Ask HN: What is the ideal company size where I can grow as a developer? I am sure this is more art than science. But there has got to be a good general size.
I asked people on reddit what was the best way to grow as a dev and become better, and the overwhelming majority told me that working under good devs is the best and fastest way to do it. The question remains what size is ideal. Should I join a small startup or a medium sized company or a large one? What has been your experience? |
Depends upon how you define better. For many people that means becoming more employable, such as hot trends using a tool or framework. For me becoming better means writing original software solving challenging original problems.
After interviewing exhaustively over the past year the aspect that determines better is not so much company size but quality of leadership.
Most people in software have no idea what leadership looks like, which makes evaluating for strong leadership all but impossible. If you want to get better you need momma bird to kick you out of the nest so that you are forced to spread your wings.
what does it look like according to you?
Finally some people want a figurehead who sets a clear direction and trusts everyone to move towards that goal and self organise, and otherwise leaves you alone. Many people say they want this and then when given it run away screaming.