 Hello, I'm your host Alex Friedberg and this is the Alex the Annual Show. Thank you guys so much for joining me today We are comparing working at a startup versus working at a very large company like a fortune 500 company or a fang company That was too much to write out in the title So I'm just gonna put something like startup versus fortune 500 company Keep it simple. Keep the people engaged. You know how I do it around here now something that I mentioned in the last video was that The beautiful people at patreon who are supporting me supporting the channel supporting this right here What we are doing are going to be able to vote on some things for the show I gave them some fantastic options in my opinion and what they voted on was that they wanted to see max more They said, where is he? We want to see him. So he's going to be in here. He's sitting right next to me doing ungodly things I won't tell you what he's doing But he will be joining us for some questions. Maybe some q&a Get his thoughts and opinions on this very subject very not Not very knowledgeable, but very cute. So that is what was voted on that is what we will do Whether you like it or not if you're not a dog person That's all right Just ignore them. That's okay. We'll get through it together um I have worked at both a startup and I worked and currently work at a fortune 500 company So I feel like I have a pretty good idea Of the differences between these two and I have pros and cons for both and It to me is a very very crucial thing that you should definitely think about before you get a job Absolutely extremely important. I had no idea. I didn't know this when I was starting out I just took whatever job they gave me if I started out at some fortune 500 company You know, I wouldn't know half as much as I do now. So Um, you know, I'm glad I got experience in both really and hopefully it'll help guide you a little bit into what fits better for you There are certain people who fit in one category or the other Um, I personally fit more in the fortune 500 category because um money's important to me right now because I have a family So where I am right now. I'm at a good place. Um, but maybe five years ago that wouldn't have been the best place for me So I'm going to go into some of the differences Some of the things I do like some of the things I don't like about both and just kind of um, you know, randomly talking about Both to be honest The very first thing that I want to talk about is kind of the work that you're going to be doing at both companies because That's the probably the biggest thing that's going to You know, make you want to go one way or the other. It's the type of work I will say that at a startup at a small company, you know, your title might be data analyst But you are not just doing data analyst work. That is just The vast majority of the time. That's how it is Because they are understaffed And they need you to pick up random stuff You know, today you're going to start doing, you know, user interface stuff for our this new Uh, thing we're creating uh, this new product You know, you may not know how to do it, but we're going to teach you how to do it We need somebody who can QA this and look through it. Um, and that happens often Like I did that when we were when I was at this startup We were building out this new product and they were like, hey, Alex, how does this look Do some testing on it find some bugs and so I would actually walk through the product I would fix bug or find bugs. I would show the team. They would fix it. I tried again and I was doing like QA work Um, it wasn't part of my job description really, but I did it Because, uh, you know, they needed me to we didn't have anyone else to do it That's that that sometimes is how it goes. You just wear a lot of hats Um, although my job was very customer focused. I worked a lot with our clients. I worked a lot with um The actual analysis of the data getting the data in working with our programmers to do all that work That is a lot of the work I did, but I will say that I still did a ton of just random stuff that I probably At a larger company, I would not have to do there's somebody else who has that job title who literally that's their job Um, and and that's true because where I work now we have QA testers. We have a whole QA team There's like four of them who QA all of our work all of our data dictionaries all of our our data mapping Um, our scripts like all this stuff. They just QA anything we need and it's amazing I mean, they are fantastic at finding all my errors. And so, you know, they they have two or three assigned just to me So, I mean it is it is just a whole nother world of Uh, of the type of work that you're going to be doing So I will say that at a small company just as a generalization all the time you're going to wear many hats You're going to work with a lot of things work on a lot of things that you typically would not work at work on as a data analyst At the large company you are typically very broad generalization Narrowed in on what you were doing in your in your role in your job. So for example, I used to at my small company Do a lot of different things when I got to the large company that I work at now I am very narrow focused and what I do I work in the etl process Um, and I have become excellent at it because that is all I do every single day work in the etl process With programmers and architects and all these things, but I have a very narrow focus on the type of work that I do Um And nobody else does the work that I do. I am the one who does it And