1. Your Successes Are Recognized....
In a small company, every time you do something good, people will know and they will love you for it. All of the things you do are easily noticed because all of the small victories can change the trajectory of a start-up in a major way. Which also means that...
2. ...And Your Failures are Recognized
Yes, being noticed more easily is something of a double-edged sword, but there are benefits to this side of it as well. Knowing that your failures have a very real impact on the day-to-day of your company will teach you to make less of them- something which will benefit your work practices at whatever the next job you hold is. In a start-up, everything you do helps you to learn, and thus every cloud truly has a silver lining.
3. More Transparency
It's hard to see all the way to the top when you're sitting at the bottom of a gigantic company, and this can be very troubling: Your CEO can make huge decisions that affect you and many of your coworkers in a devastating way, and you may never know about it until it comes into effect. At a start-up, the CEO is much closer, both in proximity and relationship, to everyone present, so they have to be a lot clearer about all of the decisions they are making. This has the effect of making a start-up a much less unnerving place to work than a larger business.
4. Define Company Culture
Many times, a business' practices are set by precedent, but who establishes that precedent? Well, if you were one of the founding members of that business, then it would naturally be you! Being one of the first hires of a company is a great opportunity to shape how it will work years, perhaps even decades from now. Want to make it a tradition to come to work every Monday dressed as a cowboy? Convince your coworkers, and you can!
5. Less Politics, More Camaraderie
Everyone's heard of having to climb the company ladder in big corporations: There are a lot of people above you, and few openings, so a cutthroat environment of power politics frequently comes into play in the workplace. However, when the company is small and everyone is important, there's really no room for that sort of behavior; instead, there's an emphasis on cooperation and teamwork put in place by the feeling that you're all really in this together.
6. Learn from the Innovators
Bigger companies have been around for a long time, and in a lot of cases, their leaders don't really have to change things around that much to insure a profitable quarter. People who found start-ups, on the other hand, are constantly looking forward for what the next big thing might be. Learning to anticipate the future rather than just reacting to the present is an incredibly valuable life skill, and it is one you can expect to learn at a start-up.
7. Financial Incentive
It may very well be the case (and it usually is) that working at a bigger company will give you a bigger salary up front, but working for a start-up might mean more money in the long run. This is because, if the company gets much larger, you will have better stock options if you were in the company's first batch of hires, even though it probably won't give you enough money to retire unless it becomes the next big thing like Facebook did.
8. Have More Fun!
One of the biggest benefits of getting so close with a small group of tight-knit people is that you become friends with everyone pretty quickly, and thus every day at work is like spending time with your friends. And on top of this, sharing every obstacle with these people means sharing every celebration! Just because it's your job doesn't mean it has to be a total drag, and most start-ups certainly are more fun than their corporate counterparts.
9. It's a Huge Learning Experience
At a start-up company, there are always things that need doing, and not always a lot of people to do them. What this means for you is that you will be tasked with completing far more than you might have to complete anywhere else, while learning the variety of skills that these tasks need to be done with very rapidly. On top of this, you will get a close look at how every level of a company works.
10. A Sense of Leadership
It takes a couple promotions to become a real leader, right? In most cases, but if you join a start-up at an early enough stage, you can become a sort of leader almost instantaneously. You will begin to manage projects from the start, and you will frequently be given the independence to pursue goals you see as beneficial to the company. You'll get additional resume points, and you'll learn from early on in your career what the weight of leadership really feels like.
11. Interact with all Different Kinds of People
Larger companies are frequently split up by divisions, which have you working largely with people doing similar things to yourself, and with a similar set of skills. Being in close quarters with people of all different kinds of specialties means you're meeting people you might never have interacted with in a different place, which can lead to a refreshing exchange of ideas and different perspectives.
12. More Opportunities
In large corporate structures one's path is often times hindered with red tape. However, when there's only 10-15 people on payroll, you will be given significantly more chances to prove yourself. Imagine getting hired for your first job, and immediately being a member of the board of directors; well, that's what this is like!
13. A More Well Rounded You
Your experience in a start-up company will more likely than not force you to do tons of different things that a job at a larger company would never have you doing. Engineers might have to write blog posts, PR people might be asked to give input on the design of the next project, and everyone is involved in the hiring process. You can only benefit from having more experiences under your belt, both as an employee and as a person.
14. It Will Challenge You
Ever taken an easy class and gotten a low grade because you never felt like you had to try? So have we. If you don't feel challenged in your daily life, you aren't likely to reach your full potential or achieve very much at all. You will have so much to do in order to succeed at a start-up that you will definitely feel like you've achieved something at the end of the day rather than sat around and finish one or two relatively simple tasks.
15. A Sense of Ownership
Many people who work for bigger companies report that they feel divorced from the mission of the company or that they feel like they don't matter. This has obvious implications for a person's career, work, and quality of life in general. However, at a start-up, you feel like you are one of it's owners, and that it's mission is your mission. Feeling this way is likely to make you work harder and actually feel fulfilled from your work.
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