<p>Let this discussion be directed towards those in the process of finding a job, and are weighing the advantages and disadvantages for a big vs. small company. </p>
<p>If you have any experience working for a big company, small company, or both, please post your ideas/advice. Topics to include can be (training opportunities, potential advancement, salary, benefits, working environment, working culture, etc.)</p>
<p>I've worked for both. I think big companies provide much more room for career growth. From my experiences smaller companies = longer hours = expect more productivity. </p>
<p>Smaller companies however give you a real sense of accomplishment, especially when witnessing company growth, this can be very rewarding. </p>
<p>For potential salaries and advancement it differs from company to company, but I'd say you'd have more opportunity with a larger company. The statistics from small business longterm success are against them, which leads me believe working for a larger company job security is not guaranteed, but may seem safer. </p>
<p>Work environment really depends on the company, some can be fun some can be lame regardless of company size. Large companies are great for your social life, as there is more potential to network and make new friends. It really all depends on what fits you best.</p>
<p>I've worked for both large and small companies. </p>
<p>I started out working for Genentech which was midsize when I started and grew pretty quickly. Which was nice for career progression and their name on the resume has raised plenty of eyebrows.</p>
<p>From there I went to a smaller pharma company (about 400 ppl) and was blessed with awesome culture, great benefits, and really good atmosphere. Because of this companies success they got bought out by J&J and the party ended after 2 years of my being there. J&J kept the benefits but slashed the rewards programs... I left after a few years and now work for another 400 ppl biotech company.</p>
<p>Pros: </p>
<p>Large companies are great for their budgets. There's room for error, they offer great training, and advancement/movement can be easier. Smaller companies generally pay better, will have great environments (or awful ones), rewards programs can be good if the company is successfull, and put you in greater control of your success.</p>
<p>Cons:</p>
<p>Large companies are large and thus your efforts can be seen as small. Rewards programs can be worse and thus compensation can suffer.</p>
<p>Small companies are always effected great by market fluctuation and the amount of work can be greater. Also, if the company environment sucks then it is generally really bad.</p>
<p>I like to take my chances and find a great smaller company.</p>
<p>I used to work for 2 years as an intern for a small engineering consulting firm of about 60 people. I'm not sure if the following is specific to consulting or to small firms, but this is what I experienced. Hours were long... it was rare to have a 40 hour work week. You get lots of experience and responsibility very quickly. Some engineers were more or less in charge of smaller projects by themselves with some input from project managers when necessary or when there's interaction with clients. </p>
<p>The atmosphere at this company was great, but I think this is mainly dictated by the attitudes of upper management. I can only describe their personalities as always being cheery and playful. There was no strict dress code; just dress appropriately. Suit and ties are only required when there are meetings with clients.</p>
<p>There was some pressure for everybody to help find future projects for us to work on, which I think is due to the size of the company. We ended up getting projects across the country and halfway around the world partly because of the different background of our personnel and partly because of the prestige of our company (the president is very well-respected in our field). We never had a shortage of work, but my two years there was definitely not enough to really judge. If anything, we took on too much work because there are always fears we won't have work in the future. There was a time when everybody had dinner in the office together for maybe 3 weeks straight. That includes Saturdays and Sundays.</p>
<p>All in all, I really enjoyed my stay there, and would have stayed had they done work in the field I was interested in.</p>
<p>Now, I'm working for an international corporation with operations on 5 continents and a local office of 700 people. The biggest advantage of working for a huge company is the benefits and the formal training programs. In my industry (construction), I feel like the atmosphere varies a lot from project to project since it's a new group of people every time.</p>
<p>My advice... if you can get a job with a smaller, but equally prestigious as some of the bigger firms, go with that one. You'll take more pride in your work and the experience is very rewarding.</p>
<p>thanks for your input! i really appreciate it.</p>
<p>I'm currently applying for chemical engineering jobs at the big oil companies (ie chevron, conocophillips, exxon), but am also strongly considering to work for a SIGNIFICANTLY smaller company that licenses oil technology. </p>
<p>for my situation, i think being an entry-level engineer in a more well-known company will help me out if i ever decide to make the transition from bigger company to smaller company. I'm also looking for excellent training opportunities. anyways thanks again for the input.</p>
<p>bigger companies have money and they can throw money at you for you to do the work, but you might not like the job.</p>
<p>Smaller companies you have to do a lot more work and get paid less, but you will learn alot. </p>
<p>From my point of view, it's better to go to a smaller company after graduation because you will learn, and after couple years, you can fly somewhere else with the experience if you don't like to stay.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Smaller companies you have to do a lot more work and get paid less
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I'm not sure I agree that we can generalize that smaller companies pay less. Many smaller companies pay MORE, usually because they need to pay more in order to attract talented people away from more stable companies. After all, a small company is more likely to go bankrupt, and hence top employees are going to rightfully demand to be paid more to compensate them for that risk. Small companies also tend to be less prestigious (i.e. less of a resume booster to leverage in my later career), and hence, again, have to compensate accordingly. For example, if I have a job offer from ExxonMobil, then I would have to be paid much more to be enticed to work for some unstable no-name company. </p>
<p>Note, that's not to say that ALL small companies pay more. Rather, what I've seen is that small company pay is more variable. Some small companies pay less. But others pay more. Hence, you can't really generalize. It really depends on whether a small company actually wants to hire highly talented people. The "elite" small companies usually pay more for top talent than do large companies, because, again, they can't offer the same sort of prestige and stability that a large company can. But those small companies that aren't that interested in hiring top talent can and do often times pay less.</p>
<p>I heard Roids INC is hiring, all you have to do is not fail the entry-level blood test which consists of some McCabe Thiele Modulus, Hunter-Nash Equilibrium and
some Damkohler numbers on your blood. </p>
<ul>
<li>TB54</li>
</ul>
<p>P.S. - Stop crawling CC, get back to 106! Senkan says we must work like worker bees. </p>
<p>Worker bees can leave
Even drones can fly away
The queen is their slave.</p>