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Jaclyn Schiff is a journalist based in Washington, D.C. She is a full-time writer for a Web site that focuses on global health issues. Jaclyn has published articles in a variety of print and online publications and she blogs about Gen. Y at 
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Recently, I started thinking about how company size affects work experience after talking to a friend about his new job. He is one of five employees at his office and there are no satellite offices in other cities. I was intrigued because I’ve never worked at a company that small. I’ve had some internship experiences at companies with fewer than 50 employees. While these gave me a glimpse into what it is like to work in a smaller environment, being an intern just isn’t the same as being a “real employee” for various reasons. The rest of my experience has been in larger environments and the conversation got me thinking about what both environments can offer millennials at the start of their careers. I was further intrigued when I came across this 2007 survey from NetWorld, which shows that the larger a company is, the less likely employees are to say they are very satisfied with their jobs. For the purposes of this post and the sake of clarity, I’ll define small companies as those consisting of about 100 or fewer employees. Large companies are those with 500 or more employees and medium size is everything in between.
My hunch is that during the first few years of your career, smaller companies could allow you to be a lot more hands-on from the start. Based on my own experience and the experience of friends who work in small environments, it seems like it is generally easier to be given and to take on more responsibility at a small company because there are fewer coworkers to pick up the slack. At small companies, job descriptions tend to be less fixed than they are at large organizations so it is easier to step outside your everyday responsibilities and try out other roles, which can be great for your professional development. You also get to interact with employees that are more senior than you are quite often. “I see the big cheese daily and work directly for him,” my friend observed.
When I think about the different types of small offices I am familiar with, most of the examples I can come up with are nonprofit organizations. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that I’m based in D.C. Still, I think it’s a relevant observation because nonprofits do seem to make up a significant number of the smaller offices that frequently have openings available to employees at the beginning of their careers. Unfortunately, some of my ideas (based partially on experience and partially on stereotypes) about working at nonprofits illustrate what can be really bad about working for a small company. Not only can you take on more responsibility, but you often wind up being required to juggle a whole lot of responsibilities outside of your job description whether you asked for it or not. At nonprofits, people tend to assume that you’re passionate about their work and that the money is secondary. They’re also obviously not-for-profit, which often means that they’re on a tight budget. So for a nonprofit employee, this means little or zero compensation for your extra hours of work. But you’re probably learning a lot too.
On the other hand, the opportunities at a large company can really enhance your professional development, even if your job responsibilities initially do not. When you’re entry-level at a big corporation, you’re often there to fulfill specific duties and your responsibilities are probably the sort of thing you can master quite quickly. The well-oiled natured of many large companies tend to make it more challenging to step outside your assigned job and take on more, although it’s not impossible. But the real professional development at a large company lies in the fact that the place has more resources, which can benefit you in a bunch of different ways. Some big organizations offer employee training sessions that focus on everything from computer skills to presentation techniques. Many large corporations also love to fill management and senior positions from within and some have internal educational programs to help with this purpose. It’s a lot more theory-based, but an ambitious employee can usually find ways to work himself or herself into situations or positions where the theory can be put into practice.
When you’re job searching or weighing up job offers, you probably won’t have the luxury of picking from companies of many different sizes. But it’s worth considering how the size of the organization will influence your professional development. Everyone will have a unique answer for this question, but considering your ideal can certainly prevent you from winding up in a situation that doesn’t work well for you. In general, working at a small company offers you the opportunity to hit-the-ground running, while the experience at a large company is more of an exercise in armchair observation and assertive initiative. Individuals experiences obviously vary and there are many other factors that will play into what a job means for your professional development. As my friend who works at the company of five noted, “It all depends on who your boss is, if they are willing to let you take on major projects etc.” And that’s the subject of a different post.
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I work for a small company (around 20 employees) and for me, its been the best way to kick off my career. Because we all have to wear many hats through out the day, I have the opportunity to really discover what my strengths and weaknesses are. I also have the chance to try many different directions to take my career without having to switch companies.
