4 ms·

Larger companies (>1000 employees) seem to have a better work life balance.. or at least an opportunity to get lost in the bureaucracy. Salaries are worse and c

Larger companies (>1000 employees) seem to have a better work life balance.. or at least an opportunity to get lost in the bureaucracy. Salaries are worse and career development seems terrible but that may be a tradeoff you are willing to make.

jlund-molfese 5y ago
Salaries are usually fairly comparable per hour worked, and career development can be fantastic. The best managers I’ve had were at a Fortune 500. But a large company is really like a group of many tiny companies, and it’s hard to reliably be placed in a great area unless you know someone on the inside. Large companies sometimes don’t even let you apply to specific teams.
- humanrebar 5y ago
  I was basically about to post this as well. You want to find a decently large company that has its business model figured out so you don't have to stress about where your salary will be coming from. You probably won't be able to pick a low-stress team unless you already have connections or inside info there. But you can generally network around the company after getting hired: technology interest groups, non-technology interest groups, recruiting trips, internal chatrooms, folks working on the same open source tech, etc. If you start out in a mediocre-to-bad team, you can often figure out how to get transferred to a better situation within a couple years.
- alexfromapex 5y ago
  Agreed, currently at a Fortune 500 and have the best manager I’ve ever had
stuart78 5y ago
I work for such a firm (10k employees) and we try hard to be competitive with startups on salary - we have to in order to keep hiring. It is definitely not the same pace as a startup (I joined via acquisition), but good big projects at scale and an open-ness to work from just about anywhere. It is a trade off for sure, but RSUs in a mature market are a more sure bet than many startups.
- goalieca 5y ago
  I applaud your company for keeping up with salaries. I think stability and pace and maturity is a great thing. But I’ve seen mass departures once corporate accounting types take over and forget that employees matter for success. They seem to worry too much about finding efficiencies and believe the key to success is the right business processes.

jlund-molfese 5y ago

Salaries are usually fairly comparable per hour worked, and career development can be fantastic. The best managers I’ve had were at a Fortune 500. But a large company is really like a group of many tiny companies, and it’s hard to reliably be placed in a great area unless you know someone on the inside. Large companies sometimes don’t even let you apply to specific teams.

humanrebar 5y ago
I was basically about to post this as well. You want to find a decently large company that has its business model figured out so you don't have to stress about where your salary will be coming from. You probably won't be able to pick a low-stress team unless you already have connections or inside info there. But you can generally network around the company after getting hired: technology interest groups, non-technology interest groups, recruiting trips, internal chatrooms, folks working on the same open source tech, etc. If you start out in a mediocre-to-bad team, you can often figure out how to get transferred to a better situation within a couple years.
alexfromapex 5y ago
Agreed, currently at a Fortune 500 and have the best manager I’ve ever had

stuart78 5y ago

I work for such a firm (10k employees) and we try hard to be competitive with startups on salary - we have to in order to keep hiring. It is definitely not the same pace as a startup (I joined via acquisition), but good big projects at scale and an open-ness to work from just about anywhere. It is a trade off for sure, but RSUs in a mature market are a more sure bet than many startups.

goalieca 5y ago
I applaud your company for keeping up with salaries. I think stability and pace and maturity is a great thing. But I’ve seen mass departures once corporate accounting types take over and forget that employees matter for success. They seem to worry too much about finding efficiencies and believe the key to success is the right business processes.