Figuring Out What You Want: Startups vs. Corporate Companies

By Nancy Xu

*** Note: This post is primarily directed towards current undergraduates.

Autumn paints the trees red; winter creeps in, chilling the air; the white mammoth tents are out; and… it’s recruiting season here at Stanford! In the last few months, I have had many people asking me for advice about applying for opportunities in the tech industry, and one of the most common themes that comes up is the decision between startups and larger corporate companies. While this divide is by no means mutually exclusive or indicative of the diversity of opportunities available within the tech industry, it does come up a lot and therefore deserves some attention. Sitting at the other end of the table in venture capital and working at places like Facebook have made me think a lot about building and growing companies of all scopes. Through these experiences working with some of the most talented and forward-thinking individuals in technology, I have the chance to share my perspectives with you. Some thoughts on startups vs. larger technology corporations…

First, it is important to realize that everyone has different goals and career ambitions, so I cannot say which choice (or both/neither) is the best for you as an individual. It is important for you to identify for yourself your own personal values. This will help create goals that are in line with what you believe and what you want for yourself, not just what others say is best. For example: What matters to you the most in life right now and why? What are you passionate about and how do you see that being a part of your future path? What does your finance vs. happiness utility curve look like? How can you best achieve the goals you have set for myself? Over time I have found that fundamental questions like these are the source of personal understanding and growth. I hope that such a mentality will benefit you beyond deciding summer internships or new grad positions.

With that in mind, I have compiled a summary of some of the key differences between startups and corporate companies that I have gathered from my own observations. This is designed to serve as a guideline for assessing your choices based on your own personal goals. As an intern, I would recommend optimizing for learning:

Resources and Mentorship

Large tech companies like Facebook invest a significant amount of resources to create structured mentorship programs. For example, as an intern on the Newsfeed team at Facebook, my manager was there to answer any questions I had virtually 24/7. There was also an abundance of resources and materials to soak up — best-practice guides, learning workshops, tech talks, etc. If you are curious, you will always have an enormous collection of knowledge available at a place like this. While the one-on-one mentorship experience may vary between people, most tech companies will have similar support and resources for its employees.

A startup generally will not have the same volume of materials, although any growing startup will invest heavily in creating tools to help interns and new hires get up-to-speed. Likewise, because startups generally don’t have the bandwidth to onboard you for months, most will expect that you have many of the necessary skills to hit the ground running. Similarly, while you will have an assigned mentor, in many cases, if you are proactive at a smaller startup, it is possible to work with and learn from many members of the team. This may vary greatly depending on the size and scale of the company, so be sure to enquire about the resources available to you.

Team

As is the case at most large tech companies, teams are very well-established. Consequently, you can run into a lot of friction if you try to switch projects or teams. In the case of an internship, this means that once you’re assigned a mentor as part of a team, you will likely have to follow through with the project you have been assigned. In some rare cases, I have heard of interns being assigned projects with mentors who later leave or go abroad, leaving the intern in a limbo because of the way management tends to operate. At a startup, there is generally more flexibility when choosing teams and managers because of the smaller structure. While your initial project may be in or out of your control, there is so much malleability and movement that you can easily go on to a new project in a matter of weeks.

Culture

Culture is a word that’s thrown around a lot here in the Valley, and while it is not something that contrasts sharply between startups and corporations, it does differ greatly among individual companies. At smaller start-ups, culture becomes especially important because the handfuls of people who make up the company are the people who define the culture of the company. If you can get along well with them, you will enjoy working at the company and vice versa. At a larger company, culture is more layered. Each corporation has its own set of values and goals, and within it, each team defines its own norms based on its people. As such, culture at the startup can have a much stronger influence on the day-to-day operations of the team. It reflects how members of the company interact and is deeply permeated as a consequence of the smaller number of people.

Impact and Scale

Startups and established companies like Facebook obviously operate at much different scales. While a small change in Facebook’s Newsfeed can reach a billion people in a day, a small startup operates on a scale orders of magnitude smaller. That said, even a small startup team works on a product with the potential to impact millions or even billions, which means that you will end up wielding significantly more influence on a key product at a smaller start-up. At a place like Google or Facebook, the smallest change must go through a series of reviews over days or even weeks before it is implemented. As a result, startups move at a much more rapid pace in exchange for scale, and the trade-off is something you will need to decide for yourself.

While there are other differences, such as in perks, risks, networking, etc., that I have not touched upon here, these are the most defining takeaways that I think will help anyone deciding between a position at a startup and a larger corporation. Ultimately, the choice should be based on what matters the most to you, what you want from the internship/job, and everything beyond that is knowledge on which to base your judgement. It is hard to go wrong in a place like this, and I wish you the very best in your pursuits!

Once a member of the USA Math Olympiad team (MOP), Nancy Xu originally came to Stanford intending to be a math major. Since then, she has transitioned to studying computer science (AI, Theory) and history, hoping to better analyze and solve problems within complex structural systems relating to society and consumers. Her past experiences include product and engineering roles at Facebook and Neighborly, as well as investment positions in venture capital. Nancy writes for The Stanford Daily and serves as a passionate voice for women in technology as the chair of Stanford’s Women in CS Events. Contact Nancy at xnancy@stanford.edu.