My favorite part about working for a small company is that even though I’m pretty low on the office totem pole, I can see the direct impact my work has on the company and its mission. I leave the office every day with a sense of accomplishment and I know how valuable the contributions I make are for the company.
I think it’s time to stop propogating the myth that nonprofits don’t compensate their employees fairly.
I’ve worked for several nonprofits and they succeed and make change precisely because they have found a sustainable model in which to operate. That includes rewarding quality employees. It’s too bad that a few bad apples have ruined the image of what the nonprofit world is really about.
I agree with your overall point that size is hugely important. It hasn’t taken me long to figure out I’m definitely a small business girl. One of my jobs was in an office of 35 and I felt like it was too big, so I’m sure I could never do a corporation.
However:
1) Rebecca is right. Working for a non-profit is not necessarily slave labor. They, too, understand that you have to pay out to get the best people.
2) I can’t think of any career off the top of my head that wouldn’t allow you to choose what size of business you wanted to work for. I used to work for a small business association and we had members in every major industry. The options are out there. They just don’t have the budgets for recruiting departments like huge corporations. It takes some work to find these jobs, but in my opinion, it’s well worth it.
There’s something else in play here, though: management numbers. Large companies with fewer than average managers naturally put more responsibility on the more junior players. The classic example of this is the military. They are a “large company” in terms of structure, but the employee/manager ratio allows the newest, most junior manager (officer) to have huge responsibility (large number of direct reports, large budgets). When I left the military and went to a large (about the same total size) corporation, suddenly I had almost no responsibility and little ability to make a difference–because they had a manager for everything. It sucked, the change. So look at the number of managers (or number of co-workers if you’re an individual contributor) as part of your assessment.
I think this article is spot on. I have worked in massive offices and smaller ones, and this article pin points some of the major benefits of the different work environments.
Coupled with that, having worked in the nonprofit world for many years now, there some 501c3’s out there that take care of their employees very well. But, there is also a stark difference between the Bill Gates Foundation and your run of the mill nonprofit that has to do much greater amounts of fund raising. I think the latter case is the prevalent by far.
Either way, I am working at a smaller NGO right now, and can attest to fact that with only a handful of us here, we all take on greater responsibilities.
So, in light of this article, the smaller - the better…
My first job out of college was at a non-profit start-up and I was the third employee hired. By the time I left, I had moved from administrative assistant to editorial assistant to associate editor to director of new media… in less than 3 years. With only a staff of 12 at our apex, you definitely had a chance to dig in and have a hand in almost everything.
And I was well-compensated. As a matter of fact, when I started at my present job in company of 300 which is part of a larger corporation, I took a 15% pay cut (ouch!). The difference is that when it’s 5 o’clock, I’m out. In smaller companies, you get to leave when the work is done… usually far later than 5.
Thanks for the comments and sharing your experiences.
- Rebecca, Jacqui, Sacko and Holly: I appreciate your input about working for nonprofits. As I indicated, my thoughts about working at nonprofits very much fit into the mold of the stereotype. A lot of the people I know who work at nonprofits generally focus on the negative, so it is continually reinforced. But there are definitely more employee-friendly nonprofit orgs. out there and I’m glad that the diversity of experience is being highlighted in the comments.
- Jay: Relevant, good point. Having many managers can make you feel like an insignificant cog in the wheel.
For my first two years out of college, I worked for a big company (60,000+). I recently left and joined a company as its 13th employee (we’re now up to 20), and I feel comfortable saying that I’m not going to do the big company thing again.
For me, the biggest difference is the amount of trust — with so few people in a company, there has to be a high level of trust in order to get work done. I’ve found that this really cuts down on the amount of bureaucracy I have to deal with on a daily basis and gives each of us the ability to each do our jobs the way we think best. I don’t think I’ll ever stop being surprised by seeing us out-perform companies hundreds of times our size. Of course, this may be partly limited to the tech startup industry I’m in, and situations may be reversed in other industries.
