The difference between programmers in large companies and programmers in small companies

Many college students hope to become a programmer for a large company after graduation, but some may not get their wish and join a small company. After becoming a programmer for a small company, they feel very disappointed and become less enthusiastic about their work. In fact, there is no need to be discouraged. Programmers for large companies are not necessarily that good. Today we will make a comprehensive comparison between programmers for large companies and programmers for small companies. You can judge for yourself whether they are good or bad.

Programmer for a large company

Standardized and mature rules and regulations

In large companies, various rules and regulations are relatively standardized. For example, the code release process, the code testing process, and the code acceptance process are all clearly stipulated. Every new employee has to read them. Only when these things are understood and fully complied with can they be successfully converted to regular employees.

Clear division of labor

There are hundreds or even thousands of programmers in large companies, and their division of labor is relatively clear. A software system can be divided into many layers. Programmers engaged in bottom-level development have basically no perception of the business. They are only responsible for the development of their own links. Some of their development issues are more often communicated with programmers above and below them, and they get feedback from them and make improvements. Everyone only cares about their own external input and output.

Technical documentation, email specifications

When writing technical documents, the design of some modules, and the implementation process must be written out in the form of documents first, instead of starting coding right away. Some large companies even spend much more time writing these technical documents than writing code, and sometimes they also have to send various process emails, which takes up most of their work time.

Single technology

Due to the clear division of labor in large companies, what each programmer does is relatively simple from a technical point of view. In terms of technology, the server has a dedicated operation and maintenance engineer to manage it, and the database has a dedicated DBA to manage it. Programmers only need to write code. Programmers are divided into many levels internally, such as low-level programmers and business-level programmers, front-end programmers, and back-end programmers. This is just a broad classification, and some companies can even further subdivide it.

Professionalism will be stronger

If you do something repeatedly, you are an expert. If a programmer focuses on a certain field for a long time and does it for many years, he will of course be most familiar with it and become an expert in this field. His professionalism in a single aspect will be relatively strong.

Less coding time

The short coding time is mainly due to the long time spent on document writing and process execution. The company also regularly holds technical sharing sessions and other meetings which also take up a considerable amount of time.

It is more difficult to get promoted

In a large company, everyone is like a screw, and the competition is fierce when there are many people. It is difficult for even a slightly outstanding person to stand out among these people. If you want to stand out from so many people, be promoted step by step, and reach the top of the pyramid, you must have extraordinary abilities. Although you are excellent, there are too many people who are better than you. Therefore, it is not easy to get a high position in a large company. There may be some small promotions, but after being promoted to a certain level, you may hit the ceiling and cannot go up anymore.

Limitations of job search

People who work for large companies, because their work is relatively simple and the salaries they receive are relatively objective (when looking for a job, they certainly hope to find a job that pays more than their previous one), when they go to job interviews, the programmers in these large companies do not have a technical advantage because their work experience is relatively simple and does not match the requirements of many small companies. Therefore, such a strange phenomenon arises. For example, the larger Internet companies in China are BAT, and many programmers who came out of BAT still have to look for jobs in BAT for this reason. It is not that they look down on small companies, but it is because of the nature of their work.

Small company programmer

Comprehensive work

Programmers in small companies may grow up in a wild way, and their work is more comprehensive. There are only 5 programmers in a company, and they are the "technical" in the eyes of others. They have to take on all technology-related "technical" work in the company. In addition to knowing how to use servers and databases, they also have to write codes. Even the company's printers and network problems also require their help.

Rarely write maintenance documents or emails

They do so many things, like writing documents and sending emails, so they will save time if possible. Therefore, programmers in small companies seldom write technical documents. They just write code and don't even write comments, which makes a lot of code very difficult to maintain. Due to this situation, you will find that these programmers are particularly popular. They are half of the company. If one of them leaves, no one can maintain their code. Even if they recruit a better programmer, it will be very difficult to start with the code written by the original person. There was a small company that had its business stagnant for a long time because of the departure of a programmer. This is a common problem of most small companies.

The technology is relatively complex

They do a lot of things, and the technologies involved are relatively diverse, and to some extent, they are not that professional.

More selective in finding a job

When looking for a job, they have worked on more projects and are responsible for a relatively wider range of areas. From the perspective of project experience, they are more in line with the needs of most companies and have relatively wide range of choices when looking for a job.

Generally speaking, these are the characteristics that many large and small companies meet, but there are exceptions, which are all related to the specific culture of the company. Whether it is a large company or a small company, we must work hard to do our best. As long as we are diligent, hard-working and smart, we can find a way to success!