The advantages of programming can be explored for a long time, but one of the most important is the variety of jobs, projects and technologies that it involves. Almost every market sector needs programmers and job offers are not short. There is something "nice" for everyone. The essence of being a programmer is to write code and program an application. It is a common part independent of whether you work in a corporation or in software house.
When deciding to work as a software developer, however, it is worth taking into account the specificity of the company in which you will work. Despite the apparent similarity, the work of a programmer in the internal IT department of a large "corpo" will differ from that of a developer in a small software house or an interactive agency. Before you choose your ideal environment, it's worthwhile to familiarize yourself with the advantages and disadvantages of each of them - and I hope you'll find this text helpful.
Corporation
Many programmers, especially those on the junior level, will at some point find themselves in this mythical "corporation" - the kingdom of open space,"dedicationists" and large, international teams. Many people, listening to stories about bureaucracy and notorious overtime, are afraid to work in banks or FMCG companies. Often wrongly, apart from a few "insect-like plums", corporations do everything they can to deserve to be called attractive employers.
What are the advantages of working in a company?
Attractive projects
Working for a global organisation often involves projects on a similar scale. With a little luck, you can be involved in a project that will have an impact on the functioning of a large part of the company, with a real impact on the lives of employees. In addition, they are often complex projects, involving the creation of a technologically advanced system - and such an experience included in the CV is not to be despised.
International working environment
This statement returns like a mantra in all job advertisements for corporations and it is not to be disguised, it has a lot of truth within itself. It is common practice in large companies to bring together teams from different countries, sometimes even from two different parts of the world, into projects. It is a great opportunity not only to practice English, but also to get to know the realities of a job based on remote communication. Not to mention that it is also nice to see how programmers from other countries encode.
Opportunity to get to know the specifics of business
Working in the internal IT department necessarily requires an understanding of the industry's specificity, which can be a great advantage for future careers. Knowledge of the specific nature of banking systems is particularly valuable - financial institutions are very favourable to people with such experience, assuming that it will take less time to implement such a programmer.
Training
Much can be said about corporations, but certainly not that they save on training and courses for programmers. Many companies allocate to each employee an annual budget for technical skills development only. This is a great advantage for any programmer, but especially for juniors, who give priority to broadening their knowledge.
Corporate minuses
A conservative approach to technology
The corporations are not rather places where you can count on testing the latest technological innovations. Many corporations rely on certain technologies that have been proven on the market, which may not be very interesting for developers. Companies often also create their own internal tools, useful for projects inside the company, but relatively useless in the labour market.
Structures in order
Everything has its place in the corporation, which also applies to tasks assigned to programmers. The project team has testers, business analysts, SCRUM masters at their disposal... programmers are supposed to encode, encode and recode again, which means that there is not much room for the development of competences in other areas.
Minor impact on technologies
The very limited influence on the technologies used is one of the realities of working in a corporation. The technological stack is often imposed from above and is not flexible, which can be frustrating for the programmer.
Software house
Another place of work that many programmers will find their CV through is software house, a company for which the main source of income is software development for other companies. They can be international organizations, but they can also count a few people - the cross-section is quite big. For many programmers, they are dream jobs, but let's look at it from the side.
What are the advantages of working in software house?
Large variety of projects
A typical software house has many clients and works in design, which is connected with the possibility of participating in projects dedicated to different industries and with different specificities. This ensures a lack of boredom at work and broadens the business horizons. Additionally, in a software house, he rarely participates in so-called "maintenance projects" aimed only at repairing possible errors in software.