What Are The Pros And

Cons Of Interning At A
Startup Versus A Big
Established
Tech Company?
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Neel Hajare, Student at MIT

For some background, I’ve interned at HubSpot (~100

employees as of January 2010), KAYAK (flight/hotel
search) (~100 employees as of summer
2010),TripAdvisor (~300 employees as of January
2011),Facebook Inc. (company) (~2500 employees as of
summer 2011), and Quora (company) (~50 employees as
of summer 2012).
Both can be fun, exciting, and really rewarding.

Neel Hajare’s answer to Startups: How does it feel to

intern at a start-up? also provides some relevant info.
Short version:
Interning at a large company provides you with a
recognizable brand name and teaches you about how
large organizations function. The perks are really nice,
and there will be other interns to hang out with.
Interning at a startup gives you more practical,
transferable experience and allows you to see the inner
workings of an entire (small) company.

Long version:
I’ll break this down into a few different points for
comparison.
Brand Name (professional)
 Having a well-known and respected company name near the
top of your resume does wonders when looking for your next
internship or full-time job. In fact, I’d say that working
at Facebook Inc. last summer probably played a big role in me
winding up atQuora this summer. Moreover, last fall at the MIT
Career Fair, when I handed companies my resume or told them
that I’d worked for Facebook the previous summer, the reaction
was overwhelmingly positive. They’d spend more time with me
1:1 trying to sell/pitch me on their company, they gave me more
expensive free stuff (I remember getting both an iHome and a
remote-controlled helicopter), and they’d let me skip the “first
round” or “phone-screen round” of interviews.
 When you intern at a startup, you generally don’t get that
instant awe or special treatment. If you’re lucky, the person
you’re talking to has heard of the company or knows someone
who works/worked there. To make up for this, you have to do a
very good job of selling both the company you worked for and
what you accomplished while you were there. This isn’t
impossible, but it is a lot harder. What’s much worse is when
you’re just submitting your resume online. In this case, you are
far less likely to get an interview than if you had interned at a
large well-respected company because whoever is trimming
down the long list to a short list has to make quick decisions
based on incomplete information, and that works against you in
this case.
Brand Name (social)
 Interning at a large recognizable company makes it way easier
to explain to your friends/parents/random people you meet
where you work and what you do. Depending on what the
company is, there might be a certain cool/envy factor that comes
with it.
 When interning at a startup, you find yourself frequently
explaining what the company does, and possibly (if your friends
are as skeptical as mine are) what value-add it offers to the
world. Some people see this as annoying or tiring, but an
optimist might see it as an opportunity to practice/refine his/her
pitching skills.

Work Experience (project)

 At a large company, your assignments or projects are likely to
be contained within the scope of the team of which you are a
member, and likely to some subsection of that scope that has
been chosen for you. You might even have one specific isolated
project that you work on by yourself or with some input from one
or two other people for the duration of your internship. As a
result, you can get a lot of depth in that one area, and at the end
of the internship, you’ll hopefully have some cohesive unit of
work you can demonstrate, show off, and talk about in the
future, but you won’t have had any exposure to much else that’s
going on in the company or even on your team.

 At a startup, you could have an experience as described above

for a big company, but I’d say you’re much more likely to have a
more haphazard set of smaller tasks or projects that come up
over the course of the summer. Startups’ product plans tend to
be a lot more fluid, and that certainly plays a big role in this.
You’re much less likely to know what project you’ll be working on
months before you start, and you’re much more likely to have
that project change when you’re half-way through it.
Additionally, team boundaries are a lot more hazy at a startup, so
you’ll probably find yourself doing lots of different types of work,
and you’ll get exposure to a lot more of the company.

Work Experience (technical skills)

 You might expect that the technical skills used at a big
company would be pretty similar to those used at a startup, but
there are significant differences that arise mainly due to the fact
that a larger company has usually built up its own set of tools,
infrastructure, and way of doing things. Because of this, even
though you might learn a great deal at a large company, many of
those skills are only valuable while working for that
company. You might gain great depth of knowledge in a certain
area, but it will probably be difficult to recreate the same work
 product if you were to later go work somewhere else because you
wouldn’t be using the same set of tools or starting from the same
base.
 When you work for a startup, they’re probably going to be
smaller and newer, so they probably have invested fewer total
man-hours in building up their own tools and infrastructure. As
a result, the tools you use every day are closer to what’s
commonly available, and if you are using something proprietary,
the person who built it is probably a paper-airplane-throw away
should you become curious as to how it was built or why it was
built the way it was. As a result, the skills you learn at a startup
are much more likely to be useful in the future.
Work Experience (organizational)
 At larger companies, there tends to be more organization and
structure. People are divided into teams and have specific
responsibilities. There tends to be a more formal hierarchy of
management and decision-making. As an intern, you gain insight
as to how this process works and how effective (or ineffective) it
is. The organizational structure also means that there’s typically
a clearer intern/full-time boundary. You typically have intern-
level access, intern-level responsibilities, and more closely
identify with other interns.

