Worse Job at an Amazing Company or Better Job at a Worse Company

Typically, you should always take the better job at a less known/glamorous company.

But let's say the company is Google or Goldman.

Would you really take a better job at a Yahoo or a Yahoo equivalent in banking over a so-so gig at the most prestigious of institutions. Let's be honest here.

13 Comments
 

Not working full-time/in-industry, but:

Better job over better company, 100%. Depending on the job, it's easier to transfer companies in the same job function early in your career. Changing industries is harder, but definitely still doable with only a couple years' experience.

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

Also depends on the job. If you were looking at, say, CorpDev at Yahoo! versus CorpFin (MO) at GS, I'd take CorpDev at Yahoo because it's extremely hard to move from MO/BO to FO. If you were talking CorpFin at Google vs CorpDev at Yahoo, then that might be something to think about. Though, honestly, I'd still probably go the Dev route.

It really just depends on the exact situation and the person's goals. Every situation and every job offer is unique.

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

Yes. Understand IB or MO/BO.

But say you're given the chance to do Biz Dev. at Yahoo or Finance at Google (which has much better benefits and work culture/prestige). However, Finance in tech semi BO considering you're not actually helping a product grow, but rather in a support role.

 
Best Response

It's not semi-back office, it's back office. FO for, say Google, is going to be their sales reps. All front offices aren't created equal.

Also depends on what you mean by BizDev, I'm assuming you mean sales. I'd go with corpfin because a) I like Google and b) I want to work in finance. If you want to do sales, go to BizDev at Yahoo.

If you actually meant CorpDev (M&A), I'd go get a couple of years' experience at Yahoo and then try and move to Google CorpDev or another company. That's just because I've never been a particularly big fan of Yahoo.

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

People don't seem to understand how difficult that is. There are probably 1,000 people (that's a lowball estimate) in BO jobs on WS that want to move up. I guarantee you that less than 1% will make it happen without going for a top MBA.

The better way to do it would be to get the job at Piper, kill it, and lateral to GS or Google.

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

Biz Dev at major tech companies is a bit more than pure ad sales. While, it may be situated under the sales department, it's a mix of product strategy and strategic partnerships as well. These are typically much more competitive jobs to get than corp finance roles at large tech companies.

 

I don't think you can generalize on this, because different companies have different paths for progression. I know some people who started off their careers (in operations, not finance) at big name companies and do not regret it at all. One person told me that working in a well known company is a great leg up - he was eventually offered a C-level executive position at a smaller company, and was known as the guy from [big company]. That said, Yahoo is also pretty well known...

 

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