| > When it's not that bad, evaluation the pro's and con's and make sure you have a plan forward -- your plan forward, not theirs. 100% agreement. You need to figure out your plans and goals, and then implement those. If you can find these goals at your current job you'll probably stay, otherwise you should think about leaving. This is the same whether you're in a company of 1 or 100,000 people. One thing larger corps will expose you to is bureaucracy and politics. It's actually quite handy to learn. It becomes evident when people don't have skills like allowing a party to save face. You absolutely have to work with people that get on your nerves again, you have to network, and in a few years they could be your boss. It's just the way things go. > corresponding autonomy combined with a good manager leads to a good, productive, educational experience. There are actually several different career desires. While autonomy could lead to a productive experience, it is not the only way. Certainly your autonomy could cause other problems. Some of the other career desires could be work/life balance, challenges, security, or advancement. In other words, you can still have a productive experience but put value on things other than autonomy. I do not doubt that a good manager will help you significantly. My corporate job is dry at times. I do learn things and solve problems with scopes that few people would. Is it enough for me? I'm not sure, and it's certainly a good question to always be considering. I have started trending towards "ask for forgiveness" rather than to ask permission. So far that hasn't back fired, and that lets me work on some work related topics that I find interesting. Is corporate good experience to have later in life? Yes. Like another post was saying about full QA test suites, standardized release processes, etc. You need exposure to these things, and how it's done "in the big leagues." Then you can go to a startup if you wish and choose to ignore certain aspects. But you know them, so it's not impossible to implement them later. That makes you infinitely more valuable than someone who does not have that knowledge. |