000). Big companies have too
much red tape, small companies either do not pay very well or do not have
enough ability/knowledge to execute.

In medium-sized org, you have more room to grow in terms of projects,
responsibility and money. Usually, you have fewer limitations and your
projects would have a higher impact. General engineering culture is still the
most important factor following compensation. You want to find a place where
you will get paid well and you will learn the best practices and tech.

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itronitron
I prefer to have more control over my career than some (and less than others.)
By control I don't mean that I get to choose what I am currently working on
but rather that I can work towards what I will be working on in the future.
Mid to large companies that are both well managed and filled with highly
capable people tend to enable and encourage this as it can bake in resiliency
and helps different parts from becoming siloed.

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chrisbennet
I prefer working for tiny companies. The last company I worked for had only 3
employees including myself. (Not startups though.)

With a small company, the software is not a "cost center".

Everyone has to pull an oar. You can tell pretty quick in say a 4 person
company if someone isn't contributing.

No room for politics.

