Would You Rather Work in a Small Startup or a Large Corporation?

I don't know if my country have startup but exist micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

Small startup Am a dreamer and have believed anything imaginabl

Small startup. Am a dreamer and have believed anything imaginable.

Different kinds of companies have different pros/cons.

A large corporation will have process and culture in place that are not going to change. (Satya Nadella has been proactively trying to change the culture & processes of Microsoft, and has very limited success (mostly lip-service success, in my opinion). Changing culture & processes of a company is a heck of a slog!) If the culture/processes work for you, great! If the culture and/or processes rub you the wrong way, well... they're not going to change, so either adopt-or-adapt or be perpetually frustrated. The benefit of a large corporation is that it provides the illusion of job security, which can be very comforting. And usually the benefits are good.

A small startup is precarious because they are threading the fine line between burn rate and becoming sufficiently profitable to establish themselves as a small business (post-startup). The benefit is stock options which are either worthless (99% chance, because the startup folds), or retirement money (1%).

In between small startup and large corporation is: independent consultant (make yourself into a one-person LLC, and be your own boss), small business (post-startup), medium business, large business (on its way to becoming a large corporation). (If you work for a consulting company, and you are a salaried FTE... that's the same as being in a S/M/L business or Large Corporation, depending on the consulting firm.)

What I look for is: do I like the culture & processes, do I like the management, do I like my colleagues, do I like my product (or in particular, the product's codebase).

Having done both in my career, I would always prefer working for a startup.

The single most important reason for me is visibility, in your work, on your opinions.
Another great reason would be, as an early employee you'll be able to actually influence the culture of the organization.

The largest company I've worked at had something like 7,000 employees. The smallest had about 60 when I started. So I have experienced a decent range of headcounts, but haven't really experienced the extremes yet.

From what I can tell, everyone should try working at both large and small companies.

But I think it's best to start with a larger company and then try working for a startup after at least a few years of experience with larger companies. That was the path I took.

Larger companies are typically profitable and have been around for a while. They have a lot of customers whose trust they need to keep. This means they place more emphasis on product maintenance, quality, and stability. You will work in large, well-maintained, stable codebases, guided by seasoned engineers whose job description includes mentoring you. You'll learn a lot about how to write code well and these habits will stick with you.

On the other hand, startups are new, usually unprofitable, and don't have a lot of customers whose trust they need to keep. Their emphasis is on product novelty and fast time-to-market so that they can grab themselves a customer base ASAP. You'll slap a new codebase together yourself while under constant schedule pressure and with little technical guidance. You will learn a lot of practical knowledge and get good at pushing things forward fast. In my opinion, it's better to do this sort of learning a little later in your career, after you have spent your more formative years building up good coding design habits.

Obviously these are gross generalizations and will vary on a company-to-company basis. You'll learn a lot at any type of company, but I feel that the order is important.

I really enjoyed Alvaro's comment and mostly feel similarly.

As someone who has spent their entire career working in large corporations, I can attest to the many benefits that come with working in such an environment. There is usually a clear career path, established processes and hierarchies, and a sense of stability that comes with working for an established organization. However, there are also cons that come with working in large corporations (depending on the company, not all of them are the same), such as massive layoffs, poor leadership, and a bias that is already molded into the company culture.

Given the opportunity, I would love to work in a small startup environment. The thought of being part of a close-knit team that is building something from the ground up is truly exciting. The ability to have a high degree of autonomy, wearing multiple hats, and have a direct impact on the success of the company is very appealing to me.

While working in a startup environment can be challenging, the potential for growth and personal development is immense. The ability to take risks, innovate, and pivot quickly is something that is often not possible in a more structured environment.

Whatever has smaller work load. I love smaller and more focused projects instead of large-legacy projects (for now).

Usually I like projects that I can maintain alone.

I think it's a really thought-provoking question.
I think working in a small startup environment is good because you can have your own time and work in an eco-friendly environment.
However, large corporations are the perfect place to get work stress.
Instead, they receive a salary that allows them to enjoy a comfortable life.
Just as each person has a different facial appearance, not everyone can have a common idea.
"For what" each one must choose.

Depends on the company. I would rather work somewhere that my contributions have meaning rather than getting "lost in the sauce".