| I think it's a good point that there are many more domains within large organizations than one might expect from the outside. However, people are undoubtedly in more specialized roles and teams on the whole. I'm merely trying to explore the differences in growth as a developer between the two extremes. While I don't think as many people who build React interfaces at Facebook are also spending days creating Postgres schema diagrams and responding to mission criticial DevOps failures, I certainly grant that the small team varied project approach might be more similar than I realize. In that case or either way, the most impactful difference in how personal growth is impacted may be the surrounding ecosystem and knowledge base. In one scenario you are flush with existing infrastructure and the thoughtful people who designed or maintain it. This can focus your work as you mentioned and is also a great learning environment. While on the other side you are working without a safety net slogging your way through creating everything* from scratch. This forces you to learn new skills in unfamiliar areas and managing all sorts of tradeoffs autonomously (there could be literally no one else to motivate you or to ask a question aside from your search bar). * Infrastructure, tools, processes, etc. I'm not talking about reinventing the wheel though you are free to do so for your own pleasure or peril. |