First job: large company or startup?

Career Advice
1

Hi everyone!

After 6 months of job search, I landed not one but two offers and have a hard time choosing the right one for me. I hope to follow up with a success story soon but first I need to make a choice :smile:

My background: I am a soon-to-be graduate, and my main focus has been on front end web development. I also have experience with OOP languages but it’s a dormant skill which I have not been practicing for the last half a year.

My choice now is between:

  • A large international company with great salary and benefits. Work is focused more on the back end and data analytics (not something I have a lot of practice with), but there is opportunity to change teams and grow in the direction I am passionate about.
  • A small but promising startup. Work and technologies match very well (React and Node as main technologies) with what I want to do but the pay and benefits would be less of course. The company is 3 years old and growing fast but since it’s a startup, there is always an element of chance.

How can one approach this choice? What would look better on the CV? What would you choose?

2

Choose the one you’re going to like better, whether that’s based on what you’ll be working on, who you’ll be working with, the company culture, whatever. If that’s the Lower paying one, you can probably negotiate at least a little but as long as they’re paying you a reasonable salary, I would say that job satisfaction is worth a few thousand dollars.

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