lunatechian (lunatech-ian)

Till a few days back, I worked in a very small company (5 people including the office boy). Over the next two days, I want to list down the advantages and disadvantages of working in such a small sized company. I am doing this, so that the next time I have to choose again, I have a written down list of checklist of my experiences that I can go through while making the decision.

The advantages are

• Freedom to experiment with Free Software - Most (All ?) small companies work on a small budget. They are always looking for ways to bring down their working costs. In this, Free Software offers a definite advantage. The owners are willing to adopt option that you have researched and which have a cost advantage. From my perspective, this is a definite plus. It aligns well with my philosophy that software should be Free.
• Freedom to have a say in who is hired - In my previous workplace, I was the one doing the interviews and vetting of the resumes. I was able to get two of my classmates from my college into the company. We were quite comfortable with each other and knew each other's quirkiness. In case of any problem, we usually were able to work things out by talking openly with each other. This definitely helped in getting more work done.
• Lack of politics and backstabbing - This was the biggest plus as far as I am concerned. It allowed us to concentrate on the work at hand or our respective areas of interest without worrying if anyone else was going to take the credit of our hard work. I think since all of us were friends, taking anyone's credit was the last thing on our mind. Also in a small company, it is quite easy to see what is area of expertise of each person.
• Multi area of expertise - I worked as a system administrator, programmer, team leader and the support guy for our products. This really helps in identifying areas that interest you. In my case I found that I prefer programming more than working of network security (which used to interest me a lot during my unemployment days). Having expertise in many areas also helps you when you are looking for a new job.
• More responsibility - I used to maintain the production server at my company. I doubt that in even an average sized company they would have handed over the root password to a newbie. These things are not rocket science. Anyone can master them when he is faced with a hard choice of either learning the new thing or getting fired. In a smaller company, you have to be a fast learner and really have the belief that even though things are not making sense right now, they will start making sense once you are through the HOWTO or the quickstart guide. It really does wonders for your confidence.
• Importance of writing and speaking without mixing in geek-terms - A thing which I learned early was the need to write in "normal" english i.e. writing things after filtering out all the geek talk. I was the support guy and when clients mailed me with their problem, my first reaction was to explain to them (in full gory details) why things were not working. Over time, I saw that they were more confused with my replies. I then learned the importance of illustrating my emails with screenshots and writing in terms of what people can understand.

In my next entry, I will detail on what are the disadvantages of working in s small company