

Ask HN: Stuck deciding between different job offers.. - throwawayfff0be

Hi,<p>I'm a recent uni graduate and I have two job offers from quite different companies, which is making deciding between one or the other very difficult.<p>Job 1 is a fairly big simulations company, involving graphics programming with C++ and a little C#.<p>Job 2 is a young (but successful) primarily mobile development company, working with new tech and a small but competent team of engineers.<p>As it's my first job out of uni, I feel there's a bit of added pressure in that as they're so different, picking one over the other is surely going to define my path a certain way. I enjoy both areas quite a lot -- I've done a lot of graphics programming throughout my second major making games, graphics demos, etc., but I also self-learned Objective-C and the iOS SDK earlier this year and very much enjoyed developing my first app.<p>I'm not fussed about money, I'm more concerned with where each will take me, and how I'll grow. That said, I'm happy with what both are offering.<p>Basically I'm interested to hear people's opinions on working at a larger company vs a tight-knit smaller company, and opinions on the two areas in general in terms of potential growth. Is mobile development the way to go? The simulations area, particularly for training purposes, is also experiencing a good deal of growth. Would I learn more from having more developers to interact with, or would the independence and responsibility in a smaller team be more beneficial?<p>Completely stuck. :(
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byoung2
Speaking as someone who just recently made the jump from a big company
(ClearChannel, with 20k employees) to a startup (with 15 employees), I would
suggest going with the smaller company to start. At a big company, you're more
likely to see a higher degree of specialization, whereas in the smaller
company, you'll see people wearing more hats. This should give you a chance to
find what you like doing, so you can do more of that in the future. You'll
also learn a lot more this way.