so I am known as the guy who does that specific type of work Whereas at the small company, I just whatever anybody needed me to do. Sure. Why not as long as it's kind of relevant Um, kind of something that they thought I could do I I do it Um One second. I'm just going to check this out real quick cool Um One second I'm gonna grab max Um, the next thing is is that the people who you're gonna work with Uh, you you don't get to work with max much. Unfortunately. He stays at home But the people at a small company that you're gonna work with I worked with anyone from Like it support Um for whatever reason I worked with them a lot I don't remember why to be honest. Um, but I did I worked with it support a lot I worked with our directors a lot Um our programming team a lot and I sometimes even got on calls and meetings with like the ceo the coo Um, and so I literally worked with every single almost every single person in the company besides HR really so You know, it's just a different Feeling of working at a small company under like 50 people ish Because you kind of know everybody everybody knows you. All right, buddy. Okay. Whoa. Hey Did not want to uh Be in the show At the moment, but you work with literally anybody Um, and it was so funny because I would I would go home to my wife. She's like, oh, which I was like I was working with the with the ceo, you know, I'd say his name But I was working with the ceo CEO today on on something and she was like she's like Why did they why you're like you've been there for like six months and I'm like, I don't know They wanted my opinion. They wanted my thoughts on something. Oh, that never I'm not gonna say it never happens. Oh, actually. No, it never happens. I've never worked with the ceo at my company Um, I've worked with higher ups. Um, but that that's kind of a unique thing in the position that I'm in but I've never worked with our ceo ceo um You know, it just doesn't happen It doesn't happen at my level at my company that I currently work for It's just very very different. Um, and so you get to work with a lot of different positions You can kind of understand the things that you like that you don't like about each position um, you can you know, I think What I liked about working at the small company is I kind of could under I got to understand the business model a lot more I got to really understand how we generate revenue What products generate revenue what things to focus on what things not to focus on Because I was literally I could talk to him as he passed by in the hall I'd be like, hey, why are we working on this project? Uh, what you know, what what's the importance of this project and he would just tell me this this this this? Um Where at my company, I don't get that high level view sometimes. Sometimes I just got to do the work because they told me to do the work um, which Kind of sucks sometimes because I really like understanding the background of it And I and I like asking a lot of questions sometimes for certain projects. I'm like, hey, why are we doing this? Why does this happen? Um, and sometimes they're just like a you know, it's the high level. Here's what it is, but it's not specific I didn't really learn anything. Um, it could be frustrating um, so That's another that's a another difference between small company big company um One thing that I very much liked at a small company is Um, I I had to learn everything very quickly Um, you kind of get tossed into it at a small company I personally did not have a big onboarding process. They they kind of brought me on and we're just like, hey Let's get to work. Here's some analysis. We need done. Here's some excel. Here's our databases Let's do a quick run through of everything that we have Come to me when you have questions. Um, and of course I had a million questions because I Probably needed a lot more training than that. That was my first really real data analyst job Sorry, I keep Just kind of checking the time here Um, and so I really Really enjoy just being tossed in there having to figure it out because honestly I learned so quickly I feel like I look like I was up and running within a month um on everything There was a occasionally when I had to go ask for certain things. Why is it set up this way? Why is it set up that way? Why do we have this product and that happens even now when you have been in a company for a year and a half It's gonna happen. But I felt like I was very comfortable right away at large company They their onboarding process was like two weeks Um, then the work was a very very introductory like All right today's task Is to do this. It's just one or two things a very simple very easy Super beginner, um, it may not that easy. Maybe I'm exaggerating that a bit But it was nothing compared to when I started out the the the small the startup company. It was tossed in Headfirst deep end. Here's work. Let's go. We need this done. We're paying you You know, we're paying you to work. We're at the large company was like, all right We're paying you because we want you to really learn this stuff to really get a hold on what we're trying to do here The data the databases here's training manuals. Here's HIPAA compliance. Here's all these things And then, you know, two three four weeks, we'll get you going. We'll get you some stuff We'll get you access to everything it that really is how it is. It was very different I feel like I learned a lot more at the beginning of the startup job because one I was just I was learning So many things like here are some of the things that I was working on I did qa