Small vs Big offices?
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- freedom
What are your thoughts on working at small (4-12 people) vs. big (20-10,000 people companies)?
Do small workplaces give you better projects, more control? Or are larger places better just because of more interesting people and potentially better benefits and perks?
I can understand why people go off and do their own thing, but never understand why a 5 person team is more appealing unless they're all best buddies.
- jtb260
For me (others experiences may vary) I really enjoyed working in a 10 person shop. I had a lot more control over the work, but that didn't necessarily mean better projects or clients. In our case we had a hand full of nationally/internationally known brands, but for the most part we took on underdogs. Clients who had something great but were either new or just getting their act together. This was fun and you could see a direct correlation between your work and their success however these clients were often challenging. They required a lot of education and patience. It made it harder to do what you thought was right in a lot of cases.
I worked at a larger agency of about 30 (which is not really large at all) and I felt slightly less free to do what I thought needed to be done. If there was an improvement to be made and I tried to make it I inevitably ran up against someone who wanted to squash it, or run it through more channels which made change slow or impossible.
I've also worked in house at much larger places and jesus fuck. Just forget it. The bureaucracy was impossible to deal with. You get into a place that's to corporate and new ideas are just shat on.
To your last comment, a smaller team becomes close by virtue of being small. I didn't know many of the folks I was working with when I left my last agency and I felt like we were pretty tight as far as coworkers go.
- freedom0
Anyone know what it's like to work at a company like Apple, where design is taken real seriously?
I can understand that "the bureaucracy is impossible to deal with" if you're working in the design department of a pharmaceutical company or something like that.
- monNom0
Interesting factoid: Apple's product design department is 18 people.
- organicgrid0
Here is what Apple is paying:
Director Design: 175k
Apple Senior Art Director: 139k
Ux Designer: 130k
Art Director: 115k
Senior Visual Designer: 115k
Web Designer: 106k
Art Director Web Team: 105k
Senior Designer: 105k
Genius Bar Specialist: 26k- how much of them do they have?uan
- Remember Apple is around the Bay Area, so these salaries are relative.iCanHazQBN
- Relative because housing is so much $$$?freedom
- These salaries are kind of on the low to mid range for Silicon Valleyorganicgrid
- _me_0
ive grown a few companies in my time from 2 - 24, 5 - 45, 12 - 120
theres a massive difference once you get past 40ppl - i'll never go there again...