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In fact in the good big companies, they crave for employee growth. Time and money for training, meaningful career growth, and pay growth, major tech switches wi

In fact in the good big companies, they crave for employee growth. Time and money for training, meaningful career growth, and pay growth, major tech switches without changing jobs. I find that small companies are often much worse in all these metrics. As a jr employee they’ll never rise to chief architect - your friend, the cofounder, has that job. And is never giving it up. Plus thanks to cash crunch, making shortcuts to deliver is common in small companies. Especially since they don’t have a reputation to protect. So quality? Well, maybe. I recently took 9 weeks off from my bigco FAANG, job to help raise my baby. After the company’s health plan was on the hook for a million in costs (baby born prematurely, spent 3 months in hospital nicu). At no point was I worried about my job or company. I’m happily back on the team in my job cranking away and being productive. Now tell me my experience would be better in a 12 person startup/shop. I dare you. Ps: in terms of impact, well I work on a small thing in a sense so only a few million people directly use my product. Big companies have big impact. Lots of guard rails which is nice to no longer make the same basic mistakes over and over.

hvidgaard 8y ago
> As a jr employee they’ll never rise to chief architect Considering that only few people get to the top title at a big company (I think there is ~20 Technical Fellows in Microsoft world wide), I think that is a fallacy. If you work at a small company that grows, you're far more likely to become a chief architect. > Now tell me my experience would be better in a 12 person startup/shop. I dare you. Only applies to the US. EU citizens don't really have to worry about that.
- eloisant 8y ago
  The thing is that in a big-co, you don't have to become chief architect or CTO to have a healthy career evolution. You can be "just" architect and impact a much bigger team than the 10-people startup.
- TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
  Technical Fellow is an academic and/or research position. SMEs don't have technical fellows, although technical fellows sometimes start their own companies. Senior/Chief Architect is an engineering/production position, with limited scope for game changing R&D. In a typical 10-20 man shop the position is usually taken by the CTO, who will be usually be in it for the long haul for both financial and technical reasons. Very, very rarely a startup will turn into a unicorn with hundreds or thousands of employees. You can get some way up the ladder when that happens. But the odds are against it happening in the first place. And at the higher levels you'll still be competing with talent hired from outside.
collyw 8y ago
Big companies will spend money on training but personally I have learned a lot more at smaller places because I was able to explore a lot more and my contributions had a lot more impact on the buisiness overall.
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  So in a sense, small companies are the training. You pop in, learn what you can, and jump ship.
  - 9wzYQbTYsAIc 8y ago
    The holy Grail of small company is to get trained and keep getting trained at the same company as your trainer(s) rise to executive level.
kurnikas 8y ago
> As a jr employee they’ll never rise to chief architect This is so important, as a relativley junior developer at a 6 person web dev shop, the owner is the only other backend developer. I have no room for climbing, even if I get a job title upgrade or a raise, my responsibilities and the level I work at won't change. I will handle the day to day backend and the owner works on strategic choices. There is only so much impact I can make in this position
- richrichardsson 8y ago
  > There is only so much impact I can make in this position I'm reminded of this talk : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hER0Qp6QJNU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hER0Qp6QJNU around the 8m30 mark is the pertinent point, but worth to watch before that to get where his point is coming from.
marvin 8y ago
> the company’s health plan was on the hook for a million in costs As usual, this is the craziest part of the comment to my European mind. Your healthcare system spent somewhere around an entire lifetime of effort for something that, while relatively dramatic, should still be quite routine for a sophisticated medical organization!
- adetrest 8y ago
  Which begs the question: what happens if the premature baby is born to a US family that can't afford a decent insurance plan? Does the hospital repo the baby? Is the family bankrupt and the baby's life ruined from the get go just for being born premature? I can't wrap my head around it, and it seems to suck either way.
  - geggam 8y ago
    To some degree yes everyones life is ruined. The people with nothing still get some medical care, it's the working poor who make too much to get welfare but too little to cover expenses after insurance who are really screwed. In the US only the wealthy ( millionaires ) are safe from medical bankruptcy and even they can get taken down by some issues.
  - howard941 8y ago
    The parents are on the hook to the hospital, to the myriad physicians involved in the in-hospital care, and for non-covered post-discharge costs. Their financial lives may be crushed absent bankruptcy, which carries its own problems regarding loss of assets and mortgage availability for ex. The infant is also financially liable but likely uncollectable. The baby's life may or may not be ruined depending on where the US goes w/r/t health insurance coverage for pre existing conditions.
    - late2part 8y ago
      How is the infant financially liable?
  - ru999gol 8y ago

