A career in IT – corporate or start-up?
Have you ever wondered which job comes closest to your expectations? Or are you still not sure what would be more suitable for you, a larger company or perhaps a small start-up? If you have any doubts about the further course of your career in IT, we invite you to read the following article. We try to characterize the main differences between the two different job requirements.
Every beginning is hard
Young people who are at the beginning of their careers - especially those who have specialized in the IT industry - have high requirements for their first job. Not only are a high salary, opportunities for further training and development essential, but also a pleasant working atmosphere and benefits are becoming increasingly important. Talented software developers in particular can decide which companies to make their increasingly important potential and know-how available to them.
The development opportunities
We want to start with a topic that is particularly important for new employees, namely development opportunities. So where are your chances of quickly gaining knowledge and experience better? It just depends on where you want to develop your skills.
On the one hand, you usually have more training opportunities in an established large company to improve your knowledge. In addition, there are many experienced specialists in your area who will help you to get acquainted with new tasks and support you in solving any problems that arise.
On the other hand, in a start-up you are on your own right from the start and very often have to deal with problems on your own. You will quickly gain valuable experience that will broaden your horizons and enable you to quickly acquire new skills.
It should also be emphasized that a programmer working in a start-up can diversify since he is usually responsible for many different tasks. The situation is completely different with corporates, where the principle often prevails: one task – one person. This fact could mean that you only specialize in one technology and your area of responsibility becomes rather one-sided.
Professional promotion
If you have no previous experience in the industry, you will very often start at a lower level in an established company. Career paths are often long-term and rigid. As proof of your good work, you also have the chance of a quick promotion in the start-up as a junior.
But where do these differences come from? Well, at the beginning the development is much more dynamic and even without extensive experience, the employees very often take on responsible tasks that are entrusted to older or experienced colleagues in established companies. By working in a smaller organization that is just entering the market, you have direct contact with management. This can directly monitor the quality of your work and allow for faster advancement.
Salary
OK, so what's the result here? As the 2017 Stack Overflow study shows, developers typically earn more at larger companies than at smaller companies. So if your main motivation is a high salary, large companies will be able to meet your expectations faster than startups. When it comes to budgets for training and the range of benefits offered, large companies are clearly ahead of start-ups.
Security and stability
In addition to higher wages, a large company can also score points when it comes to employment stability. Startups typically invest their surplus in growth rather than in exceptional salaries or employee retention programs. In addition, it is more certain that a corporate will still exist on the market in the coming months or years.
Atmosphere and work organization
Although the trend has changed a lot in recent times, it is still assumed that work in a large company is strictly formalized and the employee does not have much influence on products or projects. In addition, in a larger company, the job is more hierarchical and your ideas may not be passed on to the appropriate decision maker.
Start-up or corporation - what are you better suited for?
In a start-up there are people who are able to show initiative and make decisions that affect not only their own development but also the entire company. This is an option for people who are confident and prefer to make their experiences from their own mistakes.
We recommend Corporates to those who value stability above all and – at least at the beginning of their career – prefer well-founded support from experienced specialists. If you would like to work in an established company with high earning potential, you are in good hands with a corporate.
The Golden middle?
At this point it should be mentioned that a job in IT is not just a decision between a large company and a start-up. There are many medium-sized companies that offer both a family working atmosphere, adequate wages and contact points for juniors.
