better to work for a small or big company?
better to work for a small or big company?
(OP)
Hello,
what would be the advantages and disadvantages of working for a small and for a big company?
Thank you once more
ngedm
what would be the advantages and disadvantages of working for a small and for a big company?
Thank you once more
ngedm






RE: better to work for a small or big company?
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
I work for a small office within a large firm and have had opportunities to help out on a wide variety of projects - from bridges and water treatment plants to a cruise terminal and sign structures. Also, as dik said, large firms give you more of an opportunity to learn from a wider variety of professionals. A smaller firm gives each employee more responsibility.
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
Very large firms, on the other hand, will offer you different levels of opportunity....some firms are good, some are very very bad. I have a friend that went to work for a large firm who basically sat around all day with only nominal responsibilities and not a wide variety of projects. He told me that he'd done as much engineering design in 6 months at the large firm that he'd done in two weeks at our office.
Other pals in larger firms have expressed satisfaction at the large projects and have had good positions with few complaints.
If you're at the point of interviewing for a position - consider this: Ask whomever you are looking at to provide you with their resumes of key engineers who you'll be working for/under/with. That way you can see the kind of experience you will be drawing from at that firm.
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
There are advantages and disadvantages to either, as has been pointed out. My greatest concern is something haynewp touch on...the de-professionalizing of engineers and engineering by treatment as a commodity. This is happening more and more in large firms, and will likely continue and worsen.
I have had the opportunity to work in one of the larger firms in the world (somewhere between ENR top 10 and ENR top 30 depending on the year), in a fairly high technical capacity (they cringe when I go near something administrative!). The resource sharing is great, the project mix is great, the technical challenges are great, and the people I worked with daily are some of the finest technical minds anywhere. But the technical people are getting farther and farther from the decision processes and are more and more driven by management greatly removed from the client service process. This can make life difficult, both logistically and emotionally with respect to morale.
I have been a sole practitioner (no one to blame but me!), which is fun, but limiting. I have worked in a small firm (I grew from just me to about a dozen people)and the challenges are fun, but you don't get the project mix and exposure to the really cool stuff!
I am now at a medium size firm (600 people)where I hope to realize some of the advantages of both the large firm and the small firm. Ideally, for a consulting practice, you would have the resources and exposure of a large firm with the autonomy of action of a small firm. I realize the naivete of this idealism, but what the hell... we can dream.
Besides, we're engineers...we get to work for 50 years 'cause we never make enough to retire, so we can sample a lot of what the profession has to offer!!
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
I'm sorry but I don't agree with breaks that smaller companies have many more opportunities for advancement. At the small company I worked at the next step for me was engineering manager which did not pay much more (if any at all), then next was CEO, which I didn't see as obtainable and wouldn't want anyway. I think perhaps when I say small I mean really small, three design engineers. He might be think a bit larger or he's just had different experience than I have.
You do get a better understanding at a small company of the whole business picture.
As far as large companies go, in my case, I was part of a large team (max'd out at over 200 people from several different disciplines) on a huge project. Even though you think with this many people your contibutions would just get lost, I didn't feel this way at all. I enjoyed working with lots of different engineers not only in my own discipline of structural engineering but in other disciplines as well.
I think your doing the right thing by asking the question. Try to talk to people from both sides of the fence too. I could tell you a lot more than I care to type, plus I figure if I make this too long people will lose interest (if they haven't already).
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
Also I'd like to ask if there's more mentorship in bigger companies? I feel that because a small company doesn't have the resources, they wouldn't be able to check your work. And by checking and pointing out the blunders I feel that I could learn a lot.
Thanks everybody
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
Checking work is a task...mentoring is a process.
A comment for rkillian....
I disagree with the concept of paid overtime for engineers. We are a profession. If we promote concepts that are associated with non-professional pursuits, then we will continue to erode the status and stature of engineering as a profession. I know that some "engineers" have become unionized. Sorry, but I didn't put a lot of time and effort into an engineering education, internship,licensure, and professional practice where my livelihood is always on the line just to be lumped in with non-professionals who have little or no legal responsibility and public obligation. I'm not being arrogant...I'm just proud to be an engineer..I think it is honorable and the profession serves the public good.
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
When's the last time you saw a doctor after hours and he didn't charge you because he's a professional? I'm sorry but I don't equate OT pay with blue collar. I've went throught similar things as engrx2 and if you really want to feel like your not being treated like a professional trying working for somebody for nothing.
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
First, a salaried engineer cannot get paid directly for overtime work. All salaried employees are call excempt, because they are excempt from the labor laws requiring overtime pay for extra hours work. It is in fact illegal for a salaried employee to recieve direct compensation for overtime pay. I know this because my firm just changed ownership and the new owner nixed the overtime pay as a part of bringing the company to complience with labor laws. An employer can pay you a pro-rated bonus proportional to the amount of overtime spent. This is legal.
Now, it is up the the employee, in this case the professional engineer, to get just compensation for the work that they do. If you work for a firm that pays you 10% higher in market value but expects 25% more work (50 hr weeks), it is up to the engineer to find another place to work if they don't like it.
