Well, it depends. My bias is to the startup - move fast, learn on the job, take risks, figure things out, and do more than your job description. But, I think there's big time value in working for a big company too. At a big company - especially early in your career - you will learn how to work. There's process, systems, routines. Sometimes there's too much, but I think earlier in your career you can benefit greatly from "learning how to work." You need to learn what a good meeting looks like, what good people (and bad people) are like to work with, how to set goals, how to make mistakes, how to communicate, how to work across teams. Often times a big company will mean successful company (that's how they got big) and there's big time ROI in learning how a successful company operates, and being around a bunch of interesting people across different job functions. I worked at two big(ger) companies in my early - mid 20s and those experiences taught me how to work before going into a startup. Now, if you've been at a big company and are ready to make the 10x jump in your career, a startup could be the play. For me: I was at a big company (HubSpot) where my job was specialized (managing the podcast). Then I jumped to a startup (Drift) where my job was - just about everything in marketing: website, messaging, email, social, content, sales enablement, strategy. I had 2 years where I got to do all the things in marketing, and that experience helped me grow 10x faster. Which do you think is better for your career? Curious to hear your experiences in both and what they taught you. LMK |
