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Startup or Corporate: Where Should You Start a Software Engineering Career?

7 min readSep 7, 2021

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Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

I’ve had the opportunity to spend over a year as a software engineer at both a small startup (with 5 employees) and a Fortune 500 company (with over 10k employees) and have many thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages of each. While 1+ years isn’t much experience,

I’ve at least gotten a glimpse into life at both types of companies and have found similarities and differences in both the company culture and the day-to-day responsibilities of employees. While both offer different things, you might find that one is more suited for what you’re looking for.

Quick note — these conclusions are my own and drawn from both my personal experience and my peers’ experiences. Let me know if you’ve experienced something different!

Mentorship and Growth

Mentorship can look very different depending on your surroundings and your coworkers. It largely depends on what outside experiences your peers have had, and their teaching styles, as well as how you learn best.

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Sarah Morris O’Keefe
Sarah Morris O’Keefe

Written by Sarah Morris O’Keefe

Software Engineer @ iHeartRadio // Writing + Tech + Music + Mindfulness + Reading + Gaming // https://okeefesarah.com