like I was saying before on user interface I also did qa on things like store procedures jobs um, even Store procedures jobs of like our clients our clients would send us stuff And these huge massive store procedures that did all these crazy things. Um, and they were like, all right, Alex They're they don't know why this is working for them. Go figure it out And I was just dropped into the deep end and I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing I asked a lot of questions a lot of stack overflow a lot of stack overflow And eventually I figured it out and I learned so so much Um, and it was just a phenomenal phenomenal job to start out at it, honestly But completely random stuff, right? I also worked. Um, I did data analysis learned a lot of sequel right away We use sequel server learned a ton of sequel server Um, we use tableau for our visualization. So I actually got a lot of hands on with tableau Um, we had a lot of proprietary products. So I under I started to understand how we were developing products So on the product side, I started to learn all these testing methods How we actually developed and created the products To fit the business needs How we actually sold the products What what what features were important to sell products? How to market our products to our customers better how to upsell our like a lot of the marketing stuff I I started to learn because They wanted me to start doing some of that like when you're talking with the clients recommend some of our products So it's almost a salesman at some point Um, so I was learning sales techniques and stuff like that. I mean just like Stuff that most data analysts are not doing but I but then I got to put on my resume that I generated revenue Because I got some people to sign up for things that maybe they weren't gonna sign up for um in the beginning So I learned an absolute ton, right? It was amazing. It was it was fantastic I I I'm very grateful that I had that the role that I'm currently in I learned it and going back to actually real quick going back to the startup I didn't learn everything super in depth Right, uh for a sequel I learned Way more than I think I needed to I was probably I I feel like when I left that job I was more programmer Level than I was data analyst level for sequel just because they were throwing so much advanced stuff at me I had to I had to be able to do that because they wanted me or needed me to do that Um, and I was not at a place to say no, so I had to do it. I had to learn it So I was learning things that are way above what I would consider normal for a data analyst to learn Some things I did not learn super in depth. Um, I didn't learn Um, I didn't learn the sales part of it super in depth I didn't learn the ui stuff all those like little things that they wanted me to do the cute Well the qa I kind of learned a little bit in depth Um, they had some python, but not a lot so I didn't learn python in depth Um, that was really in my current job of use python So it was it was hit or miss between learning it in depth and not learning it in depth Uh, and and I just got I got a lot of experiences in the in the job that I'm in now We went we I've gone so in depth So drilling down to the next layer the next layer the next layer the next layer now I understand like how things are stored like Why they're stored certain ways why cloud? Platforms or or do the things that they do with the different things in cloud platforms. Um, I'm learning a lot more of almost the dba etl side of things with um Within my job because I have to you know, we have to have storage storage is very important So understanding the storage and how that flows and how to who to contact what they do Those things I actually need to know now and so Now that I've just done it so often so many times so repetitively I'm starting to really understand everything in depth Like super in depth, um, which I love I love going in depth I love knowing the nitty gritty of why how what when why all those questions um And and so those that is a big big big difference between the two Let me get max again He let me tell you something about this dog before I get into it this dog Is the friendliest dog you've ever met in your life so calm so gentle But with my daughter my oldest daughter who's eight years old. He goes nuts for anybody else even a even strangers He's just super friendly super calm before for whatever reason My daughter gets him amped like nobody's business and he will just like Growl and bark and and chase her around the house. It's insane great dog though Good family dog He is a if I have not told you Max is a doxy poo You've ever heard of that max come on buddy. It's for the show just Stay with me It's half doxen half Hoodle never heard of it in my life some fancy thing that my Wife had heard of that she really liked and we got it um But anyways enough about max the next thing I wanted to talk about is some of the benefits um I guess some of the cons pros and cons of like salary And in in between the two So for salary you you are obviously going to get paid less When you work at a startup, right? They have small they have they probably have like I don't know I'm doing a really bad job at explaining what's going on in my head But I will say that you're probably expecting 20 to 30 less pay Maybe even more at a startup startups just typically don't have The capability to bring someone in and pay them an extremely competitive salary Sometimes they do maybe in like silicon valley Big tech areas. All right. All right. All right. I got you big tech companies