Which is Better to Work For: A Corporate or Tech-Startup?

CUE Marketplace
Aug 23, 2017 · 5 min read

Big corporations were considered to be undisputed leaders of the job market with the best-in-class salaries, stability, and a predictably growing career graph. However, with the advent of the modern-day internet and its associated software-tech industry, the dynamics have changed rather significantly. Startups are giving these corporate giants a run for their money when it comes to attracting top talent.

Allow me to share my two pennies worth, of which is primarily drawn from my personal experience. Now, truth be told, my data point is pretty limited on large enterprises and start-ups — IBM and CUE are my primary point of reference as my previous employer and current employer respectively. Additionally, depending on the culture of the organization and role you have had, your experience could be wildly different.

There are a few glaring differences between working for a start-up versus a corporate giant.

Growth

At a big and established company, if you are good at your job and meet all the right requirements, you can slowly work your way up towards an upper-level position. This hierarchal internal growth brings with it stability, good pay, and excellent benefits. Often, you may have to wait years and years to become a true leader with the responsibility of big ownership — this is not so at a startup. At a startup, the rules for mobility are less stringent: if you’re awesome at what you do, you’ll be able to grow and move up in your career far faster than at a more traditional business. By joining a startup, your career will have the opportunity to accelerate in a major way.

Jack of all trades or master of one

In a corporation, you have learned to master at your area of expertise: if you’re a sales genius, you look after your job and targets, and you let others care for theirs — that’s how corporates roll. They depend on individual productivity for collective results. A startup cannot afford to do that. Here, you have to be the leader and also serve on the team. You come up with the idea, and you see it through right until the end. There’s little or no delegation, and that’s the beauty of the startup experience!

Responsibilities

At a startup, you’re a part of something much bigger than just what your job asks of you. Sure, you need to write code, publish blog posts, create a sales process, learn a new skill set, or whatever it may be, but you’re doing much more than that. As different job roles are not set in stone, you master the art of learn-do-and-deliver as and when the situation demands, irrespective of what your official title is. It’s hard to describe what that feeling is like, though: being a part of a small company is somewhat like creating a community or finding new best friends.

You’re making something from nothing, with people who are in it for the same reasons you are.

Your opinion matters.

You’re at the apex of what might become something big, meaningful and different.

At MNC’s, there tends to be more organization and structure: people are divided into teams and have specific responsibilities. You are given set targets, guidelines and its deadlines beforehand, and you are expected to stick to them. Gradually, you ease into your particular role and work tends to become repetitive thereon. As a result, you can get a lot of depth in that one area, but you won’t have had any exposure to much else that’s going on in the company or even on your team. Corporates are all about status. People recognize you by the firm you work for; your job title carries a certain weight.

Do you like a challenge? If so, the learning curve in a startup is steeper and more continuous vis-à-vis corporate, where it may flatten after a few years commensurate with experience.

Politics

I’ve never heard of a company with more than 30 people that didn’t have politics. Unfortunately, office politics are a necessary evil whenever a company reaches a certain size. The point of no return is when the first middle manager is hired — or when the first job opens up that is about controlling people and nothing more. Small startups can have politics, too but, in the early days, there’s too much camaraderie and too many responsibilities to worry about power or anything else like that. Unless the leaders of a startup are not able to mitigate and keep out drama, there is none of that in this sector. Everything is more socially pragmatic at a startup.

Risk

Large companies tend to move in a slow, consensual way without taking bigger risks. Sometimes this is a good thing, especially when a project consists of a lot of moving parts that need to be synced in order to work best. A startup is risky because you’re building something from nothing: you’re doing something ridiculously hard because you believe in it and you want nothing more than to see it succeed.

Transparency

Startups are typically more transparent than their corporate counterparts. Leaders are pretty open behind organizational decisions and provide insight into them rather than looking for blind obedience and, possibly, even ask for feedback before executing them. You’ll get to see how the company grows, why certain decisions were made, and how the company reacts to competitors and business plan changes. All of this will teach you about business and prepare you to do your own startup one day. Very few corporations adopt transparency policy.

Perks

Larger companies give you the advantage of attaching your name to a well-known brand, as well as perks such as attending corporate outings, fully covered health insurance, paid vacation for the family, business class travel, luxury spa memberships, and so on and so forth. But, after all, there’s only so much free food and beer you can have. Startups are notorious for the obnoxious amount of perks they provide their employees with free food, as much craft beer and La Croix your body can handle: at CUE office; we always seem to be munching on something or toting La Croix or tea in-hand!

Whether you decide to work for a hot new startup or a larger, more established company, entering the workforce will have its ups and downs. Think of your own personality: do you thrive in tight-knit teams, frequent collaboration opportunities and a more relaxed company culture? Or do you work best in a more structured corporate environment that provides more of a work-life balance?

It’s hard to compare startups and corporates in black and white as both have certain inherent advantages going for them. Neither is out rightly superior to the other. I’m not taking any sides here, nor am I telling you what to do — I’m just simply making an observational point that grass is equally green on both sides!

Take time to explore how you prefer to work to avoid landing in a frustrating job that stunts your personal and professional growth. Just remember what your ultimate goal is and what you want to accomplish in your career. Your happiness or success will depend on how you face your battles in a particular environment.

Dhanashree Bole is CUE’s passionate, tech-savvy product manager. She has an undergrad degree in Software Engineering, with experience working in a corporate sector (IBM), and received her MBA from CU, Boulder.

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