Startup vs Corporate: Is Headcount Relevant to Workplace Culture?

What size company fits your workplace ideal? Maybe it’s a scrappy tech start-up with a small staff of bright young minds. Perhaps you prefer to climb the ladder at a large, established corporation. It might turn out what you idealize about startups and corporations doesn’t match up with reality.

Ultimately it’s on you, the job seeker, to identify opportunities that fit your ambitions and work style. Company size doesn’t always dictate company culture. That’s for you to feel out and investigate before hiring on.

The traditional understanding of a small company vs. large company

Certain images are forged in the collective consciousness of the modern professional. At a small company you work hard and play hard; wear a lot of hats and hone a more well-rounded skill-set; your currency is your creativity; upward mobility can happen overnight; the company could get bought out the next morning and leave you unemployed.

At a big company you keep your head down and stay on task; perfect your specialized role; learn organizational skills from your manager; know your place and avoid stepping on toes; invest in your 401K enough for the company match; hit your KPIs for your annual merit increase; wait for someone to leave and move up; keep showing up and the job is yours for as long as you choose.

These are simple stereotypes. Like any stereotype, they are based on shared perception and a kernel of truth. The reality is that every company is different. Every workplace violates the stereotype of size and stature in some way--anyone who has been around the block in their profession can attest to this.

Team size is more indicative than company size

Always think of your profession in the context of the company. Say you’re an accountant at an engineering firm, or an inbound marketing specialist for large legal group. Regardless of headcount, if you’re not aligned with the revenue generating essence of the company, you’ll probably find yourself on a small team wherein you’ll do a little of everything as needed in the department, just like at a startup.

Conversely, if you’re an account executive on a large sales team; an editor at a press release distribution company; or a technician operating specialized equipment, the role is often more defined and confined to specific tasks and hierarchy, more indicative of how a large company operates.

Organizational structure affects company culture

You can tell a lot about a company by its structure. How many layers of management separate the CIO from the help desk technician? A start-up always has a flat organizational structure simply because the staff is so small--the top management works alongside entry level, maybe with a team of directors in between.

Flat structure companies are believed to encourage creativity and foster professional growth; stakeholders expect everyone to put in the same insane hours they’re working, and individual contributions and talents are more noticeable to the people steering the ship. The drawback is that if an employee don’t mesh with the prevailing culture of the company, tensions may become hyper-exposed and erupt into conflict.

Most, but not all, companies grow into a traditional hierarchical structure at a certain point, adding layers of management to control finances and separate out teams by core competency for the sake of efficiency. Not every large company silos its staff members. In fact, this usually is something that upper management hopes to avoid.

Certain large companies are better with cross-departmental team building than others, and they tend to be the most successful. These are the kinds of organizations that provide opportunities for professional growth, competitive compensation, and job stability--all factors that promote talent retention, employee satisfaction, and steady growth for the company.

Find out by asking questions in the job interview

The only way to get a feel for company culture before coming on board is to ask the right questions--something that candidates might overlook in the heat of a job interview. It is important to know the size of the team you’re being hired into; how your role interacts with that team; how your department is structured; and how your department interacts with other departments in the organization. The answers to these questions will tell you more about company culture than the total headcount and the foosball table in the lobby. Don’t forget to ask.

---

Adam Lovinus is a veteran copywriter and digital marketing strategist on a small team at a large technology company in Southern California.