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  3. Do you prefer working for a large or small company?

Do you prefer working for a large or small company?

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  • L led mike

    Judah Himango wrote:

    Dear Lord...that sounds terrible, Mike.

    Not really... it's worse than that. ;P Most of them don't know about the stack and the heap let alone what the difference is. Then of course there are all the other aspects of computer architecture that are complete mysteries to them as well. And they are all perfectly happy with that situation.

    Judah Himango wrote:

    but something must be said for one's own personal happiness and satisfaction.

    I agree. I previously worked for small companies with very capable people. It was fun and interesting but I didn't make a lot of money and they all went out of business. Currently I am settling for deriving my happiness from my personal life which doesn't suck because I have enough money and am a hot chick magnet. :laugh:

    P Offline
    P Offline
    Patrick Etc
    wrote on last edited by
    #36

    led mike wrote:

    Most of them don't know about the stack and the heap let alone what the difference is.

    Pbbbt, that's easy. The more ram a machine has, the more you can say "it has a whole heap 'o memory." Duh. As for the stack, it's dangerous to stack more than two computers on top of each other, because it can make your programs run slow. ... Ok, I'm done. I admit those are pretty bad. Don't judge me, you're not even trying. :D :cool:


    The early bird who catches the worm works for someone who comes in late and owns the worm farm. -- Travis McGee

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    • P Patrick Etc

      led mike wrote:

      Most of them don't know about the stack and the heap let alone what the difference is.

      Pbbbt, that's easy. The more ram a machine has, the more you can say "it has a whole heap 'o memory." Duh. As for the stack, it's dangerous to stack more than two computers on top of each other, because it can make your programs run slow. ... Ok, I'm done. I admit those are pretty bad. Don't judge me, you're not even trying. :D :cool:


      The early bird who catches the worm works for someone who comes in late and owns the worm farm. -- Travis McGee

      D Offline
      D Offline
      Dan Neely
      wrote on last edited by
      #37

      Patrick Sears wrote:

      As for the stack, it's dangerous to stack more than two computers on top of each other, because it can make your programs run slow.

      no, no, no. It's not a speed issue, it's stability. Normal PC cases weren't designed to be stacked and are much more likely to crash if stacked.

      -- If you view money as inherently evil, I view it as my duty to assist in making you more virtuous.

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      • D Dan Neely

        Patrick Sears wrote:

        As for the stack, it's dangerous to stack more than two computers on top of each other, because it can make your programs run slow.

        no, no, no. It's not a speed issue, it's stability. Normal PC cases weren't designed to be stacked and are much more likely to crash if stacked.

        -- If you view money as inherently evil, I view it as my duty to assist in making you more virtuous.

        L Offline
        L Offline
        led mike
        wrote on last edited by
        #38

        dan neely wrote:

        Normal PC cases weren't designed to be stacked and are much more likely to crash if stacked.

        That's why you need the IRack!

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        • L led mike

          dan neely wrote:

          Normal PC cases weren't designed to be stacked and are much more likely to crash if stacked.

          That's why you need the IRack!

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          P Offline
          Patrick Etc
          wrote on last edited by
          #39

          Ahhhhhhhhhhh I can't take it anymore! :eek: [explodes]


          The early bird who catches the worm works for someone who comes in late and owns the worm farm. -- Travis McGee

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          • D Dan Neely

            Patrick Sears wrote:

            As for the stack, it's dangerous to stack more than two computers on top of each other, because it can make your programs run slow.

            no, no, no. It's not a speed issue, it's stability. Normal PC cases weren't designed to be stacked and are much more likely to crash if stacked.

            -- If you view money as inherently evil, I view it as my duty to assist in making you more virtuous.

            B Offline
            B Offline
            Big Daddy Farang
            wrote on last edited by
            #40

            dan neely wrote:

            likely to crash

            That explains a lot. Thanks. I thought maybe it was something I did wrong. BDF

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            • P Patrick Etc

              Ahhhhhhhhhhh I can't take it anymore! :eek: [explodes]


              The early bird who catches the worm works for someone who comes in late and owns the worm farm. -- Travis McGee

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              L Offline
              led mike
              wrote on last edited by
              #41

              :laugh::laugh::laugh: Thanks I needed a good afternoon laugh before I head out to freedom and enlightenment!

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              • L led mike

                :laugh::laugh::laugh: Thanks I needed a good afternoon laugh before I head out to freedom and enlightenment!

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                Patrick Etc
                wrote on last edited by
                #42

                Hehe anytime. Have a good one :)


                The early bird who catches the worm works for someone who comes in late and owns the worm farm. -- Travis McGee

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                • L led mike

                  :laugh::laugh::laugh: Thanks I needed a good afternoon laugh before I head out to freedom and enlightenment!

