Infographic: The pros and cons of working at a startup

Free lunches and Foosball tables might be perceived as popular benefits among offices these days, but company perks didn’t even make it to the top five pros of working at a startup in VentureVillage’s online survey of more than 150 participants. When asked what employees liked most about working at a young company, the most commonly named reasons were good team dynamics and an open work environment.

“For the most part, the culture of a startup is very different to a large, established corporation. It feels more personal, and employee ideas still have a chance of being heard,” wrote one participant.

On the other hand, survey respondents — who worked across a variety of departments with highest participation from marketing, business development and engineering — named a lack of organisational structure and low salary as the downsides of joining a startup.

Though a certain amount of hype can be good for a startup ecosystem in terms of bringing in talent, it can also breed a culture of self-righteousness and “evangelic startup people preaching that their companies are something like the Mecca”, said one respondent.

To see how your experience stacks up or whether the startup life is for you, take a look at our infographic weighing the pros and cons of working at a startup (click for full size).

This story originally appeared on VentureVillage.

This story originally appeared on VentureVillage. Copyright 2013