In the IT industry, there is a stark difference between working for large corporations compared to startups. The following explore a few areas of comparison.
- Startups
- enable employees to be heard
- to be more vocal
- chance to influence a culture
- explore and exchange thoughts and ideas
- build closer relationships
- bigger sense of responsibility
- fast-paced
- proactive
- rapid learning
- can be disruptive and at the same time risky
- less stability of work
- smaller teams and even individual ownership of work
- chance to play many hats which leads to often overworked staff
- more loosening up parties and chill out times
- opportunities to explore play times and breakout periods
- equity options
- salaries can be low
- greater degree of flexibility to be creative
- limited funding budgets on projects
- small teams means cultural fit becomes important which may lead to issues with diversity, inclusion, and equity
- communication channels are often spread across a very flat hierarchical structure
- Large corporates
- one is reduced to an employee number
- lots of red tape to get things done
- chance to influence culture is minimum or difficult
- more decisions are made by management
- people become too distant
- lots of reporting functions
- lots of internal competition
- more ceremony within team structures
- lots of mundane work as things slow down considerably
- excessive amount of politics which at some places can be toxic
- difficult to make a mark and rise up the ladder
- risk of stagnation
- can be great places for graduates to start their careers as period of learning and ramping up skills in industry
- lots of stability
- projects can be complex
- willing to take risks
- chance to do things properly
- chance to specialize in an area
- lots of benefits and perks
- salaries can be more dynamic with greater bonus options
- great when you just want to move up into management
- great to go back to when you are nearing retirement
- great to go back to when you want stability while setting up a startup of your own
- great for networking for the future
- chance for bigger project budgets
- chance to work in different countries and with distributed teams
- more structured career progression
- potentials for redundancies under bad leadership
- more consideration for compliance
- more restrictions on opensource
- unnecessarily and often long recruitment processes
- lots of pointless paperwork for filling out forms
- lots of areas of unclear, inefficient, incorrect channels of communication
- often issues relating to diversity, inclusion, and equity in the workplace
