Reading a graduate scheme honestly

Structured graduate programmes are genuinely good at teaching breadth and giving you a cohort. They can be weaker at depth — rotating every six months means you rarely become the person who actually knows something.

A small organisation is the mirror image: you will do real work far sooner and be under-supervised while doing it. Neither is better in general. Which is better depends on whether your field rewards breadth early or depth early — and that is a question to ask five practitioners, not a recruiter.