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Comment by zwnow | Hacker News Reader

I dont get it, everyone wants to work for big tech or big corporations in general and then wonder why they do stuff like this.

Go to small companies, yes they pay less but also yes: you will have real impact and they actually need you.

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Nah, small companies are burnout mills. Early in my career, I had explicitly worked on small companies and 4/4 times screwed over. Immediately when the big work is done and investments(or major profits) are in, suddenly the management starts replacing everyone with expensive consultants or their best chums from some failed business somewhere and starts strategic push out by stagnating.

While my experience can be rare/unique, at least at Medium/BigCo, my soul burning gets compensated, small ones are just “we are like family right?” and then push out once technical/financial growth starts rearing its head.

I’ve worked for the smallest startups (2 employees) to the biggest company (100k employees).

Everything can bring you burnout if the management is toxic. It’s independent on the size of the company. I’m now working for a small company that feels like a family even if they don’t say it.

Small companies can have their own problems. They may only somewhat overlap with the problems at big companies--although both need to make money at the end of the day. But they're far from a panacea.

I worked at mostly small companies and had one 3.5 year stint at BigTech.

“pay less” is an understatement. Top of band for most Big enterprise companies or smaller companies is about the same that a new college grad gets at BigTech.

While I would rather get a daily anal probe with a cactus than go back to BigTech at 50, if I were young and unencumbered instead of a 50 year old empty nester, I would make the trade off in a heart beat

I also thought that small companies are better in that regard. But no, they often have their own toxic idiosyncrasies, like when a little power goes too much to the management’s heads. A small company that’s YOURS is better and actually needs you.

Maybe its different in Europe due to workers rights? Never had bad experience in small companies but plenty in corps.

Big companies can double your compensation though, it's a tradeoff.

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