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It's probably worth distinguishing between a big company where you're working on the core business (i.e. an engineering company) and a big company where you're

by zb 16y ago

It's probably worth distinguishing between a big company where you're working on the core business (i.e. an engineering company) and a big company where you're working in a pure cost centre, like IT. I suspect that may explain the diverging views of the article and some of the commenters here.

eftpotrm 16y ago
Amen! I've not worked in enough companies to make a proper generalisation but based on my limited experience, small or large the major difference seems to be whether you're a cost centre supporting the business or the profit driver building new products. The latter is more pressure but a rather more enjoyable atmosphere, I feel.
byoung2 16y ago
That's an excellent point...I work at ClearChannel, and the interactive department is a small part of the overall business (radio being the lion's share). Our office is basically a startup within a big company. We have our own culture and quirks so it doesn't feel like a big corporation.
fookyong 16y ago
I would also add that it's possible for this dynamic to change as a company grows. I speak from personal experience - successful e-commerce startup where I am director of web. Year 1 was about fast growth. We built a home-grown e-commerce platform, and made it scale. Lots of interesting challenges for hackers and a strong technology focus - improvements to the platform contributed directly to the bottom line. Year 2 has a different emphasis. Many of the technical challenges are now past us. We did such a good job in Year 1 that we don't have to do much WRT scaling, UX optimization etc in Year 2. Year 2 is more about sales and marketing - continuing to find channels to acquire members and getting products into the store that people want (at good prices). This has much less of a technology emphasis than Year 1, and indeed while Year 1 was very exciting, in Year 2 I find it difficult to motivate my team when the tasks at hand are things like "ok guys so we need a modification to our internal admin tool so that marketing can...". Sure, there are constant improvements to be made. We do regular tweaks. We think up mini projects ("site looks weird on Android. ok lets fix that this week"). But the dynamic has most definitely changed and that is just a factor of the type of company this is (it's a sales company) and the stage of growth it is at (nearing a B round of financing).
- contextfree 16y ago
  What's much worse is Year 2 of a startup that didn't do so hot on the technical challenges in Year 1 and is treading water.

by zb 16y ago

eftpotrm 16y ago

Amen! I've not worked in enough companies to make a proper generalisation but based on my limited experience, small or large the major difference seems to be whether you're a cost centre supporting the business or the profit driver building new products. The latter is more pressure but a rather more enjoyable atmosphere, I feel.

byoung2 16y ago

That's an excellent point...I work at ClearChannel, and the interactive department is a small part of the overall business (radio being the lion's share). Our office is basically a startup within a big company. We have our own culture and quirks so it doesn't feel like a big corporation.

fookyong 16y ago

I would also add that it's possible for this dynamic to change as a company grows. I speak from personal experience - successful e-commerce startup where I am director of web. Year 1 was about fast growth. We built a home-grown e-commerce platform, and made it scale. Lots of interesting challenges for hackers and a strong technology focus - improvements to the platform contributed directly to the bottom line. Year 2 has a different emphasis. Many of the technical challenges are now past us. We did such a good job in Year 1 that we don't have to do much WRT scaling, UX optimization etc in Year 2. Year 2 is more about sales and marketing - continuing to find channels to acquire members and getting products into the store that people want (at good prices). This has much less of a technology emphasis than Year 1, and indeed while Year 1 was very exciting, in Year 2 I find it difficult to motivate my team when the tasks at hand are things like "ok guys so we need a modification to our internal admin tool so that marketing can...". Sure, there are constant improvements to be made. We do regular tweaks. We think up mini projects ("site looks weird on Android. ok lets fix that this week"). But the dynamic has most definitely changed and that is just a factor of the type of company this is (it's a sales company) and the stage of growth it is at (nearing a B round of financing).

contextfree 16y ago
What's much worse is Year 2 of a startup that didn't do so hot on the technical challenges in Year 1 and is treading water.