I know a master's degree from Wuhan University who graduated last year. He is talented and hardworking.

When she graduated, she had offers from both well-known large companies and small companies. The boss of the small company particularly valued her and urged her: "Our company is at the forefront of the knowledge economy", "The founders are all from well-known companies and have great status in the industry", "Compared to working in rigid large companies, "Working as a screw, you learn more in a start-up company and grow faster", "You have options and the hope of financial freedom", "Pressure makes people grow, and desperate situations bring breakthroughs"...

Consider it again and again, With a dream of entrepreneurship, she resolutely went to this start-up company...

The choice of large companies vs. small companies is a difficult decision for many fresh graduates.

I can make a middle-of-the-road fence: each has its own pros and cons. But this kind of correct and useless nonsense will not help my friends in their career choices.

This article will probably be scolded. What social rules do I have that everyone doesn’t say but need to know? I've already been criticized for mentioning it. But thinking about it, I still have to say: If fresh graduates have the opportunity to go to a big company, don’t go to a start-up company!

From the perspective of career development, unless they find a startup project that can become an instant success (well, like the founders of Google and Facebook), fresh graduates should go to large companies for experience. 1. What kind of workplace endorsement do you need?

During a job interview, we spend a lot of time preparing resumes and interviews, just to tell the interviewer one thing: we are qualified for this position.

But just a few pages of resume and dozens of minutes of interviews cannot give the interviewer a comprehensive understanding of our strengths. Therefore, most interviewers will subconsciously label candidates: #Tsinghua University, #985/211, #renownedforeigncompany, #localunicorn... and use these labels to measure our level.

This approach is not necessarily scientific. In fact, I have seen outstanding talents in small companies and outstanding graduates with two or three degrees. But this is the reality of the workplace. Most interviewers are not looking for the best candidate, but the most stable and error-free choice.

In the workplace, we need reliable endorsements. For example:

1. Educational background:

Successful entrepreneurs like Jack Ma and Yu Minhong have said that academic qualifications are not important, what is important is personal effort...

Hearing this statement, I couldn't help laughing like a barbell.

You can go to Alibaba’s website to see what kind of talents they recruit and which schools they go to to recruit. Say one thing with your mouth, but your body remains honest. Zhang Xuefeng, a famous postgraduate entrance examination tutor, has a wonderful sharing about academic qualifications in "The Speaker": Go to the university from September to October to see which companies go to Qiqihar University to recruit people, which companies go to Beijing University of Science and Technology to recruit people, and which companies go to Tsinghua University and Peking University Recruit people. Just go and find out how much salary they give students. All companies are saying that academic qualifications are not important, but they will not go to Qiqihar University to recruit. Everything they said was lies!

2. Company background

In addition to educational background, the core thing that can endorse our resume is work experience, including the company and the things/projects we do in the company.

Imagine that you join McKinsey after graduation. After working for 3-5 years, you decide to look at external opportunities. The strategic consulting departments of most companies in the market will be willing to give you an interview opportunity to learn about what you do. What projects have been completed. After working for 10 years, if you update your resume on a recruitment website, your phone will be filled with headhunters and corporate HR calls.

This is the aura of McKinsey, which small companies cannot give. When will start-up companies have this halo? Wait until he becomes a market giant... For example, Zhihu was founded in 2011 and became famous around 2016. In other words, friends who joined Zhihu in 2011 will have to wait at least 4-5 years - provided that you choose a high-quality company with a high profile like Zhihu.

Similarly, BAT is to the Internet; Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola are to marketing; the Big Four are to finance; Mercer is to human resources. These companies that are familiar to people in the industry have this aura and can become our absolute best. Excellent professional endorsement. Therefore, we will find that it is easy for a large company to jump to a small company; on the other hand, it is difficult. So we will find that start-ups also emphasize on their websites/prospectuses that the core team has a BAT background. Therefore, we will find that business owners who keep saying that academic qualifications are not important will also require a bachelor's degree when recruiting people.

I know an excellent trainer in the field of speech training. He is very popular on the Internet, but the road to corporate training has not been smooth - not only does the company need to see your endorsement when recruiting people, but also for training The same is true for the lecturer - later, he had to endorse a training experience he had at Apple many years ago: Apple's Greater China trainer will teach you how to learn speech from Steve Jobs.

