I LOVE this question…

Because it’s one of those questions that gives you so much direction and insight once you know the answer.

And I believe that direction and insight are some of the keys to success in your career. But here’s the thing, neither a big business or a small business is objectively better than the other.

They both have positives and negatives, and even those are just in GENERAL. Because not all small business and big businesses are equal.

For example, PwC (Pricewaterhousecoopers) is a multinational professional services company with offices in almost every major city in the world…

In other words, they’re a big company. But so is Facebook, and so is Disney, and so is Amazon, and Netflix.

Would you say that each of those companies culture and environment is the same? No way! They’d be completely different.

So the question starts as “big company or small company”…

And then possibly becomes “What kind of big or small company do you want to work for…”

Then you may even decide for yourself that NONE of that even matters in the first place. And that the only thing that matters to you is the power of a single job opportunity, and that it excites you, pays you well, and that you’re on the same page with the company values.

So if anything, this post isn’t designed to give you the answers, but merely give you a set of questions and concepts. And maybe even to nudge you in the right direction.

The Pros Of Working For A Small Business

At this point in my career I’ve had WAY more experience working for small businesses. That is, in a professional capacity.

I’ve worked for a small distribution company, and a digital marketing agency. It’s funny, however, that I observed many similarities in each. There were plenty of differences too, so let’s discuss.

Camaraderie:

There’s usually a greater sense of camaraderie in small businesses. This is because you’re all working closely together, moving towards a shared objective. Usually this is because the entire company, working in one room, is all aligned and moving in a unified direction.

More Fun:

Small businesses are usually way more fun. In my experience, small businesses have way better work functions, way more group activities, and more social events too.  

Jack Of All Trades:

Because small businesses are usually lean, you’re expected to pick up new skills and figure things out as you go. This means you can learn new things rapidly. Which in turn, can open up new career pathways and direction.

Room To Grow:

You usually have the opportunity to grow with the company. This means that if you start as their first marketing manager, then there’s a chance you could go on to become the marketing executive as the team grows.

Speed:

Things usually move quickly. At my first dream job, we could brief a new article and have it published on the site by the end of the week. This same process took 6+ weeks at the corporation of my subsequent dream job.

Here’s The Cons Of Working For A Small Business…

Understaffed:

Small companies are almost always understaffed. Unlike bigger companies, small businesses are usually very lean. They don’t have lots of loose cash to burn. This means they don’t usually invest in a new staff member until they really HAVE to.

Outgrow The Business:

It’s easy to outgrow a small business fast. Growth is usually bottlenecked by an inexperienced boss (or leadership team). You’ll usually be surrounded by people in similar, if not slightly more or less advanced, career stages as you. This means you don’t get the benefit of learning from this ahead of you.

Capped Salary Growth:

You’ll usually only grow in increments if the business fails to make massive progress. This means your salary could only go up a  $1,000 or so more each year (or less) including bonuses.

Bonuses:

Bonuses are usually smaller than those dished out by big companies. However this is massively subjective and only something I’ve noticed personally.

The Pros Of Working For A Big Business

Career Leverage:

Working for a big company (usually) provides a MASSIVE opportunity to move forward in your career. Why? Because other big companies want to hire people who’ve worked at big companies. Which means that it sets you up for land an even better job with another big company in the future. It gives you forward moving leverage and momentum.

Network Expansion:

 This one’s a simple but awesome one. Because you’re working around and with more people, you’ll rapidly expand your professional network within the first month of working there. After working at a big company, I can’t tell you how many times people bumped into each other, who’d worked together at other big companies.

Salary:

Another simple but attractive pro of working for a big company…namely that big companies usually make more money, and therefore are in a position to pay their employees more. In many cases, they’re willing to overpay in some positions just to acquire the best talent.

Bonuses:

Big companies also provide bigger bonuses. Sometimes this is calculated as a percentage of your pay, and sometimes they’re issued as a result of hitting a KPI, or achieving some sort of “big win” for the company.

Camaraderie:

While this exists more inside smaller businesses, I’ve also noticed it inside big companies too. In larger companies you often have a bit of rivalry and competition between departments. This creates a bit of an Us Vs. Them situation, and can bond you closer with your team.

Rapid Skill Building:

Big businesses are more complex than smaller businesses in every way. How teams interact, the playing field of the industry, how they sell, how they scale, and how they communicate internally. I can say without a doubt that my project management skills increased massively from working at a large company.

The Cons Of Working For A Big Business

High Stakes:

Big business is a completely different kettle of fish to smaller businesses. In big business the pressure is on. There are executives to please, shareholders to provide value for, and the bottom-line of companies which needs to be kept healthy, or else thousands of people risk losing their job. In a nutshell, it’s a bigger playing field and the stakes are higher. This means more pressure on you to perform.

Performance:

In many cases your performance will be very keenly tracked by your superiors. Big companies want performers. And they know that because positions in their companies are coveted, they can afford to hire and fire to acquire the best talent. In short, you can’t afford to become complacent. You always have to earn and re-earn your keep.

Time Poor:

Big companies are often a mess of conflicting priorities, massive deadlines, and mountain tasks. Not to mention meetings galore. As a result of all of this multi-tasking, everyone (including you) is time poor. This forces you to develop keen project management and communication skills though, which is a plus.

Politics:

A big company has a very defined and highly visible hierarchy. Everyone knows where they are, and they’re all trying to reach that next level. That’s where politics comes in. Self-interest on an individual and team level can create friction between colleagues. This becomes more evident the higher you go up the food chain.

Big Business:

Working for a small business seems so innocent and whimsical compared with the cut-throat nature of big business. Working for a large company will expose you to the reality of mergers, liquidations, peaks and troughs in share prices, redundancies and cost-cutting, as well as outsourcing. These are realities, and they’re important to understand if you want to ascend your current level.

The Mask Of The Pack:

Unfortunately, incompetent people can blend into the background of big companies. In smaller teams, in smaller businesses, they’re far more visible. These people often force others to pick up the slack.

Competition & Conflict:

Competition and standoffishness can occur between different departments with conflicting priorities. Often in big companies, any one team is time poor just based on their own tasks. So when someone from another department comes in with an idea (which could potentially create MORE work) it’s easily shut down.

Speed:

Or lack of…Big businesses are usually slow moving ships. Think of how long it literally takes to move a cruise ship as opposed to a small speed boat. The comparison is accurate. When working in a bigger business you’ll have more work on your plate, more tasks to prioritise, more meetings to attend, and more hoops to jump through.

It’s Not The Size, It’s How You Use It…

Like the suggestive headline suggests, the size of the company shouldn’t be a dealbreaker for you.

You should assess the potential of a new job opportunity by how its going to challenge you, how it’ll enable you to grow, and how it’ll benefit your career in the long term.

However, after you’ve had a bit of experience in both, you might discover that you skew towards on or the other.

My impression (both for myself and for many others) is that you may switch between the two throughout your career. For example, I started in a small company, and I now work in a large company. I believe I may move on to an even bigger company, and then scale right back and work with small smart ups exclusively. But we’ll see!

You might come straight out of big company ready to lend your big business savvy to an exciting, growing company.

Or you might be a young, ambitious Career Master in the making who’s outgrown their little 10 person workplace…

And is ready to take on the high stakes nature of corporate life! It all just depends on where you’re at and what you’re looking to achieve.

So, What Kind Of Business Do You Want To Work For?

Based on what we’ve talked about here (and maybe your own impressions, or personal experience) feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below.

This topic has been on my mind a lot recently (as I currently work for a big company in Australia).

As usually, I’d love to hear your thoughts.