                  J Offline
                  J Offline
                  Judah Gabriel Himango
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #43

                  Ah, and here we were trying to put you over the 5000 posts mark. ;)

                  Tech, life, family, faith: Give me a visit. I'm currently blogging about: Feast of Tabernacles (audio) The apostle Paul, modernly speaking: Epistles of Paul Judah Himango

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                  • J John M Drescher

                    I work the largest employer in Pittsburgh but I have been in a development team of 2 to 3 programmers for my whole career (last 10.5 years) so I am not sure. I enjoy my job for the most part but I do work long hours at times which sometimes makes me want to look elsewhere. I think the best part of the job for me is that although my main part of my job is programming (I have written 500K lines of MFC code), I am the main network admin, I provide help desk support for a team of 20, I do all the computer purchases / installs, I repair all the computers, I am the main db/web page admin, I now have some managerial duties that extend beyond the programming staff, I move desks and install white boards, perform minor repairs of the facility ... So basically the diversity of the position is what I like most. I can not see having more than one or two of these roles if I go to a larger development team so maybe my answer is small company/team.


                    Last modified: 23mins after originally posted --

                    John

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                    wout de zeeuw
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #44

                    500k, that's a decent chunk of code! Comparing to what I've seen the last year that'd be at least around 5 man years or so.

                    Wout

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                    • M Miszou

                      Would you generally prefer to work in a large company with a large IT department, or a small company where there are only a handful of developers? Each has advantages I think, but I'll provide a few anecdotal tales here for reference. Several years ago, I worked in a software house with about 50 other software engineers. There were multiple teams of people working on multiple projects. If you needed help with something, there was always someone who could help. After a while, each person fell into a niche area of expertise (mine was the tree control for some reason!). Keep in mind that at this time, there was only one computer connected to the Internet via dial-up, and the quarterly MSDN updates were a source of great excitement. So, having such a large and varied group of software developers was a huge bonus, as there was always someone to share ideas with. Conversely, at my current position I am one of only three developers and I am solely responsible for the new in-house application to replace their legacy system. The other 2 guys are the team leader and the website developer. We are a very close team and get along really well. The small company atmosphere (as well as the nature of our business) means that everyone is pretty relaxed. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this post - I'm really just curious if people prefer a large or small company. Personally, I'd take a small company any day of the week.


                      Sunrise Wallpaper Project | The StartPage Randomizer | The Windows Cheerleader

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                      Tim Craig
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #45

                      I prefer smaller. It's much harder for management to hide things and you know a lot more about what is going on and can feel you have a bigger impact. On the other hand, I was once employee 007 (me and James Bond ;) ) in a startup and when things go sour, they go sour quickly and your only recourse is the door. Just depends on your fear of the door. I never kept more in my office than I could get into my car in one trip.

                      Compassionate Conservatism is an Oxymoron. Bush is just a Moron.

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                      • L led mike

                        I work in a large company, fortune 50, but a medium sized shop, about 20 developers. Most of them don't know what a new CIS graduate would know. There is no one I can ask when I need help. One of our senior devs (15 years) tells me he doesn't believe in Patterns. Our current technical leaders think that Agile means you don't create any design artifacts ( that's because they can't design their way out of a wet paper bag ) while each developer writes spaghetti code in isolation and there are no code reviews. This all results in code that looks like it was written by an epileptic ferret. Our manager brings doughnuts every Wednesday and we have a half dozen Pizza (delivered) parties during the year.... these are a source of great excitement. I don't want to relocate so opportunities are limited and I am paid a ridiculous amount for the work I don't do.

                        Miszou wrote:

                        Personally, I'd take a small company any day of the week.

                        Personally, I'm looking forward to retirement.

                        B Offline
                        B Offline
                        Bruce Chapman DNN
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #46

                        Dude your soul is slowly being eaten away with cynicism. Escape while you can still smile at people.

                        Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development Plithy remark available in Beta 2

                        L 1 Reply Last reply
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                        • J John M Drescher

                          I work the largest employer in Pittsburgh but I have been in a development team of 2 to 3 programmers for my whole career (last 10.5 years) so I am not sure. I enjoy my job for the most part but I do work long hours at times which sometimes makes me want to look elsewhere. I think the best part of the job for me is that although my main part of my job is programming (I have written 500K lines of MFC code), I am the main network admin, I provide help desk support for a team of 20, I do all the computer purchases / installs, I repair all the computers, I am the main db/web page admin, I now have some managerial duties that extend beyond the programming staff, I move desks and install white boards, perform minor repairs of the facility ... So basically the diversity of the position is what I like most. I can not see having more than one or two of these roles if I go to a larger development team so maybe my answer is small company/team.


                          Last modified: 23mins after originally posted --

                          John

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                          B Offline
                          Behzad Sedighzadeh
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #47

                          me like you + advice people how to start IT, teach guys from other dep. some computer related things, etc. Everything that relates to computer i mean!

