Start-Up vs. Corporate - the Fresher's View-Point.
Speaking of learning, it has been (about) a month since the Summer Internship season has begun for me and all my fellow management students. Few are interning in a corporate environment and few are interning in a start-up environment. Being a corporate environment myself, few being in a start-up environment, I got insights from them, and this post is going to be all about a fresher’s perspective on Corporate vs. Start-Up environment.
First things, first, people. You may find a young and dynamic crowd, go-getters and big dreamer’s kind-off people at the Start-Up firm. The people at Start-Ups are all ‘learners’ who are driven to be the Jack of all trades and Master of one in that journey. Corporate, people here followers of a protocol and usually has people of all age-groups. Discipline and structured are the two words that would rightly describe a corporate environment even though they have excellent people practices such as open-door policy and others in place.
Second, the departments. In a start-up there is no specific department that you are a part of. For instance, in the marketing & sales department itself they may have core marketing person, a digital marketing person, a content developer, sales, business development and the likes. In a start-up, don’t expect to just work in your assigned department, there will be times when you might have to do any or all marketing related jobs. Perhaps that’s the beauty of it, you get to learn, learn and learn. In case of corporate, while the departments may work parallel-y with each other, but there is no inter-change of roles and responsibilities. Specificity is the word that describes the work set-up in a corporate.
While we’re at departments and work-structure, it is important to understand the kind of freedom that both these environments provide. It goes without saying that Start-Ups have more freedom to work; it has a trial-and- error, learn on your own culture. In contrast, the Corporate’s have (some-what) rigid, non-interfering protocol to work. You just have to do what you are given, in terms of a cross-functional project; there have to be a series of permissions in place before the work is done.
Next, speaking about stability, Start-ups may have a 'flexi' and casual work environment, but the stability of your job and profile depends on the success that the start-up will have in the future. The salary may or may not be based on the current market trends, but it sure has freedom and perks. When it comes to Corporate’s, it definitely has a stable work environment that ensures that the employees get more benefits, other than the salaries. Be it, insurance or health benefits or paid-leaves and the likes.
In a Start-Up, you will far more responsibilities related to building a solid image of your firm. In the initial stage when there is no set vision & mission statement, it is a responsibility of all the people in the Start-up to develop one. In such a scenario, the person’s individual perspectives and qualities play a major role in shaping the company’s culture. The situation with Corporate’s is completely opposite. You, as an individual, irrespective of your outlooks will have to abide with the company culture, vision, mission and goals. Though the times now-a- days are changing and ‘adaptive work-culture’ and ‘change-management’ is on the rise in an HR’s perspective, the trend is still opposite to that of the Start-ups!
Well, this is all about the views that a ‘fresher’ has w.r.t. Start-ups vs. Corporates. Comment down below to share your views about the same so that all the readers can learn something from it! :) Stay tuned for posts every weekend.
Love, Gratitude and Positivity.
- Binal R. Chitroda
(#TheHRConnect)