Company Size and Professional Development

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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.