Advantages and disadvantages of super small company?

A head hunter approached me with a really really really good offer financially. The job would be in a highly specialized super small company - 10 people with secretary. I never was in such a small thing and somehow I don't feel that I like the idea. I have a super stable job as a university prof starting this fall but with significantly less money. I am confused and not sure what is a rational thing to do. I fear that this 10 man mickey mouse company isn't big enough to be stable. There is money in what they do: basically expertise for industry and insurance in case of problems and claims, but is it enough money to feed long term 10 people.....And things will just run differently in such small thing compared to my current employer with 700+ man.

edit: and the thing is that they are so small that amount of info on the internet about them is negligible. So not a single evaluation how they are as an employer.

edit2: the more I think about it the less I like the idea

Well, the stability part sounds like it's easily investigated through financial records they maybe have to disclose by law? I'd also focus on the question as to whether you think the tasks they will have you do compare well vs. what you will be doing in the fall. Im not sure what you do but Im assuming that you might be doing some research and other stuff as a university prof? Highly specialized can sound either great or terrible wrt work diversity. It sounds like you're not on board to begin with though so ...

Good point with trying to find their financial records.

As a prof I have to read some lectures and a huge chunk of time is not in doing any research myself but organizing funds to be able to have few phds and post-docs to do research.

In this company I would to investigate various claims and problems in the chemical plants industry.

I find the second task more interesting. From my experience I do really well in finding out what caused this or that problem. But I have to take into consideration that it is specialized and if I take it then i will have problems afterwards to change the tracks.


So........ for now I have to try to find out their financial records. I am not sure if they have to disclose it, because the size is so small, but I am going to find it out.

8 years since I've been in Denver but at the time: Capital Grille, Pasquinis, Sushi Den for nicer meals

Tony's pizza, taste of Philly for cheap food.

Cuba Cuba is a nice restaurant and bar. Forest Room 5 was my favorite bar.

Trying to remember others but it's been a long time. Hopefully someone who's been there more recently or lives there will come along to help out.

Long term stability of a small company doesn't depend on their current financial records that much imo.

Small companies tend to have a small number of clients. A couple of them leaving at the same time can be a big hit to the income. Finding new clients also takes longer. A couple of employees leaving at the same time can also be a big hit. These things can cause small companies to end much easier than a big company

Definitely, but I kinda got from the story that Lapka has no idea what is going on financially and I know that over here its fairly easy to just dig up some report which is mandatory to have just to get the slightest of insight. Small companies are usually much more volatile, can't argue that.

Tx Mr. M.

I appreciate every piece of input on this. I am somehow seriously undecided. I am also afraid how the things are organized. I mean I am used to have HR department, IT department, accounting and generally have a good infrastructure. In this small company there is no HR and no IT and a secretary does also all accounting tasks. On one side I like to be admin on my PC, on the other side ...... all problems that had been solved for me in this would be mine.

If you aren't comfortable with the idea of such a small company and you like your other job then don't do it.

lapka,
I don't know what the small company does, so maybe this is off-target. But I would not assume that you would get to "investigate various claims and problems" for them in the same way that you can do it as an academic. Depending on who the company represents, it may turn out that you're responsible for developing evidence to support a pre-determined opinion, rather than determining the "truth". If you're an academic, you might find this completely distasteful and biased and not real problem-solving.

(The analogy for me is litigation consulting, where an academic might be approached by one party to a lawsuit and then the job is to prepare supporting evidence for that party, regardless of whether you think they're in the right.)

That would be complete deal breaker. And I know myself, I wouldn't be able to go against what I think is the truth. Tx for this POV. I haven't thought of this and that might very well be possible here.

Based on this alone I would say to avoid small companies.

I was stunned to find out today that Cocktail has a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score of only 5%.

That is one underrated movie. (To be fair, it has an audience score of 58%.)

That movie is a ton of fun. It gets a bit ridiculous late when it asks the audience to take it seriously, but whatever, I stop on it if I ever see it on TV.

Why don't you talk to them about exactly what the position will be and also discuss your concerns about working for a small company? How they respond should give you a better indication if this is a viable opportunity.

This is the plan. Posting it here added few points that I will be talking with them about.

Have you been a university prof before? Don't know what it's like there (would students still have to call you Frau Professor Doktor Lapka?), but here university jobs are tough to get. It would be a lot easier to find a corporate job if you didn't like professoring than it would be to find another university job if you didn't like working at the small company.

The other thing over here is that you would almost always start as an assistant professor. You would be on tenure track, but have no permanent job security for a few years until you pass your tenure review and get promoted to associate professor, which can be very stressful for people who aren't that motivated to get funding, do research and publish.

Personally, I get bored doing the same thing every day. A small company ensures this won't be the case.

I also dislike when I can't make improvements to the company. When it's big enough, it's incredibly hard to make anything change. When it's small, it's easy. 700 is still movable though, so I'd consider that to be secondary.

Long term stability isn't a concern for me really. If you have skills that are likely to be marketable in five years time, you will be able to move with a better CV.

lapka - can you do part time consulting for the mickey mouse company for some period of time while being a professor? That would give you direct insight into the company without having to give up the professorship. Then you could make a decision after having more information and exposure to the company.

No idea about Euro companies but in the USA #1 they don't have to disclose squat except to the IRS (income tax) unless they are publicly traded.

Or take the job in the summer like right now, assuming school is out. If you like the job, then notify your school before the semester starts.

I'm stunned at 5% too. I would've thought closer to 2%.

I don't have any furniture except shelves and a mattress so far, but 60% of books put up on shelves = 60% moved in.

I guess all your 2p2 books are in the far left part that didn't get in the pic.

Must be in the other 40%. Only explanation.