Working for a Big Company or Small Company?

This whole week we have young graduates graduating from the presitigious University that is Makerere. Alot of these young hopeful graduates are going to hit the streets of Kampala looking for jobs.

What are their expectations in the industry? For the IT graduates, many I interruct with will tell you their dream work places are MTN, ORANGE, WARID, UTL, AIRTEL, BANKS to mention but a few. If you ask them why? Their answer is simple, it is prestigious to work in such a high place, the pay is good, life is definately good, but what we forget is that it is not always what it seems when you are on the inside. These so called big guns also come with alot of industry politics.

So what would you prefer? To work for a big company that is well established or a small company where every penny that gets into the company counts?

Building of a big company

Here are my views, working for a Big company is great, everyone wants to be associated with a brand,these guys always have the infrastructure, the best equipments around,the pay is probably good, but then again these big companies are already established!

If they want a new system in place, and here is my take, because I have been there and witnessed it, they will bring in another 'small company' or outsource someone from 'Group' which is their mother company to get the job done! then what remains is for the IT techies to now 'support' the systems that have been set up!

Another take is that in these big companies, you will not be allowed to play around with systems, 'If it ain't broken, don't fix it', and if you are directly not in-charge of a system, 'please don't touch'.

So for an IT kid straight from campus to want to be a part of a big company and be told, here is the one system you are supposed to manage, it is the Microsoft Exchange Server, your role will be to create mailboxes for new employees that come to the company, also do anything else on that system, but do not touch anything else! what becomes of such a person after they leave the company?

With Small companies here is my take;

Every client for a small company counts, every penny counts, everything you do counts. You have to be on top of your game, why? because you are probably 5 or less people in the IT department and if you do not pull your weight, it is easily noticed.

I remember straight from college my first IT job was with a 'small company' and the rules were simple! We give you 3 months to learn to do what we do, if you don't get it, you are out of here... I was to learn a new Operation System that was Linux and not only as a user but as a person who will be am administrator, set up systems, learn to troubleshoot, learn to install different applications on it and do basically everything on it! That was the business and I had to do it.

Small companies give you the ability to learn, you run around and get to know how things are done... before you can then go to a big company.

If you are into it for the money, then you had better be good, but if you want to get the experience that comes with it, then you have to take the small jobs first, they do not pay much but you get a whole lot of experience that can help you stand on your own in the future.

So here is the thing, I love the energy that comes with working with a small company, everyone there is made to understand you have to work hard to earn... so the work gets done and you feel a part of a team.

However, I also love the stability and resources that come with working with a big company, you get alot and can use it to your advantage if you know how to. I mean who doesn't want a big pay cheque at the end of the month?

So for young employees out there, especially the graduates, I would recommend that you check into a small company and learn from the experiences there, then you can work your way up.

But at the end of the day, what is it that really matters to you anyway? You can decide to start up your own company or do things that you are more passionate about, but I guess we all start from somewhere!

Just my 2 cents ;-)