Company Size does matter

Beside all that shits and knife dodging in a job, it all cames down to the CV, a single sheet of paper that sells for you before you present yourself to do the selling. Ignoring that its have full of accomplishments, its promote and make achievements shine, there are other matters that are seldom talked and are factors when HR review yr CV

1) the progressive size of the company (in term of market cap) in your career. A employer will always prefer someone from a big company over a smaller company even if the same person have the same achievements. Yes, it is sad fact of life. There are exception but these are only exception for those few excellent individual who is able to sell themselves personally AFTER their CV passed the first filter

2) if you moved from coy (market cap of 1M) to the same position of another coy (market cap of 1B), it a "promotion". The same position of a large company carries bigger job scope and bigger responsibilities. It looks better in CV and HR people recognize it.

It is also a "promotion" if you moved to smaller company but of much higher position.

Therefore, a strategy to climb the corporate ladder, is to start from big company and then move to smaller (in higher position) company.

ps: If you move from a smaller company, no HR will risk letting you be in a equivalent or higher position from where you came from.

Which Industry?

For career planning, beside knowing your strengths is not enough. To be focus, it is better to stay within a particular industry. And it is wrong to see IT as one industry. It is a very bad representation and very inaccurate description.

IT in banks is different from IT in vendors and I suspects is different from other part of the economy. Architects in Bank plays the role of innovators and is at the leading edge of technology. They investigate new technologies and establish the best practice and standards in using them. They ensure and inspects the development team that took over using the standards and best practice.

So staying in one industry for the long term works best for career as employers values a CV with long track record. The question is then finding out which industry provides the best environment to exhibits your strengths and interest.

Talking to tons of people will help and I believe trying multiple different company in the early years of your career will add to your experiences in deciding where to go and where to stay.