When looking for a job in Germany, is it better to go to a big company or a small company?

This title may be slightly larger than my usual articles. Generally, I prefer to select a small event/angle and then analyze the reasons behind it in depth. But recently I saw friends in the workplace group frequently mentioning this issue, and I also considered the same issue when I was looking for a job. The fact that the same issue has been raised repeatedly over the past few years shows that there must be discussion value behind it.

This time I tried to change my style, starting with a big title, and then segmenting it and giving examples based on my own experience. I will share my experience, and also analyze the pros and cons of large companies and small companies, and when is it more appropriate to go to a large/small company. I cannot guarantee that this article of mine can cover all aspects of this issue, nor can I be sure that my personal views are applicable in every situation. However, one thing I can be confident about is that I am willing to say everything I think. All.

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My career background and plans

Before working in Germany, I worked (including internship) in several large companies in China, such as Ogilvy, Porsche, New Oriental, I also worked in a small foreign company with more than 20 people. At that time, I compared the differences between large domestic companies and small companies. After I graduated with a master's degree and looked for a job in Germany, my first choice was to join a large company.

Why? Because people who have just graduated don’t know much about this society (although they have some domestic work experience, they don’t have it in Germany), so I want the big company to take advantage of its platform, let me grow with it, and then transfer internally. Or it would be more convenient to change jobs outside. But unfortunately, I couldn't find a big German company willing to hire me, and ended up going to a small company.

In order to avoid ambiguity, let me make a rough definition of large companies and small companies: according to the number of people, if there are more than 500 people, it is a large company; if there are less than 50 people, it is a small company.

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My experience in a small company in Germany

Our small company is also quite special. Although it is small, we have offices all over the world and we often call each other. Do projects together. In our German office, it took just over three years for us to go from 5 people at the beginning to more than 30 people now.

My attitude towards this small company has changed. There was a period of time when I felt that it was not suitable for me, and a period of time when I was very grateful for the experience it gave me. Why do you think it's not suitable for me? First of all, I don’t completely agree with the corporate culture, or perhaps the boss’s personal culture. To give a simple example, the boss likes to bring his computer and listen to the employees' speech while lowering his head to process emails during meetings with employees. The consequence of this is that employees often feel that their bosses are not listening carefully to what they say. When they ask a question, they have to wait until the boss writes the email to a paragraph before they can get a reply. To put it bluntly, employees feel they are not respected. This kind of personal culture gradually affects the entire enterprise, just like a cancerous tumor growing on the body. It spreads very quickly and the process of removal is very difficult. Secondly, small companies do not distinguish between countries. Their rules and regulations are imperfect and overtime is serious. . Many corporate systems did not exist at the beginning. They were added slowly after things happened. Of course, they are now more standardized than when there were 5 people, but I won’t go into details about the process; in the end, it is also something that I personally value very much. But what is missing is that there is little corporate training. In our company, if you want to do something new, you will most likely need to teach yourself. What the company can help you is to provide study cards for an online course platform, and you can watch the videos. If you have any questions, you can ask experienced colleagues privately. Systematic and comprehensive training is almost non-existent (except when you want to win a very large project and you lack certain knowledge).

I could list dozens of disadvantages of small companies here, but I must admit that I am also very grateful for it. If necessary, I can also list dozens of benefits for it. First of all, small companies dare to hire people and dare to try and make mistakes.

When I was recruiting, I had neither a German diploma nor an internship experience in Germany. Big companies didn’t dare to hire me, but small companies were willing to give me a chance to try. Secondly, I realized internal implementation in the small company in the shortest possible time. Transfer. I originally worked in ITSales, but then I encountered a bottleneck. After negotiating with my boss, he found a new team for me the next day and transferred me to IT project consulting. In a large company, I can guarantee that internal job transfer is impossible within a few weeks. Then, I tried many different projects in small companies. For example, as mentioned in my previous articles, I trained WeChat and designed websites for German companies. For example, as I will share next, I did corporate acquisitions for the company. (Mamp; A), software interaction prototype design, and even propose internal decoration plans for the company, etc. Although the projects are all kinds of strange and the process is very arduous, without the experience of this company, I would not be able to write wonderful articles, nor would I be able to predict my personal interests and future development direction.

