Startup vs Big Company: Which is better?

What's better to join? A startup or a big company?

I'm sharing my thoughts having worked in startups for 6 years and a big company for 4 years.

0:00 Intro
1:18 The Short Answer
2:13 What do companies look for when hiring? (Startups)
4:08 What do companies look for when hiring? (Large company)
5:14 What you get out of companies
6:04 Cultures
7:56 Compensation
9:11 My recommendation
10:24 Why I switched to a large company
11:51 Wrap-up

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[hiphopheaven]

I'm currently working in a start up and what I like the most is that I feel like I have a direct impact on the company, products and clients.It's not the same when you work in a company that have a lot of employees. Is it generally true that you have to do overtime in most startup. I don't do any overtime where I work.

[yosefa]

was just watching this while eating lunch XD loved it! I am now in my second year working at a startup and I really like that I have exposure to almost everything that's going on one more thing you didn't mention is that while yes that startups work can be intense but it also can be more flexible than bigger companies (no super official) which makes it as a really fun experience

[jenniferdsouza]

Most underrated video.
What an amazing video 🎥!
Thanks for sharing the juice!

[HanRenLau]

thank you for your advice, good stuff!

[wt_wt]

Awesome content as usual Harry! This will surely help a lot in my career decisions. Lately I was in this exact same position of choosing startup vs big company, unfortunately I made the decision before this video, haha but this confirmed stuff that I had in mind previously and I'll sure consider all of those in my next job opportunities!

Keep it up!

[shanzhong]

What a great video! Totally on point :)

[wolfymaster]

In my experience, generally speaking, you can gain equal experience and exposure at large organizations as you would at a startup and visa-vera. The largest difference between the two have been they types of problems they have to solve and how much they will pay for you to solve those problems. I've worked at larger organizations with new grads earning over 2x what I was earning in highly specialized roles at startups. Honestly, 'it depends' is the only answer here - and 'startup' vs 'corporation' is too general. You really have to push on the company during the interview and make sure you are going to have the type of experience you are looking for.

[Supperconductor]

There's such a huge varianice in the quality of people you find at various companies. Pick a job based on that as a primary consideration. That's my 2¢.

[sye]

Harry, I totally agree with what you are saying. Right now I am trying to break into "bigger" companies bc of stability, during the interviews, I find it that they almost completely disregard my experience, and only care about my knowledge on DS and algorithms. I don't have a CS degree, which means I will have to study up on a lot of things. I have two questions,

1. Just curious about your opinion on companies testing you on prefix tree (trie) during interviews, but when you are actually working, you are probably just going to use array and hash table.
2. Based on your experience when interviewing with small startups, how do you know they will be able to teach you things? bc I've had experience where the Senior Dev I'm working with does not even want to talk to me, much less mentorship...

Thanks for taking the time and making these videos, they are really helpful.

[preludeofme]

Yeah I think also if you're someone who likes structure and things planned out for you big companies can be the way to go. I think like you mentioned, big companies a lot of times have things already figured out how they want them, they have teams to manage the infrastructure, etc.

I'm in a big company but I've been lucky to be able to start my own team from the ground up and work as a start up, but with the stability of a large company. it's definitely interesting to see the differences when I work with some of the core technology teams

[denisleonard]

Hi Harry,
What do you mean by Big Company?
Is it like FAAANG? or like Banks (JP Morgan, Bank of America, etc)? or any other industries in which the company has Bilion revenue (Nike, Walmart, Chevron, BMW, etc?

[ev]

Worked at a startup and there was lots of favoritism going on

[willhleucka]

I've been with the same company for about 4.5 years. We are a consulting company and there are a total of 2 employees. I am starting to wonder what it would be like to work for a larger company. Problem is that my current location doesn't have a lot of Computer Science related jobs. With that being said, I am considering staring my own consulting company. Have you ever considered this? It is a lot of risk, especially if you're starting a family. Or would you suggest looking for another job in a larger city? Thanks, Harry! Love your videos.

[tim.bogdanov]

It's proven to be really tough to land a Jr. Web Developer Job. Do you have any recommendations Harry Wolff

[MrPlaiedes]

I love how all of these channels begin with "curried functions" to "this is what I think..."

[queuebit]

Thanks for sharing perspective, Harry.

[karnellschultz]

The internets real tech lead right here

[ExTorvo]

Honestly I don't like the whole idea of startups as it's today. Too much are based on debentures and possible future profit. See Netflix, uber and such. If we want a more healthy economy why we praise things like that? The whole concept is fine but it should be revised

[Siddharathbhardwaj]

sir only please show your code i want to improve my react coding skill....i want good video on how to design large projects structures best practise video...please make it video and show code...thanks sir

[mrhallman]

OK start up less pay more hours more at risk of losing your job