I've hopped around a few medium sized established companies and early stage (pre-series A and series A) startups over the past 8 years as an iOS developer.
With coarse grained detail, it's a fair characterization to say that big companies require more navigation of interpersonal politics and hierarchical structures within the company, but afford you the opportunity to work on (more often than not) bigger problems (but you may be a small part of that big problem). And on the other hand startups allow you more autonomy and the chance to work on a wider breadth of the product yourself.
I've been told more than a couple times in bigger company land to stay in my lane, while in startup world that more and more executive functioning is required of me.
Both are valuable and right now I'm in bigger company land, that is until I get the itch again ;) Bigger companies tend afford more work life balance and respect your time, but your millage will vary. If you plan on starting a family anytime soon then it might not be a bad idea to situate yourself at a big company for a while.
One key for finding fulfillment as a smaller contributor in a larger company is finding personal validation outside of work. If you find things are going too slow for your taste and this frustrates you, then realize it's by design; people have lives outside of work and would like to live them :)
Working remote is just as viable in either scenario for my case, but I'm less sure about yours since robotics can only be simulated up to a certain point before you need actual hardware, right?
With coarse grained detail, it's a fair characterization to say that big companies require more navigation of interpersonal politics and hierarchical structures within the company, but afford you the opportunity to work on (more often than not) bigger problems (but you may be a small part of that big problem). And on the other hand startups allow you more autonomy and the chance to work on a wider breadth of the product yourself.
I've been told more than a couple times in bigger company land to stay in my lane, while in startup world that more and more executive functioning is required of me.
Both are valuable and right now I'm in bigger company land, that is until I get the itch again ;) Bigger companies tend afford more work life balance and respect your time, but your millage will vary. If you plan on starting a family anytime soon then it might not be a bad idea to situate yourself at a big company for a while.
One key for finding fulfillment as a smaller contributor in a larger company is finding personal validation outside of work. If you find things are going too slow for your taste and this frustrates you, then realize it's by design; people have lives outside of work and would like to live them :)
Working remote is just as viable in either scenario for my case, but I'm less sure about yours since robotics can only be simulated up to a certain point before you need actual hardware, right?