Those who work in IT, small vs large companies?

DiscoDave

DiscoDave

DiscoDave

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Hi Everyone,

I'm in a situation where I'm not quite sure what to do. I'll try and make it brief. I work in IT infrastructure for a large company, we recently sold a portion of our business to another company, reducing what we manage. We've had our backup system taken away from us to manage, and the company are looking to move the remaining equipment to a colo.

Time to go.

Ideally, I want to focus more on the VMWare side of things, I'm a VCP, got several years experience with VMWare in both small and large datacenter environments. I've had a interview with a very small company (6 people) who provide hosting solutions and managed services to a client base. They're looking for a vmware systems engineer to manage their backend. I've had two interviews with this company and a offer is being drafted.

At the same time a large company has took interest in my CV, they're a managed solutions/consultancy company on a much larger scale. I have a first interview with them on Monday.

The benefit with the latter is there's quite a good structure for progression, analysts can move to consultancy and then to architecture. Whereas for the small company I'll be the technical lead for VMWare/Windows, but no where to move up. But then again, with the smaller company it's more flexible. Big fish in a small pond vs small fish in a big pond.

To those in a similar situation, do you take preference to working in a small or large company?

Thanks,
 
I've always prefered a small-medium sized company; theirs enough challenge in the role to keep me interested whilst not being swamped with a huge workload or responsible for a large amount of people.

In your situation though i'd more than likely take the larger companies offer should it come; You have a chance to progress in the field whilst enjoying the job security a larger company offers.

Just my two cents.
 
I think large companies carry less risk in terms of there being a good chance of steady progression into other roles. However if you pick the right small firm you could potentially cut some corners and/or be heavily rewarded.

A firm of 6 would put me off as apart from anything else I can see it meaning a huge amount of responsibility (presumably nobody else in the same role) resulting in long hours, working on days off etc just to keep things afloat.
 
I've gone from a large IT company (worlds largest) to one of the smallest in the UK (60 staff) who compete for the same business as the company I left. However, the working ethos is a lot different. I'm expected to help look after all the small fry and even our own systems sometimes, whereas before I was pure consultant led. Now, that's not to say I don't enjoy it, as, from a skillset point of view, it's really helped. However, I do miss the old flexibility.

Regards VMware, I might get flamed for this, but given the arm of MS in the Hyper-V space and how they are now selling that to customers who have EA or SA, I would phase out your VMware knowledge in favour of Hyper-V....quickly
 
My last two IT jobs have been in smaller companies.

I've managed to do what I enjoy at both. Programming, tinkering, networks, taking home old hardware. The lack of red tape is fantastic.

But I'm much better at brown-nosing than I am at programming, so I reckon I could have made it to better money and prospects in a bigger company.
 
I work for a very large IT firm at the minute and the beauty to me is that there is plenty of room to move around between positions. Granted the fact that the company is so large makes positions harder to move to as there are lots of people going for the same position as you, but all that does is keep you on the ball more.

Personally I would probably go for the larger company, but thats just me.
 
Hades said:
A well known large company will usually be stronger on your CV than a small one.
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That's a fair comment. During interview companies have picked up on my previous workplace if it's been for a large company.

Rwac said:
Join the small company if they look they're going to grow, and you get equity.
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Well, they're hiring two additional people, if I accepted this role i'd be replacing someone, so there's growth going on.

The issue I face is an offer for the smaller company will be in my inbox on Monday, and I have a first interview for the larger company on Monday too. I could not accept the current offer, wait and see how the interview(s) go at the larger one, which is no guarantee.

I want to move out of sysadmin to consultancy/managed solutions, and there aren't a lot of big firms near me that do that.

It's a really tough decision :(
 
Django x2 said:
Sorry, but I strongly feel this is wrong. The only reason to retain a VMware knowledge, is to know how to migrate to Hyper-V :)
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So you can move to something open source and free on a proper operating system? Xen/KVM.... better yet run something like Proxmox.
 
brendy said:
Screw large vs small, which one has prospects etc, which one offers the best job security?
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Smaller company has been operating since 2002, expanding at the moment with more staff as more customers have been taken on. Growing with the company would yield some benefits.

Larger company has recently acquired another company, partner with every major vendor out there.

The larger company probably has better job security, but then again, the company I currently work for (70,000+ employees) has gone down the pan so it's a hard one to gauge.
 
I prefer small because theres generally most interesting challenges as they'll let you touch more stuff. Better atmosphere, generally everyones friends and they're less likely to deal with weirdos.

However you should judge each place on feel when you interview as it's possible for a small shop to have werido gatekeeper / big shops to do interesting work / you may prefer the bigger shops with many depts who don't talk to each other. :p

Theres no such thing as job security, so as long as they have a resonably viable business it's of no concern, your job security is your skillset, so ensure you're doing good work based on market relevant skills.
 
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I prefer smaller companies, where I work we are 20 (and the company will split soon so I will work in a company of around 8). You have a much stronger link to the project, a global more holistic overview. Your work becomes vital for the company, you have to take on many responsibilities, more variety of work.
 
D.P. said:
I prefer smaller companies, where I work we are 20 (and the company will split soon so I will work in a company of around 8). You have a much stronger link to the project, a global more holistic overview. Your work becomes vital for the company, you have to take on many responsibilities, more variety of work.
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May I ask what your job is?
 
LordSplodge said:
Your entitled to an opinion even if it's wrong. ;)
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Well, half wrong :) MS are undoubtedly a big threat to VMware's business model for any company that's heavily MS based on server side. Everyone should be skilling up in both.

VMware still have the edge in the management side of things imo and like it or not, the very fact that they aren't MS helps them as many companies have lost patience with the way MS licences stuff (where I work relations are so bad they won't let me use Hyper-V even though it's free)

Having said all this more and more companies are going to find it hard to argue with a free hypervisor vs paying thousands to VMware unless VMware really take things forward.


To the OP: They both balance out in the end, imo smaller companies tend to be more rewarding both in job satisfaction, but if you're after job security and advancing fast larger ones will usually give better opportunities.
 
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covenantuk said:
Well, half wrong :) MS are undoubtedly a big threat to VMware's business model for any company that's heavily MS based on server side. Everyone should be skilling up in both.
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Yeah if virtualisation is your thing it doesn't hurt to be skilled in both. I still don't think Hyper-V will shift enough people from VMware.
 
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