From what I've heard from other more experienced individuals within industry, most individuals who have worked at a start-up company emphasize the amount of learning that they had during that opportunity. Since start-ups are smaller companies, typically an individual is tasked with having a wider range of responsibilities than someone working at a larger company. As a result, a role within a start-up could be particularly beneficial early-career, due to the exposure to a larger range of tasks. However, in my experience, I currently work at a larger company. I enjoy working within a large company and working with individuals across other teams and departments to complete larger projects but work within a specialized function for those projects. As a result, I likely am not exposed to the same wide range of skills that an individual within a start-up may build. However, within my current role, I am able to focus more on research rather than having to complete other tasks across other functions, which is helpful in ensuring that your work is being completed at your highest level and that you are not being taken away from actually conducting research. 

@atk27njit-edu I agree with many points you bring up, but wanted to add that smaller companies usually have positions that blend multiple roles. So while you may have worked as a design engineer per say, at a smaller company you learn a bit of quality, a bit of process, a bit of of even management, as in my experiences smaller companies usually merge these roles (Think of QC/QA just being under a singular title or department from our prior lectures).  For the post itself, working in a start-up in my opinion is a both a good way to launch your career in the filed, but understand that its a gamble in terms of relativity if you want to use if to boost immediately to larger companies. Sometimes taking steps of small company to slightly bigger to slightly bigger is the way to proceed if you start very low. Of course this can be accelerated by further education, projects, other certifications or completions.

As a supplier quality engineer co-op (and working full time over the summer) for a relatively large biomedical company, I can confirm that specificity is much more prevalent. I spoke to someone recently who currently works at Medtronic, but has had many years of experience on the side of start-up companies, and they mentioned how you become a jack of all trades for companies with not a lot of people. Many jobs end up becoming your responsibility because there is simply no one else to do it. This can be stressful, but also teaches you how to handle multiple different tasks that being a part of a large company would not allow you to do. As a supplier quality engineer, for example, my scope stays mainly in the area of nonconformance reports and working on first-article documents. This means that with regards to testing or working on the changing of specifications for parts is not in my range. If I were a part of a smaller start-up company, I would assume my job would include outreach in departments not just in quality, but may also include testing, or even involving tooling from different molds that may produce components used in medical devices. I feel like a larger company teaches you more about how a business runs and a smaller company teaches you more about how to handle multiple different departments within the company. 

I believe it all depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for a stable, reliable job with the potential to remain in the same company for decades, you should look at larger, more reliable companies. However, if you want to be "thrown into the fire" and get more learning experiences, working at a start-up company would be better. In my opinion, beginning your career at a start-up company will provide more learning experiences that can benefit you in the long run. In a small company, you may be asked to do tasks or work on problems completely out of your normal scope of work. This allows for growth and development. However, there is always risk associated with a small company, so if you want a reliable job then choose a larger company. It all depends on if you are risk-averse or willing to take risks. Neither option is wrong, just depends on the type of individual you are.

Being an intern is very different than being a co-op which is very different than being a salaried employee. Once you are salaried, you have a lot of respect. You are a permanent employee, you get benefits. You will see what I mean. I would choose a company that has values and goals that align with you. You will only be happy if you like the culture, after all. Also, you will learn a lot as well. As for size of the company, the larger the company, the better the benefits. Your benefits take a nosedive, the smaller the company you join. I would suggest trying to find a job in a Fortune 500 company. 

@tamanna While I agree with you that working in a smaller company can offer valuable exposure to multiple areas, I would also like to make note of the downside that being spread too thin across multiple departments can limit the depth or expertise gained in one area. Similar to biomedical engineering as a field of undergraduate study, while you get to learn a little bit of biology, chemistry, physics, and math, one may miss out on becoming highly specialized in a certain field. This is not particularly desirable for applying to jobs either as they would like subject matter experts. Balancing breadth with depth of experience is ultimately crucial for one’s long term career goals. For those studying biomedical engineering, do you think the broad exposure you learned early on helped more in the long run or do you think having a specific specialty could have accelerated you in a better way?