If you’ve ever read the book, “The Tipping Point,” you would know that companies, once they get larger than 150 employees in an office, tend to lose the familiarity and capacity to form strong connections with the people around you. I agree a lot with those sentiments. If there are too many people in a place of work, levels of trust will diminish and you just won’t have a very good sense of the guy sitting next to you. The smaller the better…as far as innovation is concerned either way. If you want bureaucracy, rules, and red-tape go as big as you can. If you want to make a change, think small.
I think your pro’s and con’s are generally on target. One thing I would recommend new grad’s consider is not the size of the company, but the size of the division/office/etc. that he/she will be working in. In my experience, working within a small division of a large corporation gives the best of both worlds. You get the opportunity to take on a great deal quickly will still having all of the resources of a larger organization.
I am not sure where i read this - it is called the rule of 150 - this is a magic number that is a tipping point for an issue of silos and loss of communication and a rapid growth of beaurocracy happens. I read of a company that was growing rapidly and when the one office reached 150 they built a second building for the next 150. Large corporations (in some ways like large universities) can leave you feeling facelesss and like a “number”, or a corporate prisoner of war.
and teams focus on creating environments that encourage people to have that small feel in a big place.
Smaller organizations you are watched with a narrower view - with the 150 employess the CEO or president or supervisor boss whatever… can see and know the team members name. And we know nothing makes people hate their job more than feeling aynonomous. This leads to seial absenteeism and worse a need to cause internal sabotage (stealing staplers, paper clips, copy machines) in smaller companies a good team makes people feel like a family and they are happier to come to work - yet small companies can be dysfuncional. So i hope that size does not matter
Remember, the point of the article is that each individual has different needs that can be served by different sized companies.
Myself, I’m a Big-Company kinda guy. I prefer the structure and well-oiled (or perhaps ‘better oiled’ is the term, since nothing is perfect) machinery of a large company. Part of that is my chosen profession of computer programmer. I prefer to be heads-down in front of a keyboard all day, focusing intently on ONE task, so juggling multiple responsibilities would (and does) drive me nuts. Also, I’m somewhat of a loner, so the close family-like environment at some small companies would give me the creeps.
To each his own!
Jaclyn,
I am under the impression that larger corporations are more likely to offer full benefits than smaller companies. I can see how the smaller atmospher would lead to more experience, though, and I think that is an intriguing aspect of working for a smaller company.
When I get out of school, I think I’ll apply mostly to larger companies, as a means of seeking comfort. However, while with these companies, I hope to do freelance work with smaller companies that are more focused on the things I am passionate about. My brother works for a 200+ employee company, and in his spare time runs his own consulting company.
After a while of doing the freelance thing, or of running a part time operation, they can develop into full time positions. This seems like a safe route to take, no?
Todd, in general, I’d say you’re right about larger companies offering better benefits. BUT, I know of many companies of less than 100 employees that offer really competitive, good benefits… From what I’ve seen though, I think your plan to go big and pursue your own operation in your spare time could probably work well if your ultimate goal is to build your own company. I am pretty sure Penelope Trunk wrote something suggesting a similar strategy…
At the end of the day, I think it’s a question of defining your goals and then figuring out the best way to get there. I appreciated Scott’s comment above, which indicates that I wasn’t prescribing advice because “each individual has different needs that can be served by different sized companies.”
I totally agree that small businesses/companies are the way to go to be able to jump in and get a lot of hands on experience. I started out in NPO and was basically given creative control of all communications and public affairs. However, I will have to say that in my case the money/compensation/time issue is very true. I spend way more than 40 hours working each week and am often required to work evening events and weekend events (without additional time/days off). Plus - I’ve worked for membership associations - which doesn’t give you quite the same “warm fuzzy feeling” that many other philanthropic NPOs might give you.
Won’t large companies also have the tendency to undermine their employees? After all, you’re probably just one in a thousand employees walking all over the place. In a small company, you know everybody and vice-versa.