TECH BASICS
Big Tech
The handful of massive companies that shape most of the industry.
The simple version
"Big Tech" refers to a small group of very large, established technology companies — think household names with tens of thousands of employees — as opposed to startups or smaller scale-ups still growing into their size.
For example
A recent graduate choosing between an offer at a household-name tech giant versus a 40-person startup is choosing between two very different Big Tech vs. startup experiences.
Go deeper
Big Tech companies usually offer more structure, more mentorship, bigger pay and benefits, and narrower individual scope — you often work deep in one small part of a huge system rather than touching a whole product.
Why it matters
Neither Big Tech nor startup is "better" — they're different trade-offs (structure and stability vs. ownership and speed), and it's worth knowing which one you'd actually enjoy.