Would you choose to work for a big company or a startup?

Small company because - Diverse responsibilities and learning - Open Culture - Direct access to founders - Involvement in product decisions - Life-long strong relationships

Your half-life in big corp is rapidly increasing. I a startup at least you decide your own fate.

I would start with the big company to learn how everything works then maybe go to startup or create your own business 💼

Both.I prefer startups, but if I work in a big company, I prefer to choose a type of company that has grown a lot in the process of growth and is still agile after growth.

Depends on too many factors. My experience started in a startup because I loved the environment and industry (cloud computing) and learned everything on the go. I've learned all the techs because I was very passionate, and a few years ago started to teach at university. Learned how to run a team and then co-founded my actual company and (trying) to learn how to run it. Seeing it it was a big struggle, but it was an incredibly fun ride, and from day 0 I knew I would run my own company. Probably if my goal was to work on a big company would have gone there from the start :)

Startups, I have worked in 2 different startups and the amount of learning I got from startup was never in the company with big name.

I choose work for Startups

Big company

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Startup, Rapid growth, the potential for quick career advancement, and the chance to make a significant impact.

At this stage of my career, I like the startup environment as I enjoy the fast pace, energy, and innovative environment! In terms of what is better, it depends on what you want and your experience. Also, things like what stage of funding the start-up is at and their growth plans. Having worked for big well-known international companies and also startups ranging from pre-seed to series A, there are pros and cons for both: Big Name Companies Pros: Great place to start your career, learn in a stable environment, experience best practices (I hope), processes are in place, has structure, good company benefits, and depending on where you work, you get to see "what good looks like" Cons: Typically lots of red tape, things move slowly, slow to adopt new tech, can be rigid, hierarchical, easy to get "lost in the crowd", seen as just a small cog in a big machine, pay can be low as you are trading off for the name, career progression can be slow. Startups Pros: Moves at a fast pace, agile, smaller team/company so you are more visible and impactful, innovation-focused, adopts tech faster, more autonomy, can grow with the company, personally develop faster. Cons: Less stable, less structure (sometimes no structure lol), difficult for people with no or little experience as you need to hit the ground running, less safety nets (higher accountability and impact), speed can be too fast and chaotic for some people. This is a big generalization as there are so many factors like leadership, role, company, and industry, but from my experience, these are the overall differences.

I'd choose a startup. The main reason is the opportunity for significant growth and learning. In a startup, you often wear many hats, which means I'd get to develop a wide range of skills and gain experience in various aspects of the business

In my experience and from speaking with friends who work across both, Start Ups a lot of the time give you more opportunity to learn and experiment. Although it's generally more stressful and volatile, in Start Ups you'll have more responsibility which I've found teaches you more.

If you want some tranquility and security, I invite you to work for companies with big names, because the startup environment is wild.

Haven't really had a chance to work with a big firm but I think startups are really cool when it comes to exposure and quick learnings.

I worked at both, and so far I prefer start up. I agree with one of the previous comment - big company can give you a huge boost, as you will be learning a lot from other people in your team/area as well, while in start up you will be learning as you go and very likely will be a team of one (that's my case). But I felt like, at least at my company, with less people it is easier to build structure and be consistent, while it big companies a lot of processes are chaotic (also based on my friends' experiences)

I've actually worked at both! Depends on what you want and what stage in your career you are in. If you are just starting in your area and learning then definitely at a big company first (if you want to specialise in a certain area. Otherwise, if you do not know what you want to do, then at startups you are able to have more exposure to different areas and decide what you like! Startups are less rigid in the sense that it's a lot more fast paced than big companies where there are a lot of processes involved!

Definetely startup. I work for both as a software developer, for big companies, you become valuable day by day for their own domain, but you miss many new things , furthermore you have no chance to try something new, lots of bureaucratic problems etc.

I have worked for both and like them both. Large companies are easier to specialize in your work, but often feel inflexible in many situations. A startup company can grow, scale, and even your job description can expand depending on the flexibility of the founders and management team. Are the founders flexible and willing to expand horizontally and vertically? Or are you a founder who wants to build a small, elite team? These should be well understood and questions should be asked before joining the company. Also, choose a company whose business model you trust.

At this stage of my career, I like the startup environment as I enjoy the fast pace, energy, and innovative environment!