A couple of months ago, I completed 5 years as a working professional or to be more accurate as an I.T. professional. Since I am a stickler for dates, let me tell you that it was on 14 July, 2013 that the 5 years were completed. The first three and a half years were spent in BMC Software, a multinational product development company. That entire experience, which I was privileged to share with two of my closest friends, journeying from Project Trainees to Associate Product Developers deserves a completely different post.
I joined ITscape, a product development start-up on February 6, 2012. It was a tough decision to leave BMC as I really enjoyed working there. I was lucky to have great colleagues, friends and I was enjoying my work. But professionally, I felt it was the correct thing to do and I always wanted to work in a start-up either founded by me (I still dream of starting my own company one day) or people whom I trusted. I knew things would be different when you move from a company with more than 6000 people to one with less than 10. But needless to say, the difference is like Chalk and Cheese.
The first difference which I noted during my first week was the absence of emails in my inbox! In a big company with thousands of people, you are forcibly part of many distribution / mailing lists. As a result you tend to get a lot of emails during the day and night. As you go higher up the chain, the number of lists and subsequently the number of emails increase proportionally. People want to keep you "in-the-loop" and many a times it is indeed required. But here, in a start-up with just 10 people and majority in the same location it wasn't required and there used to be days where I didn't get a single email. In the beginning it felt quite unnatural but I've really got used to it now and it's a relief. The same holds true for the number of meetings.
One important difference while working in a start-up as opposed to a big company is that the stakes are much much higher. In a big company, in case you don't perform too well or your team doesn't deliver a good performance, it doesn't have a big impact (I'm talking about people like me who were on the lower end of the totem pole and not top executives). You might lose out on some deadlines, you'll cop some flack from the management and your own appraisal or bonus won't be satisfactory. In a start-up however, such slip ups can result in you not having a job next day as your company didn't secure the required financing and had to shut down! The stakes are that much higher and every individual and the team's performance has a lot of impact on the company's future. Similarly, the rewards and satisfaction are also amplified in case you do well. The news that you just got a (paid) customer is literally music to the ears and cause for a big celebration! In a big company if you're doing well, you already have so many customers and new ones being added constantly that unless you're in sales and it matters to your targets, you don't even know about such things.
The most important difference for me is that you get to and need to learn a lot of new things while working in a start-up. The reason is, there is really no other choice. You can't say I can't do something or this is not something I was hired for. One way or the other the task needs to be done. In a big company, with so many resources at the company's disposal, you get constrained to your specific skill sets. Of course there are exceptions and also highly motivated people who make it a point to keep learning new things. But I think that it is easier to learn something if you have a need for it and in a start-up there're always 100 things which need to be done. It helps a lot if you have helpful and skilled colleagues to guide you in things which you don't know a lot about. I've been lucky to have such people around me and consequently have learned a great deal in the past 1.5 years.
One thing which a big company allows you to do is plays sports competitively. I was lucky to be a part of BMC's Cricket, Football and Basketball team. And I can never forget the enthusiasm and competition in BMC's annual Internal Cricket Tournament. When I joined ITscape we didn't have enough people to make a cricket team let alone play a tournament. We are getting there though slowly and steadily ...
One thing which a big company allows you to do is plays sports competitively. I was lucky to be a part of BMC's Cricket, Football and Basketball team. And I can never forget the enthusiasm and competition in BMC's annual Internal Cricket Tournament. When I joined ITscape we didn't have enough people to make a cricket team let alone play a tournament. We are getting there though slowly and steadily ...
I don't want to discredit work in big company. I've been lucky to have worked in companies at the opposite end of the spectrum and have enjoyed my time in both companies. There might be some people who are not cut out for life in a start-up while some might not like the life in a big company. I believe that if you work hard and remain positive, you can achieve success any where. To give a cricketing analogy (since I always have to have some reference to cricket), there are some people who love Test Cricket while some love T20. But there are some including me who love both as in the end they're just different versions of the same beautiful game.
