I wanted to get your opinion on start-ups vs. corporate from a career perspective and general pros and cons.
I now have experience in both and was wondering if common beliefs are really true. Specifically, I mean:
There is more politics in big companies than in startups.
My experience: Yes, there are definitely more rules and a lot of politics in corporations. A lot of people work in big companies where their primary goal is their own well-being, so they don’t deal with complicated issues. But: In startups, a few people decide what gets done and what does not. There are no rules and processes, which makes you incredibly dependent on the few decision makers. This can be an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on how well you get along with the people in charge.
You climb the career ladder faster in startups
My experience: In start-ups you have more responsibility and have to do a lot more than in established companies due to the nature of the business. But: the companies are often not big yet, which means there are fewer opportunities due to headcount and from my experience managers are often hired from outside instead of developing people internally (same situation as in corporations).
Corporations pay the most
My experience: only partly true. Some high-tech start-ups in particular also pay good salaries. I have been offered the best salaries in late stage start-ups (Series D, E), especially when you consider the often large equity packages. However, these are often primarily companies based in the US, UK or Israel.
What are your thoughts on these common beliefs and do you have some beliefs in this regard where you are not sure what to think of?
Interesting observations and I can definitely relate to them. I also used to think such observations were true before I actually joined a startup.
There is more politics in big companies than in startups.
Politics can be exactly as big a factor in startups as in big corporations. I worked for a large consulting company before I entered sales and it was a lot about politics, relationships and this “cover-your-ass” mentality. In my startup it is definitely less about politics than over there, but it is not as free or easy-going as many people might think.
You climb the career ladder faster in startups
This is not generally true in my opinion. In my view, startups or scale-ups always look for the next step up or short cut and they look for external hires, because they presumably have done that in the past and can repeat. Headcounts for internal candidates are always low and I experienced often a mentality like “she is good in her job, just let her keep doing it”.
During my time as a consultant, external hires were also favored for higher positions and they got better salaries than any promotion ever offered.
Corporations pay the most
I think this depends. I noticed startups that were looking to hire AEs for very low OTEs but then had to increase their salary expectations because they didn’t find anyone for such low offers. In general I believe that the NASDAQ-listed corporations still pay the most. Important here is of course the level of quota attainment. If nobody can reach the target (as its often the case due to over hiring), you still can make more money in a startup with lower OTE to start with.
Right now, I can especially relate to the last point you mentioned: Quota attainment & overhiring. It seems to me that almost every fast growing tech company runs into this. Headcount explodes, territories get smaller, support roles and marketing don’t follow suit, reps don’t hit their quota, and then there are layoffs. I don’t even know if that’s intentional. A lot of big tech companies have up to 50% contingent workers on 18-month contracts, so you can react to market changes at lightning speed.
Regarding healthy growth:
I was listening to a podcast this week with Tim Ferris and Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Meta and Asana, and he said that he trains his employees for endurance because everything in the tech industry feels like a sprint and people are burning out. That gave me a lot to think about because I feel like I’ve been sprinting for the last 18 months. I’ve made a lot of progress, but it’s clear that I can’t work like this for the long term.