Then it became an instant hit. Obviously, I have been honing my abilities in the Internet circle for many years, and finally in the corporate circle, I had to move out of Apple and endorse Mr. Qiao, who had passed away for many years and had never seen him. This is the current state of the workplace. 2. You learn more in large companies

A common misunderstanding among professionals is: working as a screw in a large company; being a generalist in a small company will lead to learning more and growing faster.

Folks, this is a bowl of poisonous chicken soup.

Large companies with money and resources are not fools. If small companies are really talent printers, then the first choice of large companies should not be to recruit fresh graduates, but to recruit talents from small companies.

Let us reflect on this: Does doing more and doing more things equal growth and improvement?

Indeed, one position in a small company may wear multiple hats. You have to write copy, manage operations, and design. But in essence, none of them are specialized. There is no budget and no design. There are no training opportunities, and there is no team to brainstorm with suppliers, so the exposure to the world is very limited. Truly innovative gameplay can only be seen in the circle of friends and watch the works of big companies, and it is impossible to implement it in your own company.

Not only that, friends who have experienced small companies can recall whether they have done a lot of useless work and chores because of the boss's uncertainty or capriciousness. How much core skills can you improve by doing chores?

On the contrary, large companies have multiple resources and platforms, and have mature systems for training new people. The projects you can do, the budgets you manage, and the teams you have worked with are all far beyond the reach of small companies with insufficient professionalism. of.

An HR friend of mine switched jobs from a large company to a small company and shared her experience with me: colleagues said they were too busy and worked overtime every day. I'm confused, how complicated can the salary of 200 people be? I used to be in charge of the salary and benefits of a team of tens of thousands of people, so I didn’t have to work overtime every day. Now I can do this work three days a week.

(I originally wrote the company name, but then my friends complained and deleted it, saying it was too easy to expose)

As for my horizons, a friend of mine who does online marketing is in charge of the company. With a marketing budget of tens of millions, the company cooperates with a well-known 4A advertising company, and their company is the first to try out any marketing methods that can be used.

Although he is not involved in every project, he can gain a lot of interesting and fresh marketing skills just by sitting in on meetings. When he opens his mouth during the interview, it is to spread knowledge to the employer.

The vision that large companies provide us is also needed by small companies. After we have sufficient qualifications, we can switch jobs to small companies and use our vision and experience to help small companies grow. This is a win-win situation.

Go to a small company as soon as you graduate. What core value can you provide to the boss of a small company?

Maybe it’s because you work overtime without any conditions, and it’s because you are diligent in front of and behind the wheel.

If his business grows to a new level, you will not be able to provide him with the vision and structure he needs.

You don’t see many start-up companies that add the sentence “The core team is from BAT” in their financing PPT. 3. Big companies make more money

Finally, break the illusion that small companies cannot make you more money.

Nowadays, startups backed by angel/venture capital will also poach people from large and medium-sized enterprises from time to time. Large companies offer RMB 10,000, while small companies grit their teeth and offer RMB 12,000. For many young people working in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, 2,000 yuan is not a small amount, at least they can manage the rent.

My advice is: If you are really short of money and need money to support your family, then go for it.

But you must also be mentally prepared: small companies will bite the bullet and give you a salary increase, and their expectations of you will be higher; and the intensity of the salary increase after joining is also questionable, after all, your salary is already higher than market level.

If you do not lack a pre-tax salary of two to three thousand yuan, it is best to work hard in a large company for 3-5 years. When you are in your 30s and look for opportunities in the market, your abilities in all aspects will be improved. Once in place, they will have more say in the market, gain more attention and popularity, and have more room for salary negotiations.

As for options and financial freedom,

First of all, the average life span of Chinese companies is about 2 years. This is still average for a century-old store like Tongrentang.

As a fresh graduate and entering society, how confident are you that you can tell where the trends will be in the next 10 years? At the same time, you also clearly understand that the company you join is one of the most outstanding companies in the market?

Secondly, there are about 9 million peers who graduated at the same time as you. What is so outstanding about you that allows entrepreneurs to give you options from themselves? How much did he give you specifically? How much will be locked after one year? How many years can it be redeemed? What is the exercise price? Can the boss explain these details clearly? Do you have room for bargaining? Don't just keep the option verbal, don't put it down in writing.