Originally Posted by
DavidP
Dude, we're just trying to impress upon you the fact that the name of the company you work for doesn't matter in the end, it's what you do and what you learn while doing it. Small companies often have just as good of salaries as bigger companies.
Last summer I was offered an internship at a relatively large company (about 5000 employees worldwide, but about 2500 employees at their main campus), but not near as large as some of the major players (Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc.). After considering this internship, I also received a call from Apple saying that they had an internship spot available. I asked Apple what I'd be doing. They said some sort of jibberish that in the end I took to really mean "data entry". I was like, "um.....bye", and I went and worked for the other company and loved my internship there.
Most companies have very competitive salaries, regardless of size, otherwise it'd be hard to hire good programmers who get the job done.
When you say that it's "the name of the company that counts", that worries me. You sound like an MBA student who's sole intent is on "networking" and "getting your name out there"....and as much as you do that it won't help you an ounce in life unless you got some good experience to back it up.