August 24, 2012 at 05:31Small and BIG companies
Having worked for several years in small web agencies, 5 months ago I decided to try something new and got a job in a rather large IT company (3,500 employees). What I saw at the new workplace turned out to be very far from my expectations. At the numerous requests of my friends and in response to a recent article under the cat, a few observations about the differences between large and small IT companies. The taste and color, as you know, felt-tip pens are different. So this article is far from the ultimate truth, this is what I came across and what was important to me.
Speaker managers
Bureaucracy. More people - more managers, more discussions. The issue that you can solve in 5 minutes in a small company, having discussed with the project manager or with the client directly, can be solved hours and days in large organizations. Sometimes it seems that these guys enjoy the transfusion from empty to empty. Obvious decisions are served with a sauce of thoughtful conclusions and approvals from several higher ranks.
Dron Managers and Optimization
Many managers of large companies are not interested in optimizing the work process. Optimization is a direct threat to their jobs. Therefore, it is rather difficult to push through the use of many products / approaches. A person receiving a salary for performing the functions of a bugtracker is quite normal.
In a small company, a well-established production process is one of the conditions for survival in the market.
Drone developers
I was lucky, I worked in good companies and almost never met developers idlers. It turned out that many of them are hiding in large corporations, quietly shitty on ten-year projects. Govnokoder with experience claim that, having lived to 40 years, I understand them. Hope this is not the case.
Dig from here to lunch
In large companies, people are resources, units with exemplary skill sets. Chips to put in terms of financing. Yes, of course, small companies also have their own plans, people also have resources one way or another. But small companies have more opportunities to influence the wrong decision by expressing their opinion. In large companies, you can get the answer: “You are right, I agree with you, but I have a plan, they demand from me - I can do nothing.” Screaming to those who can influence the process is far from always possible.
We are all in the same boat
In large companies, not much depends on one person. The working environment is much calmer than in small agencies, where almost every project can seriously affect financial stability. Employees of small companies are under much greater responsibility. And often they hear the words "we must tolerate, we must help the company in this period." It happens that employers forget that employees work primarily for money, and only then for interest and for the future of the company.
Corporate Programs
In large companies, you will get much more different components of the social package. Medical insurance, various discounts, free fruits and buns. Also sports, recreational and cultural events. Yes, in small companies this is also all there, but the order is completely different.
Stability
An aircraft carrier, as you know, is much more difficult to sink than an inflatable boat. People from large companies
Projects
Typically, large companies and large customers. They are rarely exchanged for projects in a few months. Preferences are given to many years of development. People come and go, but the inherited code remains. Often not of the best quality. Lack of documentation is also a fairly common problem. A lot of time is spent studying existing solutions, not development. And of course, there is no question of using the latest tools / technologies.
In small companies, you can choose tools for a specific project, try something new every few months. Support for projects, even age-related ones, is less painful, as projects are usually written by small teams, and not by the dozens of programmers who have been working on the project in different years.
Career
The cog in the big mechanism needs to try very hard to show itself. In small teams, this is much easier. Careers in large companies have been built over the years. Loyalty and experience here are often more valuable than work efficiency.
“In large companies, either amoeba or punching people with an endless source of internal energy and steel eggs should work. Middle peasants, most likely, will move over time to the category of amoebas, and not all strong people will survive. ” ( C ) Mephistophele
Professional growth
Due to the specifics of projects and the organization of labor, it is more difficult to grow professionally in large companies than in small ones. On large-scale projects, people can perform monotonous tasks for years, become experts in the subject field, almost without developing their developer skills.
Once again about optimization
In a large company, you can sit idle for several weeks awaiting a project. Get paid for reading blogs and writing articles on Habr. Someone dies at this time from boredom, someone enjoys idleness. Small companies cannot afford such luxury.
For myself, I saw more advantages of working in small agencies, which I will return to soon. A large company is a fairly comfortable place, but not everyone can enjoy this comfort.
UPD
Not all statements from this article are true for all small and large companies. But, unfortunately, much of what is described is quite common. As there are other positive and negative circumstances - as you can see by reading the comments on this article. There are also small companies with bureaucrats, there are large companies with interesting projects and excellent work organization. And different people look at the same things differently.
You need to be critical of the choice of the company, to learn as much as possible about the organization of work, future colleagues, the possible pros / cons of working in a certain place before employment. Be careful when choosing a job!