I’ll start by saying that this is my personal opinion. Some people love to work for big companies. I can understand it. A steady paycheck, tons of benefits, and job security. However, I’m not a fan of working for a big company.

I have experience working for a couple of big ones. But the largest one stands out. That was a huge project. 1 billion+ clicks per day, complicated database queries, expensive servers all over the world, etc.

Working on a project like that was a big step forward in my career because, previously, I was a front-end developer working in a team of 3 people, and I was doing the same job every single day. I was responsible for placing ads on various websites with javascript.

I thought that it’s gonna give me a boost in my career. I was excited that I was gonna have all the benefits of a big company.

But my expectations shattered fast.

Impersonal Culture

That was the biggest issue for me. I didn’t feel like an important part of the team.

There was always the same attitude toward everyone. Nobody cared about your individual traits, your strong and weak sides.

I always felt like just another developer with no name who would be gone in a couple of weeks, and everyone will forget about me in no time. And this is pretty much what happened when I quit. I worked there for almost a year, I gave a 2-week notice, but I was let go on the spot.

It was a relief because I had a better offer on my hands, and I didn’t have to stay any longer, but still, it was unpleasant.

Slow to Adapt

This is another problem with big tech projects. Big projects pick up technologies at a very slow pace. It is understandable because they only use stable technologies to make sure the project will not go down because of some untested feature.

My experience was awful. I had to use a framework that was written by developers in the past, and only two people knew how to work with it. The framework didn’t have any documentation, so every time I had a question, I had to ask one of them, and they were always busy.

Even the version of the programming language that was used there was old.

Lack of Autonomy

In a large organization, employees may have less control over their work, with limited opportunities for creativity or input into decision-making.

I had a few interesting ideas that I wanted to implement and were turned down. Sometimes I agreed that my ideas were not great. But there was one example when I was turned down because the guy above me didn’t understand the subject well. I wanted to implement a more efficient math formula in some calculations on the backend end, and because that guy didn’t study math and didn’t understand what I was talking about, he turned my idea down.

Bureaucracy

Large companies often have complex organizational structures and hierarchical decision-making processes, which can result in bureaucracy and slow decision-making.

Instead of making my job, I had to write a lot of messages to a lot of people to keep things moving. 15-minute tasks sometimes could take half of the day, if not more.

The Bottom Line

It’s important to note that these factors are not universal and may not apply to all large companies. Additionally, some individuals may prefer the structure and stability that comes with working for a large organization. It ultimately depends on personal preferences and priorities. But for me personally, it doesn’t work.

I like to be a valuable part of the team. I like to work fast. I like to implement new technologies.

I had a great experience working for small companies. I always have new challenges, and I am always learning new technologies and using them.

I don’t discourage people from working for big companies. I am sure that big corporations take care of their workers. Some of them have smaller teams that use whatever technologies they want for their projects. But I am just not the kind of person who would want to work in one.