Startup vs BigCo Jobs

This post is missing the most valuable part of working at a startup: the experience.Sure, you can go work at ________ (big company paying fresh developers $120k+), but you're going to be pigeonholed into working on a small aspect of the product/company.If you join a promising small startup, you're going to learn about all aspects of business, startups, selling, marketing, fundraising, etc. These skills will be extremely helpful to you throughout the rest of your career, especially if you p

Start ups are not for everybody.It's horrible and most of the time they will work you to death because it's a "start up" environment. They will try to get you to invest as much time of your life as possible.Do not trade your life for money.I thought you could learn new skills in start up because they usually are lean in money so you end up wearing multiple hats. That's good until you realize that most of the people that is in charge of technology are full of it.

Maybe it's me but it feels like it should take some initiative to find work with a startup. Startups are (usually) more demanding than regular corporate jobs and require a higher degree of self sufficiency and initiative. You can end up at a corporate job and sort of realize over 6 - 12 months it's not for you and the whole experience and moving on is pretty soft. You'll know in about 4 - 6 weeks if the startup live is not for you and it'll be intense and emotional. So

Why not consider forming a startup rather than finding a job?

I think startup is best way to boost your career. This is aimed mostly at junior level roles - it's the fastest way to gain meaningful experience. What a dev experience in one year in a startup is like 5 years in a big corp. For highly experienced/highly paid/execs - I don't see the value in joining a startup unless you're the founder or you need that for motivation.

Startups shouldn’t be romanticized so much, but it can be a good job.A good startup experience can help you figure out what you really like to work on. In a big company things are already specialized — it’s pretty hard to be a data engineer and move over to the android team. Not impossible, but hard. That’s why people say you go to startups to “learn” — because in our line of work you learn by doing and in a startup you can usually do a lot.

If you are expecting or planning to have a child, don't join a startup. Startups take a huge amount of time by their nature, and that is time you should be spending with your spouse & child. I know this sounds harsh, but I made this call myself and don't regret it at all. If you haven't worked in a larger company with more generous benefits/time off policies vs small startups, you might not understand how much higher your new family's quality of life will be.

you should work at googlestartups are about the work

Exactly this, you work at a startup because you are passionate about the mission, or you want to learn something outside your basic skills training, you want to work with someone you respect, or you like to challenge yourself. Never ever ever work at a startup because you feel it is a way to financial success.You believe in the mission - often startups will take on business or social challenges that are unserved by larger companies. This can be very rewarding to be part of a solution to an ot

Except in a startup you can discover that the high hill is a deep valley. Doesn't mean anything really. Only you can decide if you want to take that risk or not. I stopped pushing people one way or the other simply because only they can know what is best for them.Another option is to work in a big company. After a few years there will be nothing new for you so you can bootstrap something while still having money for... food :)