Pros & Cons of Working in a Small Company vs a Big Company
I’ve been lucky to have worked in a small company and a big company throughout my career.
In the small company, I knew most of the workers.
In a big company, knowing all the workers would take me a while.
There were just too many people.
There are pros and cons of working in a small company vs a big company.
Which state of your career are you in now?
Have you started your career yet?
Allow me to give you a firsthand look at my experiences with both company styles, so hopefully, it can give you some clarity on what to do next.
For the sake of the blog, let’s say a small company has around 50ish employees, and a big company has around 500 employees.
The Pros and Cons of Working for a Small Company
The main pro of working in a tiny company is that you will learn more.
You will have a chance to network with others and see what they do.
During my time working in an aerospace company, I sat with the software developers, the systems engineers, the hardware engineers, quality analysts and more.
I learned about how each person served unique roles in making a company function.
By sitting with different teams, it was easier to learn more skills.
An industry never stands still, so you always want to be in learning mode.
A small company will give you an intimate feel for the company & the product that you are building.
The main con of working in a small company is that you don’t get paid much.
Although I was learning a lot in that internship, I was only getting paid 10 bucks an hour!
The pro of working in a small company is that you’ll learn more, but the con is that you’ll get paid little.
The Pros and Cons of Working in a Big Company
Let’s start with the bad news first.
With a big company, you don’t learn as much.
A lot of times, you won’t be learning anything at all!
There are tons of horror stories about workers who were put in a cubicle and their manager just disappeared.
Not for a few days, but for a few weeks!!
The new worker was forced to twiddle their thumbs and kill time.
This is every slacker’s dream.
Get paid while doing nothing.
But for people who want to learn, this is their worst nightmare.
Remaining idle…
My engineer friends would ask what my day-to-day was like when I was working in a Fortune 500 company.
I did my best to make my days sound important.
They were unimpressed:
‘So, you surf the web a lot and make an occasional PowerPoint?’
It’s hard to get technical experience in a Fortune 500 company.
A lot of their processes have been automated.
Therefore, you’re either clicking a few buttons and chilling for the rest of the day…or you’re making PowerPoints and responding to emails.
The pro of working in a Fortune 500 company is that you get paid a lot.
Where I was making 10 dollars an hour in my small company internship, I was making 27 dollars in my big company internship.
The big companies are likely to have programs where they transition you from an intern into a full-time employee.
That’s what happened to me.
Once my internship wrapped up, I was swiftly offered a full-time position.
A lot of small companies don’t offer you a full-time position once you complete the internship.
My Advice for People
I liked my strategy of starting in a small company and expanding to a big company.
I used the small company to learn hard skills, and the big company to learn soft skills.
Plus, I needed the money.
As we grow up, we have more bills that we are responsible for.
It’s great to learn skills…
But I still have a mortgage payment due on the first day of the month!
If I can’t comfortably pay my bills, then I need to look elsewhere.
I think working for small companies at the beginning of your career is perfect because you’re not responsible for that many bills.
It’s best to get started early.
In your last 2 years of college, look for an internship.
Rather than focus on the money, focus on the skills.
Learn as much as you can.
Ask your manager if you can sit with new teams for the week.
A lot of managers want you to show that kind of initiative.
They want you to know what a business analyst does as well as what a systems engineer does.
You’ll learn a ton!
After you have experience, then you can apply for a bigger company and increase your income.
The Reverse Philosophy
My philosophy is to start small and then expand big.
But there are people with the exact opposite philosophy.
Their first role was at a big company.
They started as an intern, became a full-time employee, and stayed there for 5-9 years.
Then one day, they got bored.
They felt like they reached their ceiling.
That’s when they applied for a small company.
When you go from big to small, you don’t have to start off in an intern position like I did.
You can apply for an advanced position in a small company.
Role for role, a big company pays more.
Where an intern in a small company makes 10 bucks, an intern in a big company makes 25 bucks.
But the pay becomes similar if different roles are being compared.
Let’s say you capped out as an associate in your big company.
But you are offered a Vice President role in your small company.
The Vice President role of a small company pays more than an associate role in a big company (for the most part).
Therefore, you are capable of gaining the skills, getting the money, and getting a new title.
Ultimately, it works out.
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