Hey, I'm Miguel

Why I Won't Work for Super Corporate Companies Again as a Software Developer

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June 16, 2022

I’ve worked as a software engineer in a corporate environment for about 15 years out of my 22-year career. It’s how I got started as a dev and how many developers get started; right out of school, a boot camp, or being self-taught. I owe a lot to the companies I worked for in the past; mainly stability.

Corporate developer jobs were and will always be there for you. If you are starting out, like the majority of developers; you will most likely start in a corporate environment. There is no shame in it, and in fact, I highly encourage it. This is where you will build your core skills and understand how to estimate your projects. This is also where you will start to build some resentment toward your job; it’s really not the company, it’s the culture.

Let’s Break It Down

First off, these companies; most likely, have been around for decades; if not, longer. They are not going anywhere soon; they are stable… so, you can work there for your entire career if you want. Let’s go over some of the pros and cons of working in a corporate environment.

Pros:

  • They provide you with a nice salary, this goes up just about every year
  • Health, dental, and maybe an HSA
  • 2 weeks of paid time off (PTO) and a handful of holidays; can increase with time
  • And maybe a pen or keychain for every 5 years you’re there
  • You can stop working at your 40 hours

Cons:

  • Your salary will go up by 3 to 5% per year
  • You pay for the health and dental out of your salary. This will go up as the number of dependents grows
  • You run out of your PTO quickly in the year and after a few years learn to save as much as possible for the end of the year for a nice long Christmas break
  • There’s most likely a dress code, so the idea of wearing jeans and a t-shirt are out the door even though no one ever sees you except during lunch and company meetings
  • Promotions may take longer as there are several other developers gunning for the same lead role
  • You have to work on an outdated piece of equipment and no matter how much you beg, you’re stuck with a Windows 7 machine running on 16GB of ram that gets sucked up by the anti-virus software and expected to run efficiently for a local SQL Server database and Visual Studio 2015
  • You’re salaried, so anything over 40 hours is on you
  • You’re salaried, so if you don’t put in more than the 40 hours; you’re not a team player
  • You’re pretty much just a number at some companies
  • There’s so much more, but it’ll make this article super long

Ultimately, a corporate environment can help build your career; but, it can also cause you to resent it and think that all companies will be this way… and after a few years want to change careers.

The FAANG or MAANG Side

If you’re lucky or you’ve put in your time with a corporate job, you will eventually end up at a newer company or one where the culture is almost like what you see on T.V. and in movies. These companies are often the complete opposite or at least are not stuck in a tradition that is 100+ years old.

Many of these companies are no longer considered startups and may be similar to the MAANG companies (Meta a.k.a. Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google). They look for solid developers who know how to optimize distributed systems, write complex and performant algorithms, and constantly push the limits of technology. Let’s look at some of the pros and cons here.

Pros:

  • Higher salaries, signing bonuses, quarterly or annual bonuses, stocks, and stock options
  • Paid health, dental, and vision for the whole family
  • Longer PTO or unlimited PTO… take as much time as you need. I’ll talk about this in another article. You can basically take 2-week vacations 3 to 4 times per year
  • Paid lunches and happy hours
  • No dress code
  • Pick your top-of-the-line equipment with the latest software (may be standard among the devs)
  • You naturally take on more responsibility because you feel like you deserve it

Cons:

  • You work longer hours and way harder to get those bonuses and to justify taking a 2-week vacation 3 to 4 times per year
  • You may bring your laptop with you on vacation and get some work done
  • A bit more stress since you’re working more than your normal 40 hours
  • You naturally take on more responsibility, which leads to the stress

Final Words

I’m not listing everything good and bad about working for a corporate or the MAANG-type company as it would be a long list. I’m also not putting down either of these environments. It comes down to where you are on your software development journey, what you are looking for, and where you want to go.

For me, I’ve landed in a MAANG-type environment; but, I’ve been at this for a long time and I’m happy with this type of environment.