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Asked by base520durr on 4 Nov 2025.
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Richard Birch answered on 4 Nov 2025:
Small companies are better by far, but its a matter of what you want. My colleagues in big companies seem content enough, and often have better pay deals. Personally, I found the work impersonal and the relationships with higher management based entirely on productivity. In a small company, I was allowed to diversify; to ‘have ideas’ and try out new things – which has led to avenues of income that would never have been anticipated otherwise. Of course, not every idea worked, but my relationship with my boss is very different: we depend on each other and I’m not simply working for a faceless shareholder.
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Martin McMahon answered on 4 Nov 2025:
There is a difference in the support you receive no matter what is the size of the company you work for, and that is because each company is entirely different. From the boss to your colleagues, support can come from many people, and sometimes not at all. Global corps can have awesome support in one country and terrible support in another. Some small companies have the best support in the world, where others don’t even consider it necessary to support their workers.
Comments
eleanormerson commented on :
Yes – it depends what you want which is better for you. I worked for a large multinational. The equipment we had access to was fantastic and there were lots of other people to bounce ideas off. They also allowed me to do a bit more research work that would maybe take several years to give benefit. The smaller companies, there is more urgency, and often you are working on things that are problems right now. That can give more pressure, but is also nice because you feel you can make a difference to the company immediately. There is less access to equipment and resources generally though.
Jessica M commented on :
Every company is different. I started my career in large companies, but now work for a small one, and I am very glad I made the move. But I spent 18+ years in large companies, so it wasn’t all bad! I like that I am closer to the “big boss” in a small company, in my last job there were many people above me, and I had never even met the CEO. Here one of the company directors is my line manager. It’s more about the people and the culture though I think. I do think that in small companies you get a chance to get involved in more areas of the business early on. In my current position junior staff prepare proposals for work, but that didn’t happen in my previous job. Junior staff also have access to all the behind-the-scene project management tools, whereas that was only for certain trained staff at my large company.
melissau commented on :
Yes, there is often a difference between smaller and larger organisations, but even within those two groups, every individual organisation is different. The type of organisation that suits you best will depend on what you need and that might change as your career develops, so it’s best to be flexible and keep this under review to see what’s suiting your needs. In the veterinary world, for example, a small practice may be good if you want to get involved in lots of different types of work (be a ‘jack/jackie of all trades’) rather than every individual person having a distinct, fixed role or group of species of animals they work with. This may appeal to a newly qualified vet who wants broader experience early on but it may not suit them if the smaller number of people mean it’s less easy to find somebody to give them advice when needed. In a practice which is part of a larger organisation, things like Human Resources policies are sometimes clearer/better defined because they’re centrally managed rather than the individual practice owner (a vet or vet nurse) having to manage that themselves. But again, this can vary a lot from one organisation to another.