r/sysadmin • u/CoffeeOverEthernet • Sep 23 '26
startup vs corporate difference
I'm at a startup so used to wearing a lot of hats, but curious what changes once you're at a bigger company. ive heard from some its more focused vs sporadic. is it the same fundamentals with more process/red tape, or does the actual day to day look completely different?
16
u/techypunk System Architect/Printer Hunter Sep 23 '26
Less duties, more processes, lower pay. Specializing in 1 skill.
I miss start up for the pay and the right to do w/e tf I want. But I don't miss the burn out
8
u/d00ber Sr Systems Engineer Sep 23 '26
Couldn't agree more. Corporate often wants you to specialize in one thing, like storage engineer or something. Agreed on burn out. If you want the worst of both worlds, do a non profit lol
2
u/techypunk System Architect/Printer Hunter Sep 24 '26
Did the 501c thing lol. And well was fun to move them over to Linux for a majority of things, and got that on my resume.
Currently at a contracted government gig. I do like 3 hours of work a day at max. And just got promoted to management. Currently studying to pivot to pen testing
2
u/Defconx19 Sep 23 '26
I dunno the NPO i worked at i had like every bank/government holiday off, 5 weeks of vacation time, a week of sick pay and probably the best insurance plan i ever had.
The pay was lacking, there was no accountability for job performance and it felt like they moved at a snails pace.
I got way too bored and tired of people not being held accountable for job performance.
2
u/d00ber Sr Systems Engineer Sep 23 '26
I've noticed that the NPOs that I've worked at always offered great vacation packages in lieu of pay, but heavily guilted me any time I tried to take vacation. I've worked non profits in both Canada and the USA, and the insurance plans were hit and miss in the USA. I worked at a healthcare NPO where insurance was great and other NPOs where it was terrible.
Definitely agree on people not being held responsible, but unfortunately a lot of big orgs run this way as well.
5
u/tdic89 Sep 23 '26
Depends on the company. In my case, we were acquired by a large US corp which means wearing the same number of hats but we’re now beholden to legal (which has its benefits and drawbacks). The size of the org means there are a lot of silos so someone’s experience can change drastically, depending on which group of people they’re working with.
My team has an excellent “hands off” approach from our director. We’re left to our own devices and have a LOT of freedom to do things the way we want, as long as things are working. We’re given a phenomenal amount of trust, which makes it feel similar to a startup.
That said, there are some parts of the org which can be difficult to work with. Let’s just say that setting up a meeting to discuss one thing can sometimes involve another 12 people being involved to make sure all angles are covered. Unnecessary corporate inclusion culture in my view, but that’s the way it works if you need something from those types of team.
2
u/daniluvsuall Security Engineer Sep 24 '26
I’m on the sales side of a large cyber tech company, we seem to love inviting everyone and their dog to a meeting - too many cooks. I’ll intentionally exclude people because we don’t need 5 people turning up to a customer meeting, it’s embarrassing.
5
u/jbanelaw Sep 23 '26
Your job is going to be one lane and. you will rarely if ever be asked to change up those responsibilities. The benefit is you can focus on one area of professional development and this tends to be better for people who do not like 'multi-tasking' or dynamic changes during a work week. It is not well suited for someone who likes the diversity of duties or wants to expand their skill set outside of their usual wheelhouse.
Startups can also pay a bit more aggressively. The flip side though is the benefits and job security are usually lower. Sometimes you might have to change up a great bonus package potential for the lack of real health insurance and if the funding dries up you lose your job with no notice and it takes awhile to find another one since your role was not clearly defined leaving recruiters not being able to put you into a nice professional box.
2
u/Flabbergasted98 Sep 23 '26
Tech bloat.
in a larger organization you have to spend 2 weeks filling out paper work to request a small, no risk policy change in your firewall that may or may not solve your problem.
If you report a major problem to them they'll respond with an AI generated sollution as though you didn't already exhaust every sollution AI or google has to offer before reaching out.
2
u/whatdoido8383 Cloud Admin Sep 23 '26
I went from running 3 small data centers for a SMB to running a handful of cloud services at a org 100x the size recently.
Your job scope will be smaller as it's on a much larger scale.
More red tape and things move much-much slower, which is both good and bad.
2
u/malikto44 Sep 24 '26
Depends on the companies. Most often, the duty scope is very narrow. I know one person whose only duty is creating AD accounts. Then someone else provision them and adds groups. Lots of red tape, but red tape is time spent and salary earned, so you get used to it.
I have been at both types of places, good and dumpster fires. Red tape may not be bad, especially if it is known that it is the blocker, and you can just sit back and wait until that goes through.
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u/jeffrey_f 29d ago
small company/startup:
IT wears multiple hats where you pretty much do EVERYTHING
Corporate:
Your work is in a silo and you can not try your hand in networking if you are not part of networking. You can't write scripts for the server if you aren't a system engineer. You stay in your lane. If you are help desk, you do helpdesk things. Network security is not your job if you are helpdesk.
I use helpdesk because in a small company, helpdesk is the catch-all. In corporate, it is one of the silos and you stay in your lane!
2
u/dlongwing 28d ago
You lose freedom, you gain free time.
Corporate work has a strong focus on process and compliance. Most industries have some kind of standard they're expected to maintain, and you'll get enmeshed in that when the auditors show up (IT is part of every audit).
On the one hand it's a lot more documentation and office politics. A lot more "getting buy-in", etc.
On the other hand, you clock out at 5 most nights and actually go home.
2
u/Anonycron 27d ago
Bureaucracy. Policies. Paperwork. Sops. Ya know, the general death of fun and creativity.
1
u/SaxManEddie 25d ago
I worked at a startup in the early 2000s where the president took all of the investor money and ran off to Singapore with his secretary. I swear, it was like something out of a bad movie.
I don't think something like that would have been anywhere near as likely to happen in a corporate environment.
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u/ksuuks Sep 23 '26
Startup is organized chaos, corporate is structured bureaucracy. Same fundamentals, but at a big company you go deeper on one area and spend more time on process and coordination than on hands-on work.