Re: Career Advice
Good Luck!
Smaller businesses have their advantages. You have a closer relationship with the higher ups, not a number to a corporate office. The environment is also very different.
I personally took a job at small startup company in Cleveland over a small, but well established company. Reason for this was the startup company emphasized more on life/work balance, better working environment, less corporate politics, more face to face meeting with bosses/managers/co-workers/owners. It is a very relaxed work environment, stress free and working here has been very fun actually.
As for the other company, at first you would think, "Wow this place is awesome!" We got free food, nerf gun wars, everyone was a fellow gamer/nerd. So it was cool. Then you realize that you have to work 10-12 hours a day, nerf gun wars meant you had to stay at work longer, the free food was there so you don't have to leave and can put in more work, sometimes you have to work over the weekend, the politics sucked. Had a coworker contact me and when he didn't get a reply within 5 minutes he reported to the higher ups. I had to take screen shots and computed my average response time and compared it to his average response time to show that it wasa misunderstanding on his part (putting this nicely, guy was douche). There was also zero training at the other job, no yearly raises, extremely long hours with weekends, etc etc corporate bullcrap.
Anyway, sorry if that became a rant, but I personally do not like working for corporate companies. I hope that working for younger company also gives me room to move in the future. Also, you are only a year younger than I am, so this is just the beginning of our careers.
I would like to add, like someone else mentioned, focus on your education and build career. School sucks, a lot, but its necessary. Unless you want to be a business man and open up your own shop or something.
I wish you the best of luck!!