So, my attitude towards this small company is actually very ambivalent. To use an inappropriate analogy, it is a bit like the particularly strict class teacher we encountered in middle school. You have no freedom under her, and you don't even dare to be bold, but your grades have improved a lot.

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Big German companies in my eyes

Although I joined a small German company, I originally had no say in what big German companies were like. But since starting the project, I spend half of my time running every week, so through observation and experience, I can also figure out some ways. In addition, Lao Hu also worked for a large company. Through his narration and contact with his colleagues and leaders, I also deepened my understanding of large German companies.

According to my observation, there are two best things about large companies. One is the platform advantage I mentioned before, and the other is time and benefits. The advantages of the platform can be understood as the aura of a famous school. It is like entering a key university. Teachers of the same generation in the university are hiding in hiding, and you can also use various suppliers to obtain high-quality resources. For example, Lao Hu took many courses last year. Their company will display the training courses for the next week every week. Some training courses are hired by professional instructors from outside (such as personality evaluation), and some are taught spontaneously by employees of their own company (such as foreign languages/skills). Each employee can choose one month. There will be no more than 4 training classes, and here’s the key point: attending these classes is considered to be during working hours! This makes me envious and jealous. The only training class for external teachers in our company is a German class for migrant workers. The second is a weekly non-governmental organization. The theme is mostly about fellow programmers sharing programming knowledge with us.

As for time and benefits, these are really the strengths of large companies. Large companies generally do not need to work overtime, or overtime can be compensated with vacation, ensuring private time. In addition, large companies usually have 30 days of vacation, and if you include the overtime you work in exchange for it, it may reach more than 40 days a year. However, the small company I work for only has more than 20 days of vacation, and overtime cannot be used to offset vacation. This means that if I want to take a vacation with Lao Hu, I have to save my vacation time. Moreover, small companies cannot directly take a one-month vacation. Most things have to wait for someone to do it, so usually giving you two weeks is enough. To be honest, most of my bosses and colleagues only take a week off. It took me two weeks to apply, and I felt quite uneasy at times. As for benefits, large companies may provide 13% of salary, and there is also separate money for Christmas, and some also provide employee bonuses, so it adds up to a considerable amount. However, the normal salary of small companies is not low. After all, small companies rely on salary to compete for talents.

After talking about the advantages, let’s talk about the disadvantages of large companies! After all, I spend half of my time sleeping with them, and I can see all the shortcomings more clearly. First of all, large companies have serious internal friction and slow decision-making. It is no exaggeration to say that we have now reached a stage where decision-making is much slower than development. Usually it takes two weeks for the customer to make a decision, but our team of programmers only took 4 days to develop it. The huge difference in speed means that we need to push the customer to make a decision, but everyone knows that the decision that is forced is often not well thought out and the effect is not good.

When I'm in meetings with clients, I often end up in lengthy three-hour meetings with no progress. A said A's opinion, B stood up to object, C said that both A and B were wrong, D said that this meeting cannot be decided without E, A said that E is on vacation and will not come back until two weeks, ABCD said thank you everyone for participating and we will see you in two weeks; secondly , large companies are a carrot and a pit, and the room for promotion is relatively small. I have also felt this in large domestic companies. There are many ordinary Sachbearbeiters who have been dealing with the same trivial matter and following the same procedures for many years. Some people are already familiar with this program, so they spend the rest of the time playing with WeChat. Strictly speaking, this cannot be considered a disadvantage, because not everyone has a strong career ambition. But if you happen to buy a house during this period, and you happen to be under financial pressure and want to get a promotion and a salary increase, your position may not necessarily allow your boss to see your value, and he may not be able to give you a promotion or a salary increase. Not to mention, if you are abroad, management has fewer opportunities to hire Chinese people, and you have to be more outstanding at work to have an advantage. Then, the rules and regulations of large companies are too cumbersome. I saw a colleague who spent six days getting the stamp from colleagues in other departments of the company to apply for a U.S. visa. The total time spent running errands is probably enough for me to publish an article; this matter needs to be left to us. For a small company, let alone going to the United States, even if it's a moon landing, the procedures will be completed for you in one day. Large companies succeed because of "sound rules and regulations" and fail because of "too sound rules and regulations."

