I've never worked in the corporate world as an employee, but I've worked long-term contracts as a freelancer with both Corporations large and small, and also large-ish non-profits.
My take-way: I'd take the corporate world over the non-profits any day of the week. The office politics level was so high that you'd quickly see it and its effects even when you only had like five in-person meetings and a few phone calls. It seeped into everything and it was just annoying. They were very laid back and the pace was a joke in comparison, but they all seemed to attract a type of personality that I don't want to work with (or maybe those are who remain and they run off all the nice people). Plus endless committees.
Granted, non of them were technical non-profits, they were just non-profits that also needed tech stuff done, and as mentioned, they were not small, so things might be very different in a small organization that doesn't yet have local, regional, state and federal levels.
Yeah, I guess with any sort of organisation, corporate, academic, non-profit or otherwise, there's a tonne of variety. I've mainly been a non-profit boy, some have been great, others a completely shit-show. I'm European, and the scene here's very different to the US. YMMV.
I guess my thought here in my original reply was that one thing they can offer over corporates are cool problems to work on. I've got a lot of friends who do OSINT stuff, for example.
A good non-profit gig is a thing of beauty, I'm very happy with what I'm up to now, but that's me. Bad ones, sure, you'd probably be better off at a shitty corporate. Same with any work, homework on your prospective employer is essential.
I'm in Europe, too, Germany to be exact. I believe the issues you get with larger organizations turning into self-sustaining bureaucracies are probably global, Peter and Hull were on to something. I hope your gig stays the way you like it!
Working in OSINT sounds like fun, is the scene large enough for your friends to do that professionally, or are they essentially volunteering?
My take-way: I'd take the corporate world over the non-profits any day of the week. The office politics level was so high that you'd quickly see it and its effects even when you only had like five in-person meetings and a few phone calls. It seeped into everything and it was just annoying. They were very laid back and the pace was a joke in comparison, but they all seemed to attract a type of personality that I don't want to work with (or maybe those are who remain and they run off all the nice people). Plus endless committees.
Granted, non of them were technical non-profits, they were just non-profits that also needed tech stuff done, and as mentioned, they were not small, so things might be very different in a small organization that doesn't yet have local, regional, state and federal levels.