Startup vs Corporate Life

Recently a sophomore in college sent me the following questions about working for a startup vs going into the corporate world. Having experiences a little of both, I did my best to answer these questions.

I tried to be as objective as possible, and feel that I am in a good position to do so. Unlike many others, I had an awesome experience in corporate America before joining lawn care-startup life where I have also had a great experience.

The purpose of me posting this is twofold. First, I would like to give my thoughts to others who are looking to learn about the differences between working for a startup vs a large company. Secondly, I want to get feedback from others who’ve experienced both startup and corporate life, and see what their thoughts are.

For the purposes of this essay, I’m defining a startup as a high-growth company with 15 employees or less. This is because that is what the individual is asking about, not because I want to put a definition on how large a startup is.

Q. Is this start up company something I can build a career off of?

A. Yes, absolutely. At any good startup, you will learn, be challenged, and take on a great deal of responsibility. You’ll be forced to do lots of different tasks and learn things from scratch.

Of course this depends on what you want to do with your career. If you want to become a hedge fund manager or a surgeon, it’s probably not a good career starter. But if you want to learn how to start a company or just want great business or software development experience, startups are a great place to look.

Q. How will the startup manage risk? With a larger company, they tend to have more diversified components and are better braced for the unexpected. If a particular event occurs, will that bring down the business?

A. With a startup, it’s generally not going to tank because of some unexpected event. If it fails, it’s because it ran out of money. Usually this is expected and you will have a sense of when it’s going to happen.

It may seem risky to join a company that statistically is more likely to fail than a large corporation. Worst case, the company tanks and you’re out of a job. So what? You’ll find a new job, and have awesome experience to show for. Additionally, if your founders were at all legit, chances are they have lots of connections and you’ll have another job in no time.

Q. How many hours can I expect to put into the startup on a weekly basis?

A. People claim that startups work you hard, I personally don’t see it. From people I’ve talked to, I’d say 50 hour weeks are average. That’s about what you see in corporate America these days. Sure, with a startup there will be times where if you don’t take care of something, nobody else will, so you have to put the extra hours in to get the job done. I remember a time when our Gaithersburg lawn care operation went off the rails, and we barely slept that entire week reestablishing ourselves with the local lawn services.

I think it’s important to choose a company that values your time, and recognizes you for putting in the extra effort. Additionally, I think that in startups facetime and looking busy is less important than getting work done. Most people in corporate life are expected to look busy when they aren’t, and put up the appearance of working long hours. I think that at most startups, you are valued more for your results and less for your appearance of doing work.

Of course, this will vary from company to company. Facetime wasn’t valued at the big company I worked at, for instance. No matter what company you join, you should speak to the people at your level about things like this.

Q. Because I’m dealing with a smaller company will I have a significantly larger impact?

A. Proportionally, yes, you will have a bigger impact on the company’s future than you will working for a corporation. On an absolute level, it’s hard to say. In a corporation you are often one of several people involved with a project. Sometimes the project has little measurable impact, such as financial accounting. Other times it may be a billion dollar strategic decision. At a startup, you’re probably going to be owning large projects yourself, and most of the time it will matter.

The one thing with startups, is that sometimes menial work is highly impactful. For example, writing copy for our Falls Church lawn mowing page seems pretty menial. But, our entire lawn mowing operation in Falls Church, VA depends on it.

Q. Am I the kind of person that WANTS to have to have a larger impact or am I the type that would rather just sit back and not make big decisions?

A. If you’re motivated at all, you will want to have an impact. One of the biggest complaints I hear from my peers who work normal jobs is not the hours, cafeteria food or office politics. It’s that they don’t feel as if their work matters. So yes, you want to have an impact. In fact, you’ll hate your job if you aren’t making an impact.

Q. Will I incur more stress from working for a startup versus a larger company?

A. Maybe. This is hard to say and depends on the company. But, what I can tell you is that when I was in the corporate world, much of my stress came from dealing with bureaucracy, not having access to the right IT systems, mandatory trainings, ect. In a startup, you’re less likely to be stressed over these stupid things you’ll encounter in the corporate world. If you’re stressed, it’s likely going to be because there are very real deadlines that actually impact the business.

Of course, if you’re stressed because you have a bad boss or bad coworkers, you should leave immediately, no matter where you are.

One thing I will warn you about, is that many entrepreneurs and startup employees have difficulty “turning work off”. I know I thought about my corporate work a lot in the shower, at home, and driving, but I still was able to turn it off when I wanted to. I can’t say the same about LawnStarter, as I often have dreams about mowing lawns. While it may be harder to stop thinking about work, I see it as the flip side of having greater ownership

Q. How will my career decision be viewed by others (friends/family)?

A. The cliché answer would be to not worry about what others think, but let’s be real, others’ opinions do matter.

Parents are almost always going to want you to go the safe route. For one, they don’t want to see you take risks, and startups do seem risky. Additionally, their generation has a different mentality. By and large, baby boomers were raised to get a secure job, work their way up the company ladder, buy a home in the suburbs, and retire comfortably. But, ultimately your parents will be happy when you are happy, so worry less about what they think and more about what you want to do.

Your friends, well if they work in corporate America, they will probably envy you.

Q. Would it be better to begin with a bigger company just to have the name on my resume?

A. I’m not going to lie, there are a lot of advantages to working for a large company. But the name on the resume is usually not one of them. There are a handful of names such as Google, Goldman Sachs, or Mckinsey, where the fact that you worked there is a point of validation. However, most companies’ names alone do not carry such weight.

I worked at a corporation that nearly every American has heard of, and it was a great company to work for. Yet, it still was not a gold stamp on my resume. In the couple interviews I had with other firms, I still had to spell out what role I had there, how I made an impact, and why this was valuable experience. You’ll have to do the same with a startup, so I wouldn’t worry about the name as much as the actual work and experience.

My friend at a major Wall Street firm (Wall Street is notorious for overvaluing name brands and pedigree) said that 9/10 times, they would take someone who had done a meaningful internship at a startup over someone who had done a typical corporate internship.

Finally what do you really care about: name brand or doing cool work?

Ryan

ryan@lawnstarter.com

LawnStarter is a tech startup making it easy for consumers to order lawn mowing and other lawn care services for their home. We provide lawn care in Gaithersburg, MD, Woodbridge, VA, and Manassas, VA.