 At startups, there’s still some division of responsibilities, but

team and intern/full-time boundaries are a lot less defined.
Everyone generally interacts with everyone else. As an intern,
you tend to have more responsibility (effectively as much as a
full-time employee) and more say (when soliciting opinions for
decisions, yours tends to be valued just as much as the next
person’s). At a startup, there also seems to be more of a “team
mentality.” There’s more camaraderie and more of an “us against
the world” attitude. You feel as though you’re a meaningful part
of a group of people that is trying its hardest to live up to its
potential and accomplish something very real.

Work Experience (learning from people)

(It’s possible that what I’m saying here is more a function
of the specific companies I’ve interned at rather than the
small/big factor, but I still think it’s worth mentioning.)
 In my experience, at a startup, employees are much more
willing to spend time with an intern 1:1 to get you up to speed,
 help you understand certain concepts, explain to you how
something works, or generally make sure you know what’s going
on. As an intern, this does wonders for your skills, your
confidence, and your productivity. If I had to guess, I’d say this
is probably because as an intern at a startup, you’re probably
working on something just as important as what the full-time
employee is working on, so a full-time employee will care about
it being done properly (especially if he/she is the one who will be
responsible for maintaining it once you’re back at school). At a
startup, you’ll also probably get the opportunity to interact with
the people in charge of running the company at the highest level
on pretty frequent basis. You’ll be able to ask them questions,
pick their brains, and get an idea of the types of decisions they’re
making about the direction of the company. This is an incredibly
invaluable resource.

 At a larger company, it’s harder to ramp up and harder to

figure out what’s going on. It’s also harder to ask people and
learn from them. This is partly because there’re simply more
people, so finding the right person to ask is more difficult. It’s
also generally a lot more intimidating and more awkward
because you know a lot fewer people and it feels pretty weird to
constantly have to walk up to people you don’t know and
annoyingly tap them on the shoulder when they’re in the middle
of something and try to get them to explain something to you.
The alternative, of course, is asking via IM (which, at best, is a
poor medium for explaining or demonstrating difficult concepts)
or email (which is the worst, because it might be a week before
someone gets back to you, if they even get back to you at all).
People are generally less likely to be willing to help you, and
more likely to (perhaps politely) brush you off or not get back to
you. If I had to guess, this probably has to do with the fact that
what you’re working on doesn’t directly impact them or what
they’re working on, so they see you as more of an annoyance
preventing them from getting their actual work done. Also, at a
larger company, you’re less likely to get face time with anyone
above your direct manager, so there’s much less of an
opportunity to learn from the people running the company and
making decisions at the highest level.

Networking
 When you intern at a big company, you will probably work
with fewer people and thus make fewer connections (ironic, yes,
I know). As a result, there won’t be as many people out there who
recognize you or your name, and there probably will be fewer
people you’ll be able to reach out to in the future. On the flip
side, those few people have a very recognizable company name
attached to them, and that usually counts for something. Also,
other people who have worked at the company in the past will
probably recognize their names, and that usually counts for
something.

 When you intern at a startup, it is very possible to meet and

know everyone in the company. You’ll likely end up making more
connections, and if you stay in the startup ecosystem in a
particular geographic area, you’ll find that lots of people know
each other, and these connections can be very valuable.

The “Intern Experience”

 A larger company is more likely to have a formal internship
program. You’re more likely to have an Intern Orientation, have
a specific Intern Role on a team you join, work on a specific
Intern Project, present your work at an Intern Colloquium, and
have fun company Intern Events (at Facebook we went to a
Giants game, went hiking, did a scavenger hunt inSan Francisco,
went to Alcatraz, went surfing in Santa Cruz, and had a BBQ at
Zuck’s house).