Since I have been in school continuously and went straight into my PhD I don't have the most insight in choosing the right first job, but I do have experience at both small and big companies in terms of internships and co-ops. My first real work experience was at a small company doing hardware project management. It taught me a lot not only in terms of business skills but how smaller companies/start ups handle employees, what type of work load do different positions carry, and how pay is structured. Then as I transitioned into bigger companies for co-ops, I saw how different the structure was, what being an employee was like. Obviously things change depending on the field but at least in R&D I found myself enjoying larger companies more, mainly because the budget I had with my projects allowed me to explore different research tools that I wouldn't normally have access too at a smaller company mainly due to cost. Being able to freely use a half a million dollar instrument at these companies made my research more efficient and to me I learned a lot more. 

@reginabarias Yes! Thank you for bringing up the points that its difficult to land a 'dream job' right after college, and that you may end up staying in the job that you land longer than you'd like. I feel these points are brought up or really focused on enough. As a new grad, sometimes unfortunately, you have to accept whatever you're offered, depending on your situation. Some people are eager to just jump in, some have financial burdens that they need to address as soon as possible after graduation, some may have difficulty finding a job in their area for what they studied so they need to accept something tangential, or not exactly as how they would've wanted it. Moving on from said job can also be difficult for the same reasons.

In my personal experience, I accepted a job offer right before graduating and moved up in the company from an Engineering Tech, to Associate Engineer, and now to Process Development Engineer. The company that I work for is a mid sized private Medical Device Manufacturer. The company is private as its family owned. I feel due to the midsize and the company being private, I have been able to move up, but pretty much close to as far as I can go. As stated above, I think a startup would be an excellent idea for a fresh Engineer out of college, as the exposure to many different things is invaluable. However, going from that to a large corporation would also be helpful in that they can begin to specialize. Larger corporations also offer more room to grow in titles, the disadvantage though, is that you may stagnant in your specific responsibility. Any Engineer should go through different types to round themselves out and learn flexibility, different skillsets, and gain confidence in their ability to face a problem.

The answer of this question may vary people to people. I believe that start-up and established compnay both have pros and cons. As pros of start-ups are: Exposure to Many Areas and Rapid Learning. Cons of start-ups are: Uncertainty, Heavy Workload. On the other hand pros of established companies are: Mentorship and stability. cons of start-ups: Less Exposure to Other Areas. 

So if we look at both sides have pros and cons. Now how can we find suitable initial jobs? I believe that one should choose skill development. A company where fresh engineers can learn new skills for industry jobs should be chosen regardless of startup or established. If someone has good skills then he can get a job anywhere in the future. 

The answer of this question may vary people to people. I believe that start-up and established compnay both have pros and cons. As pros of start-ups are: Exposure to Many Areas and Rapid Learning. Cons of start-ups are: Uncertainty, Heavy Workload. On the other hand pros of established companies are: Mentorship and stability. cons of start-ups: Less Exposure to Other Areas. 

So if we look at both sides have pros and cons. Now how can we find suitable initial jobs? I believe that one should choose skill development. A company where fresh engineers can learn new skills for industry jobs should be chosen regardless of startup or established. If someone has good skills then he can get a job anywhere in the future. 

I think that it is up to your own preference. I always believe that if you consider fresh-out-of-school employment to be the time to learn and pick up several skills, start up is the way to go because most of the time, you will be responsible for more than things in the contract, hence learn a lot skills and knowledge in the field. This is specially suitable for those who are flexible and easy to adapt to a dense workload. However, do expect unorganized scheme. On the other hand, if you want a stable job with laid out procedures and clear organization of work and procedure, a big company in the industry is ideal for you. But in this situation, it is likely that they are just going to exploit the skills that you already have or specifically train you on on skills for that particular position, hence limiting the exploration of the career for yourself. 

Both smaller and larger companies can offer great benefits for fresh graduates. Starting at a large company, you may have to start off with a lesser title, but after a few years you will be able to say you worked for a large, prestigious company which could land you a great job somewhere else, probably much easier than when you didn't have this on your resume. You will also probably start off at a higher salary than at a smaller place. However, starting at a smaller company gives you the opportunity to start off higher on the ladder, possibly even as a lead engineer. If the company fails to succeed, this experience may not be as impressive on your resume though, and you will probably start off making less money than at a larger company at a lesser role. If the company does take off though, you could either stick with the company and move up even higher, or use the prestige you gained from being a big part of that company to move into a managerial role at a large one.