What the F are you going on about? The parent suggested that going with a big outfit early on was a recipe for slow growth. I responded that, if you have the chance to land with a major pub early on, you should probably grab it. Of course, most will not have that opportunity and--perhaps more than many fields--may well have to work their way up. And, if that sounds singularly unappealing, maybe it's not the profession for you.

Leaving aside the question of whether, say, Google is actually a great place to work or not, I'd say more or less the same thing to a would-be software developer who didn't want a job in the field unless they could get a top-paying position at Google HQ.