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When I graduated, I thought getting into a web development job meant I get to work in a group of at least a handful of developers, and seniors can teach this young Padawan their tricks of the trade. In my experience, when I get hired as a junior web developer I'm usually have really limited contact and collaboration with one or two other developers (because we seldom work on the same projects), or sometimes I'm the only one that knows how to code.

I've grown to hate these "lone wolf" positions and would rather work in a highly collaborative environment full of other programming geeks. Most of these places tend to outsource technical work, and I prefer face-to-face communication with peers in my dept.

I like the small-company culture but at the same time, there's such a thing as too small, to the point where there's little actual technical work done in-house so I can't get any expert advice.

Because my experience is anecdotal, I don't think I am getting the big picture as to the sizes and structures of web dev companies. So my related questions...

Is my lack of experience with large in-house teams due to the fact that I mostly get hired by consulting firms that do client work?

Do companies that create their own products have a vastly different structure?

What should I look for in a company if I want to get into a larger, in-house development team?

Robert Harvey
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JustChris
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The difference you notice is between a company that views the software as a Cost Center vs. a Profit Center.

If the bread and butter of the company is the software or SaaS that they are selling then they are more likely to invest the large sums of money into the software that would be necessary to employ a large team.

On the other hand if you are contracted to do a project for internal clients then it is viewed as overhead and it is a lot harder to justify a large SD team.

maple_shaft
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I think it all boils down to the size of the projects/sites. Not all sites require a team of developers.

When building websites is not the company's line of business, they're more likely to hire someone outside to build it rather than have to hire 5 devs from day one. Some start with one dev and grow a larger team because they've become accustomed and can utilze an in house team.

A niche site can survive with one dev, but I'm guessing to get some scale and make money requires a bigger group. If software is your business, I can't imagine farming the whole thing out unless you're a dev and you feel you have the expertise to manage several independant contractors.

Look for jobs that require candidates to be able to work with a team. It's not a guarantee that you'll be on muli-developer websites, but it's a start.

JeffO
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Actually, I'd think some consulting firms would be what you want, e.g. Thoughtworks. The idea here being to find those companies that are bragged within development circles and held as a high-end place to work. Granted there are probably some consulting places that may be more like sweat shops so some care has to be done to find the right kind of place.

I'd imagine companies creating their own products can vary between various extremes. In some cases you may have little structure and be dealing with taming the wild west at one end while the other may be oodles of bureaucracy if the company is used to doing everything with a ton of paperwork.

My suggestion would be to find local user groups and see how people will talk about various companies. Does there seem to be a general high regard for some companies or people? While it may not be easy, this could be a way to get various opinions on companies by talking to those in the trenches.

JB King
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