What I did most recently was to start out as a contractor and get a feel for the place. I found a good fit with some other skills (started out as a Vertica admin and got drafted to do some C++/SIMD work, and some stats, and now DW design/dev).
In the end I looked for the same things you would at a startup: growth, revenue, and technical fit, and found a good opportunity within a huge multinational. I've since filed a couple of (provisional) patents, and we're growing like crazy, so our exec got promoted.
We still have a lot of issues like others describe here with Conway's law, inter-group coordination, and so on, but we have clear goals and metrics.
In contrast, I had a previous job at Microsoft that completely stagnated, even as the rest of the company was booming. It really depends on the opportunity.
In the end I looked for the same things you would at a startup: growth, revenue, and technical fit, and found a good opportunity within a huge multinational. I've since filed a couple of (provisional) patents, and we're growing like crazy, so our exec got promoted.
We still have a lot of issues like others describe here with Conway's law, inter-group coordination, and so on, but we have clear goals and metrics.
In contrast, I had a previous job at Microsoft that completely stagnated, even as the rest of the company was booming. It really depends on the opportunity.