I guess it comes down to, if you don't own the firm, then it is your responsibility to work appropriatly for the compensation you are paid. If the employer demands more work, and you feel that you are working adequatly for what you are paying, then you need to tell them you need more compensation for the extra time.
Now as to the size of the company vs. quality of experience. I work in a small branch office (30 engineers) of a larger firm (250 engineers world wide, 1200 employees). The firm is very progressive in searching out the best work. We have all different types of jobs from seismic retrofit, historic preservation, new steel frames, pt concrete structures, high-rise structures, stadiums. We are able to accomplish this because we simply have the most talent around. We have a large diversity of talents and it has been a very good place to work.
I hope you find a good, strong firm to work for. They will give you the best experience.
That's my 2 cents.
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
That being said, your bills have to be paid, especially those pesky student loans. Sacrifices end up being made and dreams end up being put on hold for the proverbial "reality check." And gosh darn it, it's great to get the experience, but if Old Man Skinflint Ph.D., S.E., P.E., Etc. is paying you starvation wages you MUST leave when the better-paying job comes along. The cost is that the Old Man doesn't transfer his knowledge to you, but you can make that up with some extra study. In the mean time, there's bills to pay and a life to live. Maybe the better paying job is heavy on the "management" end of things and maybe there's too much office politics going on or maybe you're stuck doing PowerPoint presentations for big proposals, but the extra cash takes some of the sting out of watching the internet kids coin it in while you were stuck checking moment distribution calculations and remembering the joys of studying for final exams.
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
Overtime is of massive benefit to any business which hires its employees out on an hourly basis. The normal multiplier between salary and charge rate is 3-4, so even though the firm has to shell out a bit extra overtime salary, they are still making out. Overheads do not double if I do double the numbers of hours. In fact, overheads - the larger part of an firm's balance sheet - stay almost exactly the same, whilst income doubles.
I don't think it unreasonable that employees share in this windfall. Think of it as a commision rather than overtime if you are interested in professional status.
Michael
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
However, I dont agree with JSA. I think just the opposite. Out of school, work for small firm. You'll get the personal tutorship, and learn alot more than you did in college. However, you won;t make a thing to pay off your student loans, and barely make enough to have sloppy joes on wednesdays. Once you learn actual engineering experience, go to the large firm and APPLY IT! When I was a senior in college, I couldn't wait to get out there and actually use the things I've learned. Almost the same thing with the small firm. I learned alot, but wasn't really allowed to apply it.
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
1. Big or small firm - doesn't matter in terms of benefit to developing your skills as an engineer. What matters is the engineer you are working under - does he mentor you? does he teach? does he offer you a vast array of experience and talent to learn from? Both sized firms offer excellent experience. I've worked on residential houses as well as domed stadiums. Both required the application of engineering principles....the size was the only difference.
2. I'll burn in hell before I ever accept overtime pay. I'm a professional. Professionals get paid X to get the job done right. As a professional, I'm paid for my skills, my talents, and my services, NOT my time. I should negotiate the proper salary and expect other compensation as the market allows. Also: good firms also provide bonuses and other benefits that far outweigh the stupid time-and-a-half pay.
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
I agree that "quality of mentor" is probably the most important aspect, but you can't choose who this is most of the time. Let me suggest some simultaneous equations.
Large firms = more experinced engineers + more project type variety.
Engineering success = Engineering knowledge + ability to deliver.
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
1. It is "professional" to eat any extra time it takes to do a job when it's your fault. On that note, it is unprofessional to promise completion with an unreasonable schedule. The result may be your people up and quitting and you being left with explaining to your boss why the work isn't finished.
2. It is "professional" to help people at no extra cost, even if it means you have to stay in the office an extra hour or two. I should note that if you're asked for help, make it clear to the asker what your time constraints are, etc. Having the reputation of helping people is an excellent way to convey your own dedication to the profession, too. I will add, however, that it is unprofessional for someone to refuse to learn and to expect that the "nice guy" who helps everyone will do your work for you. It's also REALLY unprofessional to blame your failure to complete work on someone who couldn't help you.
3. All that being said, it is unprofessional for a manager to ask/tell his people to work longer hours without compensating them. People have lives outside of work. They have families. If the customer wants a schedule accelerated and it means that the workers have to cancel holiday plans or whatever, you'd better make it worth their while rather than rely on their "professionalism." After all, they're putting more money in the manager's pocket through the extra hours.
4. Consider this: do you work for a company or are you an independent contractor? Are you part of a team or are you a mercenary? Managers, owners and engineers - everyone - should ask themselves this. If a job needs to be done, and there's not enough time during regular hours to finsih the job, the engineers are not slaves who work for free! Hire more engineers to get the job done!
RE: better to work for a small or big company?
Whether the firm for you should be big or small is not the real issue. Take in all the information you can, go with your gut feeling and choose and be responsible for your choice. Someday, when you get good at making these choices, people will want you as their source of information. Good luck in your future.