Want a new job? Don't think big

Recruitment among SMEs is at a two-year high - outstripping hiring at big businesses - and the sector isn't suffering the same pressure to outsource or make redundancies, according to new research.

Reed Recruitment has found that for small and medium-sized enterprises, nine out of 10 companies are planning to hire new staff in the coming quarter, while for corporates, it's more like eight out of 10. For SMEs, recruitment is now at a two-year high and accelerating faster, according to Reed.

The good news for SME employees doesn't stop there - redundancies in smaller companies are lower than they have been for the last two years and are around half the amount that larger companies are experiencing; one in 10 corporates are planning to shrink their workforce, compared to just one in 20 SMEs.

Katy Nicholson, director at Reed Recruitment, puts the disparity down to SMEs' flexibility. "A lot of large organisations… are announcing substantial downsizing - big organisations have to keep competitive," she said. "SMEs are flexible and can quickly find growing niches."

For the techie looking for a first job after university or for an IT professional looking for to move up the career ladder, you could do a lot worse than look at working for the little guy.

Although there may not be the free gym memberships, posh offices or other perks that bigger companies offer, SMEs come with their own set of benefits, Nicholson said.

"With a SME, you're not just stuck in a hierarchical position where you can become a name not just a number - your efforts are easier to spot and recognise" than in big companies, she said. "You're also more likely to gain experience in more than one area."