Job advice please

Gaber

After being made redundant (yikes) two weeks ago from my job that I had been at for four years I entered the job market and fortunately was able to land two interviews relatively quickly. I guess I must have impressed during these interviews as I received job offers from both this week. Great news right? Well yes, but, this is where my dilemma begins. Which one do I choose? Any insight or opinions would be greatly welcomed.The pay and packages are both comparable, so I can't separate them here. Both companies are successful and make good profits, which I can't envisage changing in the future so job security I feel should be good with both, so this isn't a concern. The main difference is the size of both companies.Job 1This is at a large global company, and the focus will be on operations providing BAU support for their server environment. I think working for a large company would look good on my CV, and there is potential for progression in to a more senior role.Job 2This is at a smaller company, working within a smaller team. As it's a smaller environment, I have some concerns about the size of their network, and how complex it would actually be (even though I'm not really a networking guy). I am thinking though as it's smaller there would be more potential for me to get involved implementing server technologies as well as their network as it's smaller. While there isn't a title progression I think I could still progress technically.They're using similar technologies, and I'd be happy with either really, I want to pick the "best" one for career progression though. I haven't worked at a large company before, so if anyone has worked for one what were your experiences like? Are you sitting around bored doing menial tasks wishing you could get more involved, or are you gaining experience learning from more senior guys and researching new technologies?Thanks for listening.

lordy

Really diffcult to answer without knowing what you have done before or what your background is.

Reading your post it seems to me like you are prefering #1. If this is like a real enterprise (1000+ employees) then this could be a totally different game than your average ~50 employees company. After having experienced both I personally prefer bigger companies. Why? There are a few reasons. Usually they have better staffing so vacation is really vacation (no phone calls or emails). They also often offer training and courses on different topics (technical but also e.g. stop smoking). Quite often they have good benefits (bonus, health, etc.)

Other than that I can just tell you: Go with your gut. It tells you what's good for you and what isn't. And don't worry to much you are obviously very employable so even if your pick doesn't turn out to be right you will get other offers in the future.

Best of luck to you!