Uh or or big tech areas like silicon valley some startups have the ability to pay pay well For the most part though, they won't I was making 63 000 at the startup where I'm making 92 now um after a promotion and so You know, it's a big difference in terms of of pay and the insurance is typically not You know, these things are probably not things that you think about or maybe not as important to you But I promise you they will be important one day If you are not currently employed and you don't understand this stuff Or you don't know about this stuff or have not thought about this stuff This may sound very boring to you, but as a family man As somebody who is now Taking care of of many children and a wife Uh, these things are are not only important. They are critical Um, and it was a huge factor in terms of kind of where I was looking to get a job At my startup job The health insurance was very bad and it was very expensive. I'm talking like I don't I do not understand How I was paying so much for insurance and I still didn't have the best tier Like I was taking like the second or third tier down And I was still paying a crazy amount of money and then my deductible was high My uh, my out-of-pocket was high. It was a terrible plan It paid okay at the time. I was like I was really happy with the pay Um, but man, it was so expensive. They had no 401k match Um, they didn't have any like tuition reimbursement or Um, let's see. They didn't they didn't have an official bonus program From I got a bonus the very first year I was there. I got a bonus for $500 And actually let me tell you something. I was extremely ecstatic about that $500 I am not gonna lie to you. I went home to my wife and I was it was a check The the CEO had come come around to my desk wrote me a check for $500 and handed it to me And I was so happy. I was like, oh my gosh I was like, I've never got a bonus before. This is amazing. Thank you. It's like I was so happy So I went home to my wife and I'm like holding it up. I'm like, I'm like, you know Smack and I'm like like this bad boy got $500 It's like, what are we gonna do? What are we gonna buy? I was like, we can do anything I was actually really really happy about that because I'd never gotten a bonus before um at my company that I'm at now health insurance is More than decent and I have the top tier health insurance At half the cost of what I was paying at the other place. My deductible is literally a third of what it was. I'm paying half That's how large companies They really can they reeled me in with that. I was sold. I had no idea How expensive I was paying in health insurance until I got this job I'll never go back To a crappy health insurance plan. It saved it saved me so much money. Honestly Um, they have a 401k match They have a stock purchasing program where you can buy your own company's stock at a discount Uh, which is really cool. Never heard of that before big company life Um, they also do tuition reimbursement. They have so many benefits so many benefits of working at large company That you just cannot get or won't get at a small company or startup company. So that is Very nice very very nice Highly recommend if you're if you're if you care about money if you want money Uh, a large company will provide that A lot a lot of nice benefits there Something else that is a Was a very big negative for me that actually made me want to switch jobs while I was in my job Was this the feeling of security the feeling like that job is going to last a long time at the startup Never heard of that company before I got in there You know didn't know what they did before I got in there They just it just was not a very secure job Right. I felt like at any moment at any day they could come in and be like, you know, we lost We lost our biggest client. We no longer can afford you Or we lost, you know, we we lost our business. We're going out of business. We're bankrupt, etc I genuinely have that feeling all the time. It was very anxiety-provoking I'd go home to my wife. I was like, man, I got to look for another job. I didn't for a while Eventually I did but I was like, I got to look for another job. She's like, don't you love your job? I was like, I love my job. I love my co-workers. I love the people I'm working with I like the work I do all these things. I really really liked working there But in the end I did not see a long-term future there. Um, which ended up making me want to leave Right and that was a huge deal for me the huge deal breaker I couldn't I could not afford to lose my job with my family and and being the the breadwinner of the family I just couldn't afford it And so that was a big big deal breaker at the job I'm at now I feel very comfortable. I feel very secure. Uh, I definitely feel like um I definitely feel like If something were to happen to the company I still have a very good shot at keeping my job. Um, I've tried to trant Position myself as an important piece in the cog That keeps the wheels moving Um, it doesn't always happen, but I mean, I just feel a lot more secure Much better sense of security and feeling like I can move up in the ranks that I can stay there long term It's important to me. I hope it's important to you. Um, maybe it's not maybe you know, maybe you're just doing contract work Definitely possible. I'm just saying for me personally that was a big big big Uh, thing that I was looking for and something that I got in my current job I did not have before that definitely scared me. I was I was very um anxious It was something that was very much stressing me out for