Ask HN: Startup or Big Company?

[tiamaty]

Hi, I am a data scientist and software developer who has received two job offers from two wildly different companies. The first (http://www.analytics2go.com/) is an american startup located on Brazil (I live here) that aims to develop data driven solutions for small-medium sized companies and the second one is the largest retail company in my country. Both positions (at least on paper) are to do the same job, research and modelling of solutions for the companies problems (in the startup the focus are on the clients). Financially the retail offer is better by about 50%. A somewhat important detail is that the retail company is located in the biggest city here in Brazil while the startup is in the countryside in a very small city...

The question is, for someone like me that will finish his PhD in the next two years and aims to get a job in a tech company in the future (Amazon, Google, IBM...) which one is the better path ? Is retail badly seen by tech companies ? Will the experience in one be worse than the other ?

Cheers

[davismwfl]

Neither would hurt your career later, but the startup may be harder to work at and complete a PhD.

A lot will depend on the startup and your goals personally, but neither will hurt you. I do see pros and cons on both sides, and I would personally say for your goal it might make better sense to go with the larger retail business. For businesses like Google/Amazon etc, they all do things at a very large scale and likely anything that helps prepare you to think in those terms is the better choice.

Good luck!

[pwason]

Big Companies Suck (BCS). Go get a job at one, work there until you realize how screwed up it is, then with that added to your resume, find a few hot shit people and start something yourself. Sell it for a profit as soon as you can. Rinse & Repeat.

[LifeQuestioner]

50%? Wow...

it depends where you want to live? But it sounds like working at a retail for 1 year will mean you're better positioned in another year to find work elsewhere. Importantly, though, which work / job is more interesting to you?

[tiamaty]

I would consider living in the small town if the tech industry (since I want to work in tech) thought that the retail industry was less important, but most people that I asked seems to think the industry does not matter.

Regarding the work, the startup seems more interesting but there are cool things to do in retail as well. I got both of the jobs offering because I worked as a consultant for the startup solving a problem for this retail company, so I really think the work will be similar but the startup will be more diverse (different companies and etc...)