My experience is quite similar (down to the robotics specialization!), but my first jobs were in big companies in aerospace, oil tools, oil exploration computat

My experience is quite similar (down to the robotics specialization!), but my first jobs were in big companies in aerospace, oil tools, oil exploration computation, and eventually, computer manufacturers and software. At each of these, I learned some good things, but to be fair, only four of those companies were well-run enough to teach me anything of lasting value. (FYI: Rohr, Hughes Tool, Chevron, Sun Microsystems) Since I left big corps 20 years ago, I've spent almost all my time in startups. Most failed, but two were successfully, if not terribly profitably, sold. (As CTO or similar for all, I'm happy to say that the failures fell for business or founding team issues, not technical reasons - my teams always delivered the technology/product, often on impossible schedules and budgets!) Yes, it's true that (unless your startup is wildly successful) you don't learn to scale things as much in a small company, but in reality, scaling is overrated, and many people spend way too much time foolishly trying to optimize for it. What startups DO teach you is to think about building great solutions for the product at hand. The lack of time and resources inherent even in well-funded startups (I've had the fortune to work in one of those) drives more expansive considerations of options and creative approaches, and a focus on the end goal rather than the process. Big companies simply cannot think this way, and I am very fortunate to have had a couple of my own startups under my belt before I was invited to join others. I think that proved that I had not been made utterly useless by my big-corp experience. (I'd also done a lot of R&D work in the big companies, which is as close to startup mentality as they can get.) I could go on for quite a while, but suffice it to say, you're not really missing much, if anything (except miserable, bigoted big-corp Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (DIE) training and policies that will never let you speak freely for fear of HR reprisals...) When I am asked to build teams, unless the client is a big-corp culture that only another bi-corp mentality person can survive in, I strongly prefer to draw from people with smaller company experience - they are usually considerably more capable across disciplines, much more creative, and have an MIH (Make It Happen) mentality that you never find in the big corps. In short, having done both, I consider big-corp experience to be more of a detriment (especially true for PhDs IMO), and startup experience to be invaluable for developing real teamwork, creativity, and the ability to make it real!