In your opinion, is it better to work in a dedicated development company (or otherwise dedicated to your IT specialization) or be in-house?

I'm currently one of 2 in-house devs for a small enterprise. So my software engineering practices and code won't be of the highest quality but at this early stage of my career I'm gaining experience in various different aspects of the job and doing many individual different things. So overall I'd say being in-house is good early on for initial exposure, so long as you have a mentor to help you out.