Is it better to work for a larger, established tech company, or should you take your chances with a more agile start-up? It's a choice that confronts most IT people at some point in their careers - and certainly there are pros and cons to both scenarios.

A tier-one technology firm offers an abundance of financial and personnel resources but, as a tradeoff, you have to put up with more politics, the entanglements of bureaucracy and a slow-footed process for installing new technology. On the other hand, start-ups - while they offer fewer resources, longer work hours and less job security - tend to be less bureaucratic and offer the chance to learn a variety of skills.

The decision about which environment to work in is both a tactical and a strategic. Ultimately, the result can mold you into a technology generalist or pigeonhole you as an IT specialist. New companies, which never have enough resources, are always on the hunt for solid generalists. "You have to wear a lot more hats, so you have to be extremely flexible," says Eric Herzog, an IT professional Sunnyvale, Calif., who has worked for two Fortune 500 storage companies and several start-ups during a career that spans more than 20 years.

"If I'm a small company, I need everything that Chase Manhattan does," says Herzog. "I have applications, security concerns, storage needs and mobile devices that have to be managed. So, I need someone who is good at a lot of different things, not just an expert in one thing. Some people don't like the rigid structure of working in a big company. They absolutely hate it. If that is the case, they must develop flexible skills."

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, many occupations within IT will be at the leading edge of job growth for at least another ten years. And although that growth is expected to be slower than it once was, the number of IT jobs may increase more than twice as quickly as all other occupations, on average.

Jacks of All Trades

At the same time, IT workers are noticing that job descriptions are becoming quite lengthy. Even big companies expect their workers to know more than what's within the scope of their particular job. Firms seek database administrators who can code or people with IT backgrounds who also sell. "These people are extremely difficult to find," says one IT worker, who requested anonymity. "The job requirements these days just keep getting longer and longer."

Furthermore, many observers expect consolidation among large companies to continue over the next few years. Some IT veterans suggest working for a big firm doesn't offer the kind of security and stability it once did. The result: Being a master of one specialty could be careering-limiting even within a big company, particularly if you want to move into a management role. "Going deep in one thing is excellent, but staying deep only in one thing is not necessarily good for career growth," says Brian Guild, a senior information security engineer with Broadcom in Boston, which boasts 7,000 employees.

"If I had worked at just larger companies, I would be doing something similar to what I did when I started working in IT," says Guild. "Small companies allow you to get experience in other disciplines compared to larger firms. If you are coming out of college, then a start-up gives you a lot of experiences doing different things. Then you can take that experience with you to a larger company."

Others agree that, in general, larger companies are more likely to consider your specialty experience as the key factor in hiring. The specialty is critical to the business unit you will be placed in, while "the general stuff you can outsource for cheap," says Mounil Patel, who has worked as a CIO at several start-ups and is now a global practice director at Hopkinton, Mass.-based EMC's Rainfinity unit. "Your business advantage is what your specialist employees offer."

Still, many professionals find the start-up experience exhilarating: "Personally, I think working for technology start-ups is more fun," says Patel. "They tend to be more agile. For instance, larger companies tend to be laggards in adopting new technology. Change is difficult. Implementing the newest Microsoft Outlook can be a year-long process."