 At a startup, you’re far more likely to be thrown right into the

fire just as if you were a newly-hired full-time employee. You’re
less likely to be coddled or treated differently (for better or for
worse), though you should get a little more slack when it comes
to asking seemingly obvious questions.

Perks
 Larger companies tend to have more perks (though startups
are definitely catching up). For example, at Facebook interns
enjoyed company iPhones, three delicious meals every day (and
four on Nacho Wednesday), free laundry (with folding) and dry
cleaning, corporate housing (should you choose to take it),
shuttles all over the Bay Area, subsidized gym membership, a
bike subsidy, a Caltrain pass, and up to $1000 to spend on
airfare among many others. I was also able to get a customized
 ergonomic setup at my desk which did wonders for my comfort
during the work day.

 Some startups are catching up, but there’s a certain scale at

which a company needs to be at before things like an on-site
culinary team or a shuttle service make sense. You’ll probably be
finding your own housing, figuring out how to get to the office on
your own, doing your own laundry, and maybe going out and
buying your lunch every day.

Social
 At a big company with lots of other interns, you’re more likely
to make lots of intern friends and hang out with them
(particularly if you’re living in corporate housing and going to
the company-organized intern events). It’s really awesome to be
able to meet other students your age from schools all over the
world, and a lot of people find close friends. On the other hand,
because there’s a more clear intern/full-time barrier line at
larger companies, you probably won’t spend much time hanging
out will full-timers outside of the office.

 When you intern at a startup, most of the people you interact

with are likely to be at least a few years older than you. You
probably won’t spend as much time outside of work interacting
with your co-workers because there won’t be as many interns to
hang out with, but if you manage to befriend some full-time
employees, hanging out with them can be a lot of fun (and
different from being around people your own age). For an
anecdote, during one startup internship, one distinct advantage
was that I was often able to get into bars before my 21st birthday
with an obviously fake ID because the rest of the people I was
with were clearly 25-30 year olds.

Catherine Couretas, Marketing Coordinator

They may sound like similar roles, but in my experience,
you’re actually going to have the opportunity to do a lot
more with the startup. With less people, there are more
tasks to be completed and the chance you’ll get to take on
more than one role. At the same time, having a bigger
company’s name on your resume may be something
you’re after.

Other things to take into consideration are the dress code

and office environment. The startup is probably more
relaxed, and the bigger company may have more strict
guidelines. Depending on what you’re interested in, those
could either be pros or cons.

When it comes down to something like this, I would

decide where you’re going to work based on the people
you’d be working with. Who do you think you’d get along
with better? Can you see yourself with them ten hours a
day?

Think ahead five or six months from now: What do you

want to tell people you did?

Dave Malouf, Interaction Designer/Co-Founder

I’m going to counter Catherine Couretas’s answer (it all
depends on the specifics; like what sort of “startup” is it
vs. what sort of established company and with what role).

1. Depth. While it’s great to be able to dabble in

everything, if you are an undergrad in college, learning
depth of skills is more important than breadth of ideas.
E.g. will there be people there to mentor you in all of
those things that you are dabbling in at that startup?
Now there are some startups that do offer some great
depth in specific areas mainly because they are later
stage startups that are already on the track to having a
proven business model. I’d say if there are over 50
(ideally over 100 ppl) you will probably be OK, but again,
it depends on what you are working as. I know large
companies that have asked my former students to do
internships, and they had almost no mentorship at all. So
it is never a case of “always true,” that’s for sure.

2. Will your startup be recognizable on your resume?

Again, how far along are they will make a big difference.
Will they even be around in two years? Five years? (after
five years, your internships probably won’t matter
much).

3. What type of network will a startup get you compared

to a larger more established company? Some bigger
companies even have networks specifically for their
interns. Can you see where their interns landed once they
graduated, etc. etc.

Now there are good things to be said about startups:

a) You want to work at a startup, or have plans to start
your own startup after graduation? Lessons learned at a
startup for sure. But there are still lessons at a big
company too that apply to startups, especially around
management, strategy, and the “big picture.”
b) The startup has someone at it that you admire and
REALLY want to work with. I have one or two of these
types of people in mind for myself and often wish I could
go back and intern again someplace, but I’d rather think
of it as “apprenticing” with them, than interning. Same
low pay, but might be a different set of goals and lessons
involved.

I’d say while I lean big, there are lots of variables that can
effect your individual decision.