Both of these share their own importances and have wide differences in functioning, lifestyle, work culture, ambience etc. Working at each of them has its own pros and cons. Let us see what are the striking differences among them that can be of interest to you. Here onwards I shall designate MNC by M and a startup with S.

M: Large coffee machines, surplus supply of beverage, good enough for coffee/tea addicts.

S: Limited supply of beverages, may vary depending on where startup is located, its own office, or a business incubation center.

M: Manager says, you need to be in the office at 9:00AM sharp, they are aussies, ahead of us by 4.5 hrs. We need to bridge this gap. Mails need to be checked every second. Sticking your ass in the office without doing anything is the motto. Punch the clock, 9:15 hrs a day. Some companies have started a early bird offer, earlier you reach the office, say before 8:30 AM, you acquire credit points making you eligible for the lucky draw coupon of Rs 500, Rs 1000 and so on.

S: A product based startup, timings are flexible, no one is going to ask you to push your ass at 9:00AM. But you have critical goals and targets to be achieved, which are of extreme significance for the startup. Hence, you cannot simply laze around in the office. You need to get things done and if you are passionate about work, this can be your dream come true.

M: Please display your ID, where is your ID. I hate this. You are like one in a million. Just another piece of shit in the campus.

S: You know everyone else. The whole comapny is a team and you are a integral part of the company. ID card?  I don’t remember the last time I wore it. Only thing you need is the incubation center’s access card. No one is going to pester you to hang the id round the clock, as if you may be a terrorist.

M: Dress Code. This is the most fascinating part. Mondays-Tuesdays- Ultra Formal, Wed-Thurs- Mild Formals, Fridays-Freedom, but with a limit, off course. Thank god they do not have any restriction your undies.

S: Dress is not a restriction. Work is all what matters. But that doesn’t mean that you can park yourself in the office wearing your sleeping t shirt and shorts .

M: Use of brain, minimal, rather its a rare event. And if you are a fresher, I suppose you will be doomed in most of the cases, they treat you really fresh. They may put you in some low profile, time consuming work and may not listen or ascertain your technical capabilities.

S: Ideas are supposed to nurture in a startup. Brainstorming and impelmentation of cool  thoughts to reality is inevitable.

P.S. Writings here are solely based on writer’s life experience and may not match up with the real scenarios or your beliefs. Contradications are likely to occur. Comments are welcome.