quite a while Um, I think that is that is most of the big things I wanted to hit Now at the very end right now, I just want to summarize what which one might be good for you Right because that's good to know I Highly recommend at some point especially early on in your career working at a startup um, I I know I talked a lot about a lot of About a lot of negatives and I and you know, that's just kind of how it flowed Let me tell you something about the startup. I learned so much so quickly I I I made What I would consider lifelong co-worker friends that I stomach them. I still talk to even today Like just a couple days ago. I was talking to one um I learned so much I gained such incredible experience that I got to put on my resume talk about the things the impact that I had Highly highly highly recommend working at the startup at some point Especially early on in your career when it doesn't matter as much Um, you know, I say that I say that with a grain of salt But it doesn't matter as much if if something happens if the the business goes under you can you're you you're able to take more risks The younger you are that you're able to take more risks. It's just it's it's true so I highly recommend it for people who are right out of college For people who are um, not exactly sure exactly what they want to do Uh, because if you go to a big company, you're a pigeonhole not pigeonholed Always forever, but you have a very narrow focus of what you're gonna do So you don't get the full picture of how everything works in depths of everything um So just important to think about Uh People who want to go to a large company I people who need really good pay right away really good health insurance have families If you're single start it might be the way to go because you're single you can do what you want You can just take care of yourself You know take some risks to do your thing if you got a family if you're like me Might be a really good idea to go to something a little bit more stable If you want to go back to school if you want to go get like a master's degree Go to a big you can go to a big company get it paid for it's amazing um Real quick we don't have much time left or I don't want to go too too much longer to be honest I just don't want to I just don't want to keep rambling on forever. Let's go to Our question of the week a fantastic time a fantastic time In our show which I love I like answering your questions, which is from sassy. I'm gonna say it's sassy We're gonna go with that. It says do you like your job? Is it stressful? Is it boring? Would you recommend it? I'm gonna answer this quickly. I could I could take a long time to answer. I'm not gonna do that Really quickly Do I like my job? I love my job just data analysis in general is just extremely fun I love the work. Obviously. I like it so much. I made a channel about it. So yeah, I like I like my job I love the people I work with they are phenomenal. They're funny. They are hard workers. They're extremely intelligent They challenge me in a lot of ways Um, so yes, love my job. Is it stressful? No, and yes sometimes there is no stress at all to look Buddy come on man All right, go lay back down Look, I tried he didn't want to cooperate today. Sometimes he'll sit on my lap for hours Not today. Is it stressful? There are some like this past week was um, the end of a quarter End of our fiscal year honestly, so actually so we were uh, we're starting a new fiscal year So there's so much planning so much work to be done to finish before the end of the fiscal year So, yeah, so it was a little bit stressful the past two weeks But before that no not super stressful Uh, is it boring? Yes, and no sometimes it's very boring. Sometimes I have like 10 emails out waiting for things back and I'm just sitting here I'm just like I'm like, what do I do? What am I supposed to be doing? I'm talking to my boss. I'm like, look, I got all I can show you all the emails and I show all that And then she's like, yeah, I not much for you to do right now. I'm like, I know So you can get a little boring sometimes Would I recommend it? Of course Of course, I recommend it again. I made this channel because I highly recommend You becoming a data analyst if that is something that you're interested in if you have a passion for details and and problem solving highly recommend it uh We are now at my favorite time of the show Where the people who are watching this entire thing have watched Me just ramble on on a rant again About nonsense and you made it to the end you push through because you want to become a better data analyst You want to be the best that you can be and you're doing that Because you know that this is the best channel out there for data analytics and you're not going to find quality content Like max anywhere else Uh, and so before I go into the last part I want to say if you want to support me go to patreon support the channel you guys are amazing That's my little plug for the day the keyword of the day I know you've been waiting for it as broccoli No other reason than the fact that My son just learned the word broccoli He's been saying it about everything green even if it was a kiwi. He kept saying broccoli And it was super cute. So that's our word of the day if you watched the entire video Put broccoli in the chat I'll meet you there my broccoli crew Thank you for watching. I I just say nonsense at the end at the end. I just kind of say nonsense Thank you for watching you guys are amazing Thank you for supporting the channel. I'll see you in the next one. See you next week. Goodbye