hvidgaard 8y ago

> As a jr employee they’ll never rise to chief architect Considering that only few people get to the top title at a big company (I think there is ~20 Technical Fellows in Microsoft world wide), I think that is a fallacy. If you work at a small company that grows, you're far more likely to become a chief architect. > Now tell me my experience would be better in a 12 person startup/shop. I dare you. Only applies to the US. EU citizens don't really have to worry about that.

eloisant 8y ago
The thing is that in a big-co, you don't have to become chief architect or CTO to have a healthy career evolution. You can be "just" architect and impact a much bigger team than the 10-people startup.
TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
Technical Fellow is an academic and/or research position. SMEs don't have technical fellows, although technical fellows sometimes start their own companies. Senior/Chief Architect is an engineering/production position, with limited scope for game changing R&D. In a typical 10-20 man shop the position is usually taken by the CTO, who will be usually be in it for the long haul for both financial and technical reasons. Very, very rarely a startup will turn into a unicorn with hundreds or thousands of employees. You can get some way up the ladder when that happens. But the odds are against it happening in the first place. And at the higher levels you'll still be competing with talent hired from outside.

collyw 8y ago

Big companies will spend money on training but personally I have learned a lot more at smaller places because I was able to explore a lot more and my contributions had a lot more impact on the buisiness overall.

TeMPOraL 8y ago
So in a sense, small companies are the training. You pop in, learn what you can, and jump ship.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 8y ago
  The holy Grail of small company is to get trained and keep getting trained at the same company as your trainer(s) rise to executive level.

kurnikas 8y ago

> As a jr employee they’ll never rise to chief architect This is so important, as a relativley junior developer at a 6 person web dev shop, the owner is the only other backend developer. I have no room for climbing, even if I get a job title upgrade or a raise, my responsibilities and the level I work at won't change. I will handle the day to day backend and the owner works on strategic choices. There is only so much impact I can make in this position

richrichardsson 8y ago
> There is only so much impact I can make in this position I'm reminded of this talk : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hER0Qp6QJNU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hER0Qp6QJNU around the 8m30 mark is the pertinent point, but worth to watch before that to get where his point is coming from.

marvin 8y ago

> the company’s health plan was on the hook for a million in costs As usual, this is the craziest part of the comment to my European mind. Your healthcare system spent somewhere around an entire lifetime of effort for something that, while relatively dramatic, should still be quite routine for a sophisticated medical organization!

adetrest 8y ago
Which begs the question: what happens if the premature baby is born to a US family that can't afford a decent insurance plan? Does the hospital repo the baby? Is the family bankrupt and the baby's life ruined from the get go just for being born premature? I can't wrap my head around it, and it seems to suck either way.
- geggam 8y ago
  To some degree yes everyones life is ruined. The people with nothing still get some medical care, it's the working poor who make too much to get welfare but too little to cover expenses after insurance who are really screwed. In the US only the wealthy ( millionaires ) are safe from medical bankruptcy and even they can get taken down by some issues.
- howard941 8y ago
  The parents are on the hook to the hospital, to the myriad physicians involved in the in-hospital care, and for non-covered post-discharge costs. Their financial lives may be crushed absent bankruptcy, which carries its own problems regarding loss of assets and mortgage availability for ex. The infant is also financially liable but likely uncollectable. The baby's life may or may not be ruined depending on where the US goes w/r/t health insurance coverage for pre existing conditions.
  - late2part 8y ago
    How is the infant financially liable?
- ru999gol 8y ago