Specifically, I would like to know what all you think is the best preparation for starting something on my own.
1. I think I could be a more well-rounded entrepreneur if I had some understanding of the protocols and practices of a large corporation. For example, it's tough to get experience working with 100+ other full-time developers on the same build target outside of a large corporation.
2. Similarly, at a large corporation you have a lot more people to learn from, instead of having to learn things for yourself/from the internet.
3. At a startup, it's tough to not get emotionally invested in your company. This is good, but it also limits your mobility--you can't really just say, "I'm going to quit so I can spend six months in Madagascar photographing lemurs", because you will probably be screwing your coworkers.
4. It's really tough to go from a startup to a large corporation without an acquisition, because of #3, and because you'll likely lose some personal freedom. The degree to which this happens depends on the company, but at the very least, you will probably have to interact with a lot more people, and thus you'll probably have to make your working hours more compatible with others (e.g. 9 to 5).
Don't even work at a startup unless you need to. You're more likely to succeed by repeatedly starting your own companies than any other path.
1) That big company might be your startup's competition. Knowing how they work might give you insight into how to beat them and others like them.
2) That big company might buy your startup or be a customer (if you're doing something B2B) Getting insight into how decisions get made in larger organizations will help you sell to the right people.
You might think the supposed "insights" from these are obvious, but they might not be to someone who hasn't been in a big company for a long enough period of time. I'm still in school and I'll admit that I'm pretty clueless about these myself.
At Google or Facbeook, you would be well-compensated and comfortable while learning new skills in a still quite fast-paced environment. You will be surrounded by many very smart people, and that's probably the most important part.
Your ability to learn new things is definitely greater if you can wear many hats and accept a lot of responsibility at a small company, but at the same time, you may find that you are ultimately better equipped by working at a larger firm full of bright people and building not just your skills, but your network.
Who would you want to start a company with? While it is often difficult to entice away workers from such enviable jobs, you will find a large pool from which to recruit! This is something that you would find rather more difficult at the smaller company, though if it were in the SF Bay area, you could still do a lot of socializing. That's not quite a substitute for getting to work closely with people, obviously.
That's one line of argument there, but really, I suggest going where you think... A) you like the people best and B) you will learn the most. The rest is ancillary and will come out in the wash (a bigger bonus, etc, is much less important than being able to grow a little bit more someplace than somewhere else).
I struggled with many of the same questions myself recently, ultimately choosing something quite off the beaten path from what I originally imagined - we'll see how it works out next summer when I start work!
Saying that I wouldn't knock the experience. Seeing how big businesses operate is probably an important education for every wannabe entrepreneur. And if you learn to play the corporate game you can do very well - and put away a few dollars for when you make the jump to something a bit more risky.
Startups will generally involve less pay, longer hours and a more unstable / insecure career outlook. So if you decide to go this route, choose your firm with great care. But saying that, in a smaller firm you'll be closer to teh day-to-day administration of the business which also would be great experience re starting your own outfit.
It's Ok even if you start at these places but you need to be focused towards your passion and keep working continuously side by side on it and manage your time well. Most importantly, don't show your entrepreneurial personality/liking in interviews else although you are technically skilled and crack certain rounds , its highly likely they will not hire you considering your commitment and dedication towards your work.
Small companies can't afford to specialize. We had three or four full time programmers, and seven or eight EEs. I designed and tested circuits, laid out PC boards, designed enclosures (that turned out to be the hardest task - whaddayamean customers won't appreciate taking out 40 screws to change the power supply? It's solid.), wrote microcode, talked to customers, wrote software for an automated tester I designed and built myself. All in the space of four years. It's not impossible to do that in a big company, but it's very, very unusual.
The downside to a company like that is you don't make nearly as much money. But for me the money came later, in spades, because I learned how to do things. If you go to Facebook or Google what will you learn?
Also, write down what you want to achieve in your first job. Financial stability? Engineering skills? Proficiency in a particular platform, framework? Ability to work in a team? Narrowing down what you really hope to get out of this job will really help you focus on finding the right workplace.
And finally, never say never. Both of them (large companies and startups) have their ups and downs. You'll learn _something_ from both.
Of course you also have to be extra careful not to get comfortable since all companies (especially smaller/older companies) can get comfortable with their employees. There may be dinosaurs who just aren't very good at what they're supposed to be doing. Make sure to not limit your knowledge because of them or be hindered by them.
Also, there's nothing stopping you from working on your idea right now. Once your idea turns profitable, you can explore the other possibilities; hiring, working on it full time, etc.
My opinion, go small, then when you are a bit older try a larger company. Try both and see for yourself. GL.
This is a good point. There's a lot of red tape at big companies and sometimes doing the simplest things (e.g. setting up an Apache server) can be made into maddeningly bureaucratic operations (fill out the support ticket -> X -> Y...)
I'm also the youngest person there, so I am learning very quickly from people with 10+ more years in Silicon Valley than I have.
In a large company everyone is very specialized so you won't really get to step outside your role too much
after college, i joined a fortune 100, where i worked for three years. during that time, i had extra time to devote to consulting gigs and working on my startup. had i joined a startup, there definitely wouldn't have been much free time to do my own thing.