Are you a small company person, or a big company person?
I wrote this article for the Freshview blog nearly three years ago now. Freshview is the company behind Campaign Monitor. Since then the team has grown from 5 to about 22, but the small company culture remains.
One of the things I remember wondering about when I was doing my degree was what kind of company would I work for? Would it be a huge company with big impressive offices? An established medium sized business in the city? Or maybe even a startup.
At that point, my main understanding of the corporate world came from a combination of my Dad’s government department office (complete with hilariously named ‘Wang Computers’) and movies like “The Secret of My Success”.
As it turned out over the next 9 years or so, I would work for companies covering all those categories, and for myself. Now that I’ve been here at Freshview for a few months, I wanted to reflect a bit on the differences between them all.
We’re only a small team here at Freshview; Two founders, three employees and a ping pong table. So how does that compare to somewhere like ASX?
LET’S SET UP A MEETING
It’s a cliche, but an accurate one. The bigger the company, the more meetings you end up in, and the less things are actually decided on. So many people who need to be involved means you end up delaying action just to fit them all in.
On the plus side, the catering for meetings is good, particularly if you can get invited to meetings on the executive level. In small companies, you can often have a quick chat while still sitting in front of the actual work, and make a decision on the spot.
MONEY FOR SOMETHING
Depending on the department (or cost centre) you end up in, big companies can often allow you to spend the money to make things happen. If you run the meeting gauntlet and get support from high up, projects can be kick started very quickly.
When you really need to have specific tools or expertise, you can get them. Smaller companies often just can’t afford the expenditure, and need to make do or just wait longer.
To be fair, I’ve also been in large companies where every financial decision went through a process (a word you will learn to hate in big companies) that made you wish for MacGyver like skills to construct your own equipment.
ONGOING EDUCATION
In my experience, working in bigger companies means easier access to conferences, workshops and training courses. The training budget is set, and you are often required to spend it. I have learnt a lot and met some great people through training arranged by work.
For smaller companies, the cost of the conference plus travel can be a budget breaker. Being in the web industry, the guys here at Freshview get to a lot of web meetups and conferences that are relatively low cost, which is fantastic.
If you work for a different kind of small operation, you may need to do a lot more self education, or be prepared to really justify your education costs. The web industry is fantastic for learning online, and some companies like Freshview make training a focus.
POLITICS AND GETTING THINGS DONE (EVENTUALLY)
Have you seen the movie Office Space? If you have, and you found it painfully funny, you’ve probably worked in a medium or large company. Big companies can sometimes seem to be deliberately preventing anything from actually happening. In a big company, personal politics can be semi-hidden but disruptive.
Small companies can be equally political, but it is usually more obvious, and therefore easier to call out or spot in time to avoid. If you want to be agile in your work, you want to be in a small company, or at least a small team in a big company.
SPECIALISATION
When I was working on big projects, one of my favourite things was being able to hand work off to the professional testers. They did fantastic work on a job I really did not enjoy.
Big companies can find and hire those people who love doing just testing, and let them do it full time. When you don’t have access to those people any more, you feel the loss! Still, if you enjoy expanding you own skills, a small company where you take on many roles can be fantastic.
THE COMPANY TIPPING POINT
If you start working for a fast growing ‘small’ company, you might soon find it is a medium size company. I’ve got a personal theory that there is a kind of tipping point between a ‘small company’ and a medium sized company.
It’s not how many employees there are, or the turnover. It’s the point when you start to get emails referring to the ‘stationery policy’. When you can’t just go and get a pen from a draw somewhere, and you have to see someone to ‘request a stationery resupply’, you’ve crossed the line.
YOUR PERFECT MATCH
Personally, I think on balance I prefer working in a small team. I’ve tried the other options though, and it may be that without that experience I would not have the same opinion now.
Freshview is a great place to work, and I get to take part in shaping it in the future. Maybe one day it will be a large company, and I’ll have to fill in the ‘Form for the requisition of Requisition Forms’ form with the pen I brought from home, or maybe not.
