small vs large company

kleos

I currently have a decent paying sysadmin job for a small 50 user company. Lately I have been thinking of applying for a general IT staff job at a large local hospital. I think I would enjoy the challenge of a large company environment and the satisfaction of working for a company with a purpose other than solely making money. I imagine the pay would be similar or even a little less.

Am I stupid to be considering this?

Jinuyr

I have worked for both in the past and I definitely enjoy the larger corporate environment. With that said, working in a large environment also has its challenges, and not in a good way.

When I worked in Las Vegas for five mega resorts, a corporate office, two airport offices, a golf course, and various remote offices, I was part of a large overall team of IT Professionals. My responsibilities were very specific to what I did since other tasks were performed by other sections of my department. While the experience in working with larger, more complex systems were always a challenge, you did not get very many opportunities to learn what the other department is doing. You were simply too busy and had too much on your plate to be able to focus on other things. Think of a person working in an assembly line. The job had its advantages however, I had more stability there, and if I found time to learn about the other jobs I could build myself a very good reason to be promoted or moved to that new job within a reasonable time, given that I had the spare time outside of work to understand it all.

I also worked for a smaller company of under 30 people as a DBA. Every person had to be able to perform more than one task. If a person was off, sick, unavailable, etc you had to fill in for them. A lot of last minute situations where you had to think on your feet and out of the box, very exciting stuff. Also, because we were very small we ran into some other administrative issues like payroll or staffing levels but that usually comes with a starter company.

Now, I work for a large organization but it is divided into its own separate entities so you still get that small company feel in a large corporation. I enjoy what I do here because I am learning something new everyday. As a manager and as a systems administrator.

Oh yeah, it's also good to have a larger company on your resume if you're building it up.

Hope this helps ^_^

Everyone

Healthcare is one of the lower paying industries for IT. Being a bigger company, they may still pay you more than your current smaller company.

The smallest company I've ever worked for is the hospital I work at now, and it has over 3000 employees. I can't see myself working for a small company, and hope to get back to working for a much larger company again soon.

As long as it is an increase in not only pay, but title and responsibility, then no, you aren't stupid for considering it. However I would not consider moving to a larger company just for the sake of moving to a larger company if the position is going to be a step backwards in your career.

LordQarlyn

kleos wrote: »

I currently have a decent paying sysadmin job for a small 50 user company. Lately I have been thinking of applying for a general IT staff job at a large local hospital. I think I would enjoy the challenge of a large company environment and the satisfaction of working for a company with a purpose other than solely making money. I imagine the pay would be similar or even a little less.

Am I stupid to be considering this?

It depends. I've know guys who got their start on smaller companies, mostly because they didn't have the experience for the big companies and the small companies didn't have the budget to pay for more experienced workers. Most of the times, these were hands-on jobs where they handled virtually everything in IT - and other non-IT roles too.

They took a short-term lowball salary, but gained precious experience, and sometimes the company would pay for vendor training and industry certs. I know first hand these guys are doing great now, some of them even joke "what recession?!?".

Everything comes with tradeoffs, you'll have to reflect and compare what your current position offers compared to what the hospital position can offer. If its a non-profit hospital, the salary may not be the same or even less, but, if it gives you opportunities for experience on more systems, it might be worth it in the long run.

Jinuyr

That reminds me... For me, it's always been about Experience and Title. Money has always been last. I went from making a certain amount of money with a large company to half that amount working for a very small company that offered me a better title and dedicated time for education.

After that I worked for almost minimum wage for a rediculous amount of experience and now I'm making at least 2.5 times the original amount and in a much better position

kleos

Thanks for the responses guys.

I am just starting out in my career and don't want to miss an opportunity to hop on a better track. What do you think is better experience? Handling the entire IT for a 50 user company or being 1 of several handling a 5000 user company?

WafflesAndRootbeer

Stupid for considering it? No, definitely not. But I would say that it's probably not a job you're going to want. Turn-over rates are high in jobs like that because they often end up being "Monkey Jobs" and you won't get much out of it unless you're doing a lot of work beyond what you are already doing and learning new things. The problem with many IT jobs is that they don't really go anywhere as far as your career goes and you're just a warm body filling a position for the most part, so keep that in mind when you look at any potential jobs.