If you have to compare large companies and small companies together, then generally speaking there will be a trend: large companies are professional and not flexible, small companies are flexible and not professional; large companies have more systems and more training There is a lot of internal friction, and small companies do not have systems and training is fast and fast; large companies have a strong cultural tolerance, and small companies rely entirely on their bosses to pass it on; large companies give you quality of life, while small companies give you survival skills.

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When to go to a big company and when to go to a small company?

We also discussed this issue in the career salon last week. Mr. Zhou Qiang mentioned at that time: "Generally, those studying in Germany want to follow this path: first a large company, then a small company, and finally start a business. . But in fact, most people take another path: start with a small company, then a large company, and then hesitate to start a business.”

I think that gender factors also play a role in choosing a large or small company. should be taken into consideration. It’s not because I treat gender differences, but it’s a very special time for women to be pregnant and give birth. In Germany, mothers generally stay at home in the first year after a baby is born. Some choose to go back to work in the second year if they want to keep their jobs, while others wait until the third year. Ideally, I think it would be better for the mother to find a job in a big company when her children are young. Because they have a lot of time, some companies also provide kindergartens to facilitate mothers to take care of their children. However, small companies are too tired. Even if the children are taken care of, it is a big challenge to the mother's energy and physical strength. The competition is so fierce, it is likely to grab business. Colleagues who are not young enough feel guilty when they go home to face their children. This experience will become very bad over time.

If we follow this logic, then for women, the best time to go to a small company is between graduation and before pregnancy. While you are young and energetic, you can exercise yourself. . Especially if you don't know your own preferences and strengths, then report directly to a small company, and they will treat you as N people. In this process, you can find what you are interested in and have talents in the shortest possible time.

As for boys, because they don’t have this special time, they can be more flexible when considering it. If you can find a big company as soon as you graduate, you can choose a big company and work there for a few years. When you encounter a bottleneck, you can also use your identity as a big company to move to a small company as a manager. The treatment offered by a small company can compete with that of a large company, but it will consume a lot of your time. Then you need to weigh the pros and cons at this time. If you are single, time may not be as important as job promotion; if you have a family and want to help, it may be Think about your family first.

This is the case for my client. Although the company benefits are good, he has two children at home and cannot find a nanny (good home nannies are hard to find in Germany). In the end, he had to switch from full-time to part-time to help take care of the children at home.

In addition to personal family factors, sometimes personality is also very important. Some people don't like challenging jobs and just want stability. If they can go to a big company, they may never need to consider going to a small company. However, the job market is constantly changing and there is no permanent stability. Although large companies seem to be stable, if you encounter layoffs (such as this new coronavirus epidemic), you will appear to be more passive; but if you are in a small company and the company can survive, it will not matter whether you will be laid off or not. It depends on your relationship with your boss and your contribution to the company.

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Summary

In a nutshell, large companies may be suitable for people in their 90s, while small companies are only suitable for people in their 50s. There is a difference between the companies you want to go to and the companies you can go to. Think about your strategy. Do you want to experience both large and small companies, or do you only want to go to large companies? Then see how the market responds to you and choose the best card you have.

Whether to go to a large company or a small company is probably a problem not only in China and Germany, but also all over the world, regardless of age group. Sometimes people are like this, thinking repeatedly between two options before doing something, as if they can choose at will, but in the end they find that both doors are not open for them. But this is not negative. People who are always confused about the options illustrate two points: one is that they may have extraordinary strength and can win both in one jump; the other is that they also like to think and compare. I have a good friend who has been with me since childhood. Every time we meet, he always listens to me tell me about my difficulties. One time, I was really puzzled and asked: "It seems that I have the problem every time, and you haven't said anything. Am I useless and can't make choices?" My friend replied at the time. : "Because unlike you, I always have a choice." This sentence suddenly woke me up. People who are obsessed with choices are happier than people who have no choice. Maybe you didn’t get the first choice in the end, but it’s better to set big goals than small goals, so I encourage everyone to struggle and think. This process is part of growing up.

In addition, due to the epidemic and the rapid domestic development, many friends are not only making plans for a career in Germany, but are also considering returning to their country or staying in Germany. Some group members will also be willing to open up and chat with me. Thank you very much for your trust. Although I cannot directly choose for you, I am also willing to share my opinions and will provide you with some Chinese and Recruitment positions in Germany make it easier for everyone to make early plans. /zd/lx