HOW TO CHOOSE THE COMPANY TO WORK ON AS A FRESH I.T GRADUATE

Choosing the type of company to work on after completion of studies can be quite challenging for IT students because of complexity of the work as well as responsibilities varies from company to company. Some might prefer to work on large companies with stable financial structure while others like the small and challenging work environment. The purpose of this post is to breakdown the pros and cons of working on different types of companies and how to decide upon which one to choose.

Typically we can categorize IT companies to one of the 4 category based on its size and financial structure. These are Startups,Mid-Range Companies and Large companies . Freelancing is also included in this conversation as it’s also the major career choice for many IT graduates.

1.Freelancing:

Freelancer is the person who is self-employed and is not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. It is the most independent form of work as you can work from your comfort zone and you can choose anyone to work with you. Although getting the freelancing jobs could be quite challenging at the beginning it would be more easy after having good portfolio and social connection.

Pros:

• You could have independence at work.
• You could be your own boss.
• You can work from anywhere.
• Completion of work in time is only the requirement, you can manage your own time schedule.
• As you have to do every work on SDLC by yourself you could rapidly grow you skills.
• As you are always growing your portfolio, it would be so much helpful for you in long run.

Cons:

• You can have heavy workload.
• There could be the limitation on your growth.
• Less opportunity to meet new peoples and make new friends.
• Might make you monotonous.
• Learning have to be done in continuous way to escape from knowledge plateau.
• Financial stability could not be guaranteed.
• It would be difficult to prove work experience for future jobs/ for abroad planning.
• Getting loans from institutions would be challenging.

2. Startups

After the rise of various startups in the past 2 decade, startup culture is flowing the direction of nonstop growth. Everyday new and fresh companies with great ideas are coming into the market. Although the failure rate is quite high as of 95% it’s not stopping venture firms to invest in startup market. Working at startups could be both challenging and rewarding experience based on how its leadership and financial condition is going on.

Pros:

• You can meet new peoples with strong passion and dedication to the work
• You can learn various lessons which could be too much helpful for you if you want to be entrepreneur later on.
• You can have good value and responsibility
• Your ideas can be validated and tested.

Cons:

• Less income as compared to big companies
• Longer work hour and more work pressure
• Less stability in job, you can lose your job anytime
• Less financial stability

 

3. Mid-Sized Companies

These are the companies which are neither as big as corporates nor as small as startups. In another word we can call these companies the successful version of startups as they already have completed their startup phase and now marching toward corporate and financial stability. Most of the product and service based IT companies fall on this category.

Pros:

• More work responsibility hence more knowledge growth
• Stable Income
• Less peoples , Easier to maintain long lasting relationships

Cons:

• Less income as compared to large companies
• Few Facilities
• Growth limit
• Co-workers might be conservative which might have negative impact on knowledge growth

4. Big Companies

These are the companies with huge number of work force, huge client base and international reach with great financial structure. These companies provide essential service to thousands of clients and it also has well-formed corporate culture. Although getting jobs at these kinds of company might be challenging, working might be easier later on because of huge number of teams and resources for your support.

Pros:

• Highly stable job for long term
• Good income and allowances
• Many facilities such as Healthcare,Education,Pension,Rewards,Insurance and so on
• Great financial stability
• Good reputation outside work
• You can have good impact on market if you reach the decision making positions

Cons:

• Skill growth would be slow and challenging
• You might be less valuable to company
• Your new ideas would be less likely to get validated
• You might have to work with legacy products and platform
• Mistakes might be less tolerable

These are the thoughts I have collected for both pros and cons of working under different kinds of companies based on different factors. This post is just the guideline for you to make your own thoughts. What do you want to achieve in your life is the major factor for making your decision. If you want to be entrepreneur and independent in your career than you should focus on choosing first 2 kinds of work place and if you want to have more stable and financially secure life you could go with last 2 options. Working with startups might taught you many entrepreneurial lessons with very minimum risk, while working on mid-large companies can provide you stable finance and workload. The choice is yours and you have to make this decision wisely.

Thanks for reading this post. Please do not forgot to let your thoughts in the comment section below thank you.