5 ms·

I went about it the opposite way, and can definitely recommend that as well: big company first, then small. The big company experience shows you a ton of thing

by jzwinck 11y ago

I went about it the opposite way, and can definitely recommend that as well: big company first, then small. The big company experience shows you a ton of things, like how to interview, build, and deploy at scale. The small company can benefit from your ability to bring order to chaos, develop tools which are obvious in any big company but strangely missing from every small one, and more. Maybe it doesn't matter which one you start with, but you should give both a try at some point.

untog 11y ago
Agreed. Large companies have entire programs for the intake of new graduates. At a startup you're much more likely to be left to find your own way - which can be great, but can also be awful.
snakka 11y ago
I can also recommend this. The big company has a good starter program and lots of resources to learn and draw inspiration from. Also you get to touch such massive amounts of code and technologies. Of course it depends on the company, yet I think it will benefit you to switch job after a year.
carlivar 11y ago
What I like about "big before small" is that while you can't replicate what the big company does, you can selectively adopt certain "big company lessons, tools, processes" at a startup. At a big company, you also may gain a view into how scale works to understand where your changes at a startup will have the most bang for your buck.
czbond 11y ago
Agreed - I actually worked at a big 4 consulting firm - and it made me considerably more disciplined, and structured over my peers. I can solve problems more clearly, succinctly, and focus on critical path which comes from pressured client work.
curun1r 11y ago
This sounds great when you envision that big company as Amazon, Google, Microsoft or Facebook. It sounds less so when you envision that company as Oracle, eBay, Yahoo! or SAP. Some large companies are mostly going to teach you politics, byzantine process and spending money as a means of scaling bad software. It's important to differentiate skills learned at big companies. Some are very useful, but others are coping mechanisms that have no place in a startup. Meanwhile, the scrappiness and well-rounded skill set learned at a startup will almost always have a place in larger businesses. My own personal recommendation for early career workers would be to prefer the cream-of-the-crop mid and large companies where you'll get useful experience you can't find anywhere else, then prefer startups and leave the slower-moving and more dysfunctional larger companies as a last resort.
- sbilstein 11y ago
  yes. which big company matters so much. i find it frustrating when my hacker school friends deride big companies as having no interesting work being done or not being great places to work. Having worked at startups and two different big corporations, I've learned the most at the very large company I work at now, almost nothing at the first one I did and a mixed bag at startups.
  - baudehlo 11y ago
    Heck, even well known boring big companies (eg IBM, Oracle) have great smaller teams that are doing interesting things. Much of it is a crapshoot. The nice benefit of the smaller company is that you have much higher likelihood of seeing your code go into production, and experiencing the feedback from it being used. At a big company you will get shielded from that. Often for good reasons - but the feedback truly helps your career.
- relkor 11y ago
  Dont't knock spending money to scale. The most important lesson I learned at BigCorp was when to buy vs build. Not Invented Here syndrome will kill even mega companies.
altonzheng 11y ago
I think it really depends on the kind of person you are. If you're seeking fast pace and get bored easily, a startup is the right place to be. Otherwise, if you're like me, you can lead a pretty satisfying career in a large company. For some reason I was conditioned in college into believing that the startup mentality was the only respectable way to go, and any time spent at a big company should be a temporary.

by jzwinck 11y ago

untog 11y ago

Agreed. Large companies have entire programs for the intake of new graduates. At a startup you're much more likely to be left to find your own way - which can be great, but can also be awful.

snakka 11y ago

I can also recommend this. The big company has a good starter program and lots of resources to learn and draw inspiration from. Also you get to touch such massive amounts of code and technologies. Of course it depends on the company, yet I think it will benefit you to switch job after a year.

carlivar 11y ago

What I like about "big before small" is that while you can't replicate what the big company does, you can selectively adopt certain "big company lessons, tools, processes" at a startup. At a big company, you also may gain a view into how scale works to understand where your changes at a startup will have the most bang for your buck.

czbond 11y ago

Agreed - I actually worked at a big 4 consulting firm - and it made me considerably more disciplined, and structured over my peers. I can solve problems more clearly, succinctly, and focus on critical path which comes from pressured client work.

curun1r 11y ago

This sounds great when you envision that big company as Amazon, Google, Microsoft or Facebook. It sounds less so when you envision that company as Oracle, eBay, Yahoo! or SAP. Some large companies are mostly going to teach you politics, byzantine process and spending money as a means of scaling bad software. It's important to differentiate skills learned at big companies. Some are very useful, but others are coping mechanisms that have no place in a startup. Meanwhile, the scrappiness and well-rounded skill set learned at a startup will almost always have a place in larger businesses. My own personal recommendation for early career workers would be to prefer the cream-of-the-crop mid and large companies where you'll get useful experience you can't find anywhere else, then prefer startups and leave the slower-moving and more dysfunctional larger companies as a last resort.

sbilstein 11y ago
yes. which big company matters so much. i find it frustrating when my hacker school friends deride big companies as having no interesting work being done or not being great places to work. Having worked at startups and two different big corporations, I've learned the most at the very large company I work at now, almost nothing at the first one I did and a mixed bag at startups.
- baudehlo 11y ago
  Heck, even well known boring big companies (eg IBM, Oracle) have great smaller teams that are doing interesting things. Much of it is a crapshoot. The nice benefit of the smaller company is that you have much higher likelihood of seeing your code go into production, and experiencing the feedback from it being used. At a big company you will get shielded from that. Often for good reasons - but the feedback truly helps your career.
relkor 11y ago
Dont't knock spending money to scale. The most important lesson I learned at BigCorp was when to buy vs build. Not Invented Here syndrome will kill even mega companies.

altonzheng 11y ago

I think it really depends on the kind of person you are. If you're seeking fast pace and get bored easily, a startup is the right place to be. Otherwise, if you're like me, you can lead a pretty satisfying career in a large company. For some reason I was conditioned in college into believing that the startup mentality was the only respectable way to go, and any time spent at a big company should be a temporary.