                          behzad

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • M Miszou

                            Would you generally prefer to work in a large company with a large IT department, or a small company where there are only a handful of developers? Each has advantages I think, but I'll provide a few anecdotal tales here for reference. Several years ago, I worked in a software house with about 50 other software engineers. There were multiple teams of people working on multiple projects. If you needed help with something, there was always someone who could help. After a while, each person fell into a niche area of expertise (mine was the tree control for some reason!). Keep in mind that at this time, there was only one computer connected to the Internet via dial-up, and the quarterly MSDN updates were a source of great excitement. So, having such a large and varied group of software developers was a huge bonus, as there was always someone to share ideas with. Conversely, at my current position I am one of only three developers and I am solely responsible for the new in-house application to replace their legacy system. The other 2 guys are the team leader and the website developer. We are a very close team and get along really well. The small company atmosphere (as well as the nature of our business) means that everyone is pretty relaxed. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this post - I'm really just curious if people prefer a large or small company. Personally, I'd take a small company any day of the week.


                            Sunrise Wallpaper Project | The StartPage Randomizer | The Windows Cheerleader

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                            T Offline
                            The_Great_Gonzo
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #48

                            I joined a small company at the start of the year and love it. The company has only two developers and 6 people all together. My previous companies were all big companies (HSBC, AON, Liberata) with 1000+ people in the company and I found the polotics and general atmosphere horrible. Moving to a small company is the best thing I have done. In big companies there may have been more developers to bounce stuff off but there was also a lot of competetive behaviour and the usual array of dinasours that made life difficult.

                            Oh, uh, good question. Now technically speaking, uhh, let's say, put me down as a... 'Whatever'?

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                            • M Miszou

                              Would you generally prefer to work in a large company with a large IT department, or a small company where there are only a handful of developers? Each has advantages I think, but I'll provide a few anecdotal tales here for reference. Several years ago, I worked in a software house with about 50 other software engineers. There were multiple teams of people working on multiple projects. If you needed help with something, there was always someone who could help. After a while, each person fell into a niche area of expertise (mine was the tree control for some reason!). Keep in mind that at this time, there was only one computer connected to the Internet via dial-up, and the quarterly MSDN updates were a source of great excitement. So, having such a large and varied group of software developers was a huge bonus, as there was always someone to share ideas with. Conversely, at my current position I am one of only three developers and I am solely responsible for the new in-house application to replace their legacy system. The other 2 guys are the team leader and the website developer. We are a very close team and get along really well. The small company atmosphere (as well as the nature of our business) means that everyone is pretty relaxed. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this post - I'm really just curious if people prefer a large or small company. Personally, I'd take a small company any day of the week.


                              Sunrise Wallpaper Project | The StartPage Randomizer | The Windows Cheerleader

                              S Offline
                              S Offline
                              Steve Naidamast
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #49

                              I worked in the financial industry for around 20 years and the politics in these large corporations just finally wore me out; plus the work was exteremely difficult due to the lack of planning for most projects. I finally left a few months ago for a company of about 950 people nationally. It was exactly what I was looking for and I am much more relaxed in my new position and already have been moved into a technical-lead spot which is what I usually hold. Very happy so far. No plans to ever return to "Corporate America".

                              Steve Naidamast Black Falcon Software, Inc. blackfalconsoftware@ix.netcom.com

                              P 1 Reply Last reply
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                              • M Miszou

                                Would you generally prefer to work in a large company with a large IT department, or a small company where there are only a handful of developers? Each has advantages I think, but I'll provide a few anecdotal tales here for reference. Several years ago, I worked in a software house with about 50 other software engineers. There were multiple teams of people working on multiple projects. If you needed help with something, there was always someone who could help. After a while, each person fell into a niche area of expertise (mine was the tree control for some reason!). Keep in mind that at this time, there was only one computer connected to the Internet via dial-up, and the quarterly MSDN updates were a source of great excitement. So, having such a large and varied group of software developers was a huge bonus, as there was always someone to share ideas with. Conversely, at my current position I am one of only three developers and I am solely responsible for the new in-house application to replace their legacy system. The other 2 guys are the team leader and the website developer. We are a very close team and get along really well. The small company atmosphere (as well as the nature of our business) means that everyone is pretty relaxed. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this post - I'm really just curious if people prefer a large or small company. Personally, I'd take a small company any day of the week.


                                Sunrise Wallpaper Project | The StartPage Randomizer | The Windows Cheerleader

                                R Offline
                                R Offline
                                Rafeeq Uddin Ahmed
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #50

                                I would prefer if work and environment is good and Pay also.because without money we cant do many things.any how I have to work wheter is small or large company.

