To paraphrase Chekhov - All large companies are the same. All small companies are different in their own different ways.
IMHO large, corporate-style companies all appear to have read the same manuals on how to organize a company, so, minor variations aside, you know what you're going to get.
Small companies don't hire from the same sources or don't reach critical mass in any departments to start down the track of the larger companies, so your experience there may vary a lot, for good and bad.
I've spent approx. 12 years at large multinational engineering companies and 8 at small/medium size companies. I am now at a good, medium-size one (~150 employees, all told), and unless things change dramatically, this is where I'll have to clean out my office when I retire.
Edit: To elaborate a little, I think the sweet spot where you are quite likely to find a decent experience is in a company which employs at least several tens of people, but no more than a couple hundred.
Why? Because by the time it has reached that size, you will have dedicated people (that is, people allowed to spend time to become good at their niche, rather than being generalists) for most functions.
Still, the company is small enough that most people in the organization at least are familiar to each other, making most interaction more flexible (IMHO) than if you're at a huge corporation where anybody is viewed as an easily replaceable resource.
IMHO large, corporate-style companies all appear to have read the same manuals on how to organize a company, so, minor variations aside, you know what you're going to get.
Small companies don't hire from the same sources or don't reach critical mass in any departments to start down the track of the larger companies, so your experience there may vary a lot, for good and bad.
I've spent approx. 12 years at large multinational engineering companies and 8 at small/medium size companies. I am now at a good, medium-size one (~150 employees, all told), and unless things change dramatically, this is where I'll have to clean out my office when I retire.
Edit: To elaborate a little, I think the sweet spot where you are quite likely to find a decent experience is in a company which employs at least several tens of people, but no more than a couple hundred.
Why? Because by the time it has reached that size, you will have dedicated people (that is, people allowed to spend time to become good at their niche, rather than being generalists) for most functions.
Still, the company is small enough that most people in the organization at least are familiar to each other, making most interaction more flexible (IMHO) than if you're at a huge corporation where anybody is viewed as an easily replaceable resource.