The problem with working at a large company is dealing with all the large company BS. A small company with a business model and decent people is a much more enjoyable work environment. (OTOH, a small company with bad people is much worse). A company with revenue and a plan can afford to pay a reasonable salary, although it might not be fully competitive with total comp at a top firm.

If either job comes with a lottery ticket, I guess that's sort of nice?

I’ve worked at the largest tech companies, a 12 person startup and plenty of sizes in between. They all have BS. Small startups are not immune. The dog-and-pony shows for potential investors. The demo-ware for trade shows. The daily distractions and direct exposure to indecisive execs, without a layer of “management shielding”. I have yet to find the perfect company.

> They all have BS.

I think this is the most profound thing I've learned in my career. But an even more important lesson is that you have to find a place where the B.S. is tolerable to you. For some people the politics of a bigco may be impossible to deal with, for others the "another month, another pivot" shiny objects syndrome of a small startup may be the issue.

Every place has B.S. That's why they call it "work" and not "fun". Find a place where the B.S. is tolerable (or, better yet, minimal).

> That's why they call it "work" and not "fun".

No, it isn't. The "work" is the fact that I am applying my skillset to satisfy my employer's desire whether I feel like it or not; often, that means polishing and grinding at rather boring but rather necessary tasks.

None of that requires bullshit, and calling bullshit "work" normalizes toxic behavior.

Ah, but what if you don't know the task is necessary? It might be necessary from the perspective of the greater organization, but not from your perspective. You might consider it wasteful B.S. But from another perspective it is useful. That's only one way I can think where a workplace might have a certain amount of bullshit, I'm sure there are others.

I would also like to distinguish between toxic and abusive behavior (which I don't think anyone should tolerate) and a certain amount of B.S. The latter can vary across a spectrum, but is tedious, or frustrating, or annoying, not psychologically harmful.

> Find a place where the B.S. is tolerable

I prefer to think of it is a finding a bullshit compatible place. All companies have bullshit, but the trick is to find a place whose particular variant of bullshit is compatible with your particular tolerance of said bullshit.

Bullshit compatibility is an important thing!

> The problem with working at a large company is dealing with all the large company BS.

Smaller company doesn't have to mean less bullshit. It's just a different kind of bullshit.

No, it definitely means less as well. There is still different bullshit but overall there is indeed less.

Oh there can be plenty of bullshit in a small startup. When a company is small, there is very little place to move laterally to avoid dealing with people you find annoying. Especially if those annoying people have seniority over you by way of being in on the startup before you got in. They are unfireable and their ideas are held as gospel.

They can take the form of your manager, or colleague, or anybody in the company and the option is to either deal with it or bail on the company. In a larger company with many teams, you can usually route around such people by switching to a different org. Plus their power is often more constrained because there is just more people in the company.

By bs you mean proper healthcare, 401k match and other benefits as well as actual chance of promotion? Not sure this is such a chore...

Proper healthcare (insurance) should be a given. Trinet is a thing. I had all the same choices at big companies and the startup where I was ~ hire 15.

401k match is nice, but it's part of total comp. I don't want to be promoted into a job where I'm responsible for others, thanks -- it's more work, I'm not good at it, I feel bad about fucking up the careers of my subordinates, and it doesn't give me the same fulfillment of doing my normal stuff.

In exchange for a chance of promotion, I get to deal with a purchasing process that makes it nearly impossible to pay a recurring vendor; I get to do performance review cycles twice a year (no wait, there are actually two hidden mid cycle reviews, so 4x a year), and deal with co-workers who don't give a shit about actually getting things done, they just give a shit about appearing to have 'impact'. I get to deal with 'up or out' policies. I get to deal with pass the buck bullshit trying to get my state income tax changed to reflect where I work and where my desk is. Oh and so many meetings, because nobody is willing to be responsible for making decisions.

I'm willing to put up with this shit because of equity from an acquisition, but I was much happier with the typical bs at the startup, which was mostly that I ended up owning a lot of stuff I'd rather have offloaded onto IT because we didn't have IT, and because I worked at a rinky-dink ISP in the 90s so I knew how internet email worked.

But mooreds upthread is right, it's not a matter of finding a place with no BS, it's a matter of finding the BS that is most tolerable. I clearly have a preference.

I don't like hoops. I feel like startups are more about whether you can do the work, rather than learning and playing 4D Chutes and Ladders.

I've interviewed at large places and they either blew me off because no one cares (why would they) or they had pointless interview questions (cough google)