Job Search – A startup or a big company ?

Start-ups

Pros:

Start-ups are great environments for generalists (people with general skills who do not specialise in a specific area) and specialists. The more widespread your skillset, the more valuable you will be. Career paths in start-ups are accelerated; rather than waiting years for your chance to lead, you will be given more chances to shine sooner. All employees in start-ups are given the opportunity to help define the company culture, which is impossible in large corporations. And at a start-up, you’ll have the opportunity to be part of something much bigger than you.

Cons:

Everyone is responsible and accountable for their actions, and mistakes have huge impacts. Bad work affects everyone, from colleagues to customers. The upside of this is that excellent work also has far reaching impacts that everyone can benefit from. Start-ups are also riskier than big companies. The amount of money available to a start-up at the outset is low, something that will only change if the company is a success.

Big companies

Pros:

Unlike start-ups, responsibility is more diffuse in big companies – if you make a mistake, it may well be absorbed without serious ramifications. Generally speaking, salaries are higher at big companies than at small start-ups as they have the resources available to remunerate staff.

Cons:

Generalists are less likely to thrive at big companies. While start-ups can utilise multi-skilled individuals, big companies want you to be good at that one specific, refined area. Big companies lack the transparency that can be found in start-ups and employees are frequently kept in the dark about important decisions. Big companies are plagued by politics, something that is simply not an issue in start-ups.

via Working for a start-up vs working for a big company: which is better?.