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                                • J John M Drescher

                                  I work the largest employer in Pittsburgh but I have been in a development team of 2 to 3 programmers for my whole career (last 10.5 years) so I am not sure. I enjoy my job for the most part but I do work long hours at times which sometimes makes me want to look elsewhere. I think the best part of the job for me is that although my main part of my job is programming (I have written 500K lines of MFC code), I am the main network admin, I provide help desk support for a team of 20, I do all the computer purchases / installs, I repair all the computers, I am the main db/web page admin, I now have some managerial duties that extend beyond the programming staff, I move desks and install white boards, perform minor repairs of the facility ... So basically the diversity of the position is what I like most. I can not see having more than one or two of these roles if I go to a larger development team so maybe my answer is small company/team.


                                  Last modified: 23mins after originally posted --

                                  John

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                                  L Offline
                                  Lilith C
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #51

                                  I'm in the educational field where I too do network support. My main function is as email administrator since we have others to support the network proper. My programming comes in handy for extracting information from reports and monitoring the systems. If you consider 8800+ accounts small.... Consider that email is *the* most used application in the organization it's a lot of responsibility for one person to have to maintain. But contact with the masses is minimal and I have a large degree of autonomy, which ameliorates the stress. Lilith

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                                  • J Judah Gabriel Himango

                                    Ah, and here we were trying to put you over the 5000 posts mark. ;)

                                    Tech, life, family, faith: Give me a visit. I'm currently blogging about: Feast of Tabernacles (audio) The apostle Paul, modernly speaking: Epistles of Paul Judah Himango

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                                    L Offline
                                    led mike
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #52

                                    Judah Himango wrote:

                                    the 5000 posts mark

                                    oh dear, I had no idea. Well I guess it could happen to anyone.... that talks to (D)espeir ;)

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                                    • M Miszou

                                      Would you generally prefer to work in a large company with a large IT department, or a small company where there are only a handful of developers? Each has advantages I think, but I'll provide a few anecdotal tales here for reference. Several years ago, I worked in a software house with about 50 other software engineers. There were multiple teams of people working on multiple projects. If you needed help with something, there was always someone who could help. After a while, each person fell into a niche area of expertise (mine was the tree control for some reason!). Keep in mind that at this time, there was only one computer connected to the Internet via dial-up, and the quarterly MSDN updates were a source of great excitement. So, having such a large and varied group of software developers was a huge bonus, as there was always someone to share ideas with. Conversely, at my current position I am one of only three developers and I am solely responsible for the new in-house application to replace their legacy system. The other 2 guys are the team leader and the website developer. We are a very close team and get along really well. The small company atmosphere (as well as the nature of our business) means that everyone is pretty relaxed. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this post - I'm really just curious if people prefer a large or small company. Personally, I'd take a small company any day of the week.


                                      Sunrise Wallpaper Project | The StartPage Randomizer | The Windows Cheerleader

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                                      O Offline
                                      Owen37
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #53

                                      Small company. I've worked for both large and small. In the large company, it can become difficult to see how you impact the success of the company. In a small company, it is easier to see how your efforts contribute to success. :)

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                                      • B Bruce Chapman DNN

                                        Dude your soul is slowly being eaten away with cynicism. Escape while you can still smile at people.

                                        Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development Plithy remark available in Beta 2

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                                        L Offline
                                        led mike
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #54

                                        brucerchapman wrote:

                                        Escape while you can still smile at people.

                                        Sometimes I enjoy fighting the soul eaters, but mostly I just laugh at them. They are a constant source of humor.

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                                        • M Miszou

                                          Would you generally prefer to work in a large company with a large IT department, or a small company where there are only a handful of developers? Each has advantages I think, but I'll provide a few anecdotal tales here for reference. Several years ago, I worked in a software house with about 50 other software engineers. There were multiple teams of people working on multiple projects. If you needed help with something, there was always someone who could help. After a while, each person fell into a niche area of expertise (mine was the tree control for some reason!). Keep in mind that at this time, there was only one computer connected to the Internet via dial-up, and the quarterly MSDN updates were a source of great excitement. So, having such a large and varied group of software developers was a huge bonus, as there was always someone to share ideas with. Conversely, at my current position I am one of only three developers and I am solely responsible for the new in-house application to replace their legacy system. The other 2 guys are the team leader and the website developer. We are a very close team and get along really well. The small company atmosphere (as well as the nature of our business) means that everyone is pretty relaxed. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this post - I'm really just curious if people prefer a large or small company. Personally, I'd take a small company any day of the week.


                                          Sunrise Wallpaper Project | The StartPage Randomizer | The Windows Cheerleader

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                                          Larry Luther
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #55

                                          I've had a long career and have worked in both environments. A small firm can be fun but lonely as frequently you are the expert without peers. The large firms I have been in have always had a commitment to research staff. You can order any books you want, get sent to conferences that improve your skills and they regularly have pay raises. You also work on bigger more exciting projects and have people around you that can share your excitement about technology.

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