Never Switch to Small IT Company from Large One!!

Never Switch to Small IT Company from Large One!!

This article is dedicated to all my software engineer friends. I will try to figure out pros and cons of large and small IT companies. I will try to compare work environment, job satisfaction and frustration, salary packages, job security etc. in small and large companies.

I am a six years experienced software engineer from India and will talk about Indian IT companies. I have worked with one of the largest IT companies (service based) of the India and also with the small companies. As per my experience, one should stay in the large company as compared to the smaller one although the packages offered in large companies are comparatively less. I will share my own experience. I will term large company (my previous company) as L and smaller one as S without naming them public.

I was never satisfied with my job while working with L as my salary was very low although I had got onsite opportunity but only for one month. When I got offer from the small company S, it offered me the great package that I could not deny and moved to it. Although I was getting much more money in my monthly salary as compared to my previous company L, my life became hell. 

Let me tell you what smaller companies do to get the projects and how bad the management is there?

1. Misguide the client about Team Size 

If there are 8 members in the team for a project in company L, company S will put only 4-5 members in the team for the same project and bill the client for 8 team members. In this way, the guys in the team have to do double work in the project as client will assume there are 8 members in the team and he is paying for 8 members and will want his work done as per the efforts of 8 guys but behind the scene, there are only 4-5 guys.

2. Misguide the client about Team Efficiency and Skill Sets

Smaller companies share exaggerated CVs of the team members to the client in order to get the projects. When client gets attracted by those CVs and approves the project, those poor guys have to learn the technology in which they have never done any kind of work (but was written in their CVs which was shared with the client) and also meet the deadline otherwise they are dead.

3. Work on weekends and late nights

As per above two points, its obvious that if one software engineer is doing work of two guys and also new in that technology, he is going to bear sleepless nights and is forced to work on Saturdays and Sundays to meet the deadline.

4. No appreciation, no awards

Once the project is delivered, you will be shown the errors and bugs reported in your delivery and will never get appreciated for what you have done right.

5. No job satisfaction, no job security in a small company

Management can kick your ass at any time when they feel that you are worthless now for them. And if there is a project failure due to any reason, developer is always the victim. They need you to devote your 24 hours to the project and forget all about your family and health.

Lets come to me again. What happened in my case? My S company took a project from a client with impossible deadlines. Deadlines were too short to deliver the project on time. The project was in WPF and a team was formed of four .NET guys who had never worked on WPF. The guys were from ASP.NET. Now we did not know WPF and we had to meet the deadlines too. Our manager dictated us that you all should learn WPF as soon as possible and deliver the project on time otherwise there may happen anything to your job and then don't blame me for the consequences. Even the client knew that deadlines were not practical, but company charged him double and made we developers to work like donkeys. We were under a lot of mental pressure. We used to work late nights, Saturdays and Sundays. 

Even we had spent 9-10 nights in the office. We work late night and when we come late in morning, HR used to mark us half day. That 1.5 months, we had lived like hell. I got totally depressed. 

But my days changed and I got a call from a very good company. I gave interview there and got selected and finally KICKED OFF that S company. HR tried to stop me from leaving and tempted me with huge hike but I just refused to talk to him anything. Now finally, I am at good place and thank my god every day and night for taking me out of that hell. 

At the end of story, I will only suggest you never to switch to the small company in any case. Never get tempted by huge packages they offer. Always maintain healthy relationship between your job and life.

Well, these were my personal remarks, your opinions may be different from me and I am not generalizing my thinking. If you have some words to add, please share them in comments below.

BTW, Thanks for reading.....