Gents,

What are your thoughts on working for a small company versus a small company?

I have an interview tomorrow for a possible new job.  This new job is for a much smaller company (~100 folks) than my current company (~1050 folks).

Thoughts?

I may update or start another post as talks continue.  This are looking good at this time.

What kind of job?  The type of work has a lot to do with it.

Quoted: What kind of job?  The type of work has a lot to do with it.

Network Engineering / Systems Engineering.  I work in Information Security at the moment.

Theoretically, you'll have less "office politicians" and deadwood at the smaller company.

I have worked for both small and large corporations. I am working for a large corp. now and I will never go back to a small bussiness. From my experiance I have gotten better pay and working conditions and more chance for  advancement.


 

Quoted: I have worked for both small and large corporations. I am working for a large corp. now and I will never go back to a small bussiness. From my experiance I have gotten better pay and working conditions and more chance for  advancement.

Interesting.

The position I am working now has NO advancement.  The position I am seeking pays about 35% more than I have right now.

I have also worked for large companies and small companies.  I will never go back to a large company.  The key is finding a good small company - this means a good owner, someone you can get along with and is not a nazi about everything.

From my experience:

Large companies - better benefits, inept managers, budgeting concerns overpower personal decisions, less freedom

Small companies - benefits not as good, only people that can actually get the job done remain, much more personal freedom

For example, I'm currently at a small company.  I came here three years ago and built my department into an efficient and profitable machine.  Insurance through the company sucks, but we opted to use my wife's to alleviate that problem.  I was able to hand pick my team, and train them to my preferences.  I answer only to the owner of the company, and as long as I maintain a good profit margin, he's pretty hands-off.  I come in when I want, I leave when I want.  I browse ARFcom between reports.  I am not subject to bullshit PC rules or other HR nonsense.  

YMMV :D

Depends. Which one is owned outright by a single person that gives a shit about their employees? That's the one I'd work for. Everything else is secondary. Life's too short to stroke out in a fucking corporate cube farm where PC has run amock.

Quoted: I have also worked for large companies and small companies.  I will never go back to a large company.  The key is finding a good small company - this means a good owner, someone you can get along with and is not a nazi about everything. From my experience: Large companies - better benefits, inept managers, budgeting concerns overpower personal decisions, less freedom Small companies - benefits not as good, only people that can actually get the job done remain, much more personal freedom For example, I'm currently at a small company.  I came here three years ago and built my department into an efficient and profitable machine.  Insurance through the company sucks, but we opted to use my wife's to alleviate that problem.  I was able to hand pick my team, and train them to my preferences.  I answer only to the owner of the company, and as long as I maintain a good profit margin, he's pretty hands-off.  I come in when I want, I leave when I want.  I browse ARFcom between reports.  I am not subject to bullshit PC rules or other HR nonsense.   YMMV :D

About how I would sum it up.  I've worked for plenty of bad small companies, but also currently work for the largest company in the world for my industry.  I'm on the way again to a smaller company, and have used my experience to negotiate my terms so that I am insured against the normal small company problems.

It just has to be the right small company, and it's the way to go.

Quoted: Gents, What are your thoughts on working for a small company versus a small company?

Wow... that's a toughie... small company, or small company?  Hmmm... both have their pros and cons, I'm going to have to mull this over a little

In my experience, a larger company tends to compensate better, but a smaller company tends to offer more freedom.  In a small company, everyone knows everyone and you have to work as something like a team.  You can flex your schedule to get things done, etc.  Big companies have clock-watchers, office politics, cube farms, layer upon layer of dictatorial managers who all like Powerpoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets, etc.

I'm back in a small company, and I love it.  Sure, I could make more, but I make enough.  I'm much happier and stress-free without having to worry if I'm sitting at my desk at the stroke of 9 or have my TPS report cover sheets in order.

Quoted: Quoted: What kind of job?  The type of work has a lot to do with it. Network Engineering / Systems Engineering.  I work in Information Security at the moment.

Sounds like you will be the entire IT department.  Which means you will also be the janitor, plumber, moving man, etc.  At small companies you tend to wear many hats.

Contrary to what you may hear, I have worked at more crappy small companies than crappy large companies.  The WORST jobs I have had were at small companies.

Quoted: *snip* From my experience: Large companies - better benefits, inept managers, budgeting concerns overpower personal decisions, less freedom, you will probably never contribute anything meaningfull since there will be a team of people doing the same thing you do. Small companies - benefits not as good, only people that can actually get the job done remain, much more personal freedom, you end up doing a lot of other "jobs" that weren't part of your job description. *snip*

the above mirrors my experiences too, with my additions in red. i went from a HUGE comapny, to a medium company, to a very small company, back to a big one.

if i can find a job in my field, at a small company that will still PAY relatively competetively, i'll be there fo' life.

This is the first job I've had that was with a smaller company. I've worked here for four years now. I like it much more than any of the previous ones I've had with large companies, except for one with NCS doing data entry. They were pretty nice to work for.

Less

Quoted: Less boricuaproduce.com/store/images/TANG%20ORANGE.JPG

Yeah but people advise against getting tang at work anyway. It's less trouble to pick it up at the grocery store.

Quoted: Quoted: What kind of job?  The type of work has a lot to do with it. Network Engineering / Systems Engineering.  I work in Information Security at the moment.

Why do arfcommers always post stuff about their jobs and then forget to tell us what they do for a living?  

If you are process oriented and like procedures then a small company may give you a lot of headaches.  I work for a company thats about the size of the one you are currently at and I thnik it's a perfect size.  Big enough to be complex and small enough so I'm not a cog in a big machine.  (I'm an accountant by the way)

Also you should find out if you will be working with the owners.  I've worked with owner operators and sometimes they cross the line.  You'll learn a whole new set of politics when working with an owner.

Quoted: The WORST jobs I have had were at small companies.

Well, the best jobs I've had have been at small companies, so I guess that cancels your observation out

Some people thrive in big companies.  I find them stultifying... you cannot exercise initiative, form is more important than substance, office politics rule all, etc.  I like working on a variety of issues, and none of them require multiple meetings of change control  committees.  Heck, I know a guy who got fired from a multinational because he fixed a problem... it was taking too long for change control to approve a fix, and he made the colossal error of fixing the issue rather than waiting for a piece of paper.

I'd be perfectly happy to never work for a large company again.