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Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

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Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#61

Post by fatnoah »

jovisjoseph wrote: post #4

In my personal opinion if you are doing something that risky do it when you are young. Once you cross a particular age threshold your possibilities of future pivots back to jobs will be decreased considerably. Especially in the tech industry ageism does exist. And at a young age you tend to take a more irrational leap of faiths and to an extent, that's a must for an entrepreneur in his early stages. In my own experie…

This was roughly my thinking. When I was young, single, and had no responsibilities, I did the startup route and thrived in the stress, excitement, and ability to make a big impact. Now that I'm older and have a kid, a public company with RSUs that I can put a dollar amount on (vs. options), and some measure of stability are important. When I was 24, I could find a couch to crash on while getting back on my feet if the job went south. Now, I'm worrying about college, mortgages, and stability.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#62

Post by mattmurdog »

Worked in a dozen start ups and all but 2 still stand today. Going from startup to big tech is hard because there's a process you will need to follow and the work may not always be exciting. But the pay, bonus, options make up for it. Going from big tech to start up is easy when you have a nest egg built up. If you don't it'll be a major struggle and it's not worth it to be honest.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#63

Post by anonfounderj »

technotony wrote: post #27
anonfounderj wrote: post #25

Been at bigco, did a few startups, a couple paid out, most did not. As an option, I'ld explore a side-hustle first, see if you like doing that enough before going all-in. Your goal for side-hustle, 20k MRR or gross margin monthly (ecom). Choose a metric that's real. If you can't hit it on a part time basis, you probably won't make it on a full time basis (for venture style startups that is. If you're targeting lifest…

I've seen many many of my friends try the side hustle, and none succeed. Mostly they burn themselves out from working so many hours and then stuff gets tough, as it does, and they bail. I think a better approach is to make some savings and take a sabbatical to test out what it's really like. If your day job is cushy and unstressful then maybe that's a different story...

Yes. Doing a (venture) startup is tough. If someone can't handle the stress/hours/etc of building out a side-hustle.. they won't succeed as a founder of a full fledged startup either. It's a signal. Stay in the job.

Sabbatical: yep. definitely do that if possible/available.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#64

Post by ehead »

xiphias2 wrote: post #17

I would say no to the people who say it's good to have a startup when you're young. For investing and money compounding the first 5-10 years of your working life are the most important. If you want to make a lot of money, I would look at investing (especially commodities now that stocks/bonds/houses are overvalued) instead of trying a startup. Most people get rich ($3M+) by investing and letting compounding do its jo…

I’m finding this out the hard way. I recently shut down a startup that became very distant from my interests, and now I’m having trouble finding jobs in my actual interest area, hardware engineering. I’m no longer a ‘recent grad’ so my college internships don’t have much weight. I wish I had taken advantage of the amazing opportunities afforded by being a fresh grad instead of starting my own thing, and I wish I had had the foresight to not do a startup that would distract me from my career path.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#66

Post by xiphias2 »

ehead wrote: post #64
xiphias2 wrote: post #17

I would say no to the people who say it's good to have a startup when you're young. For investing and money compounding the first 5-10 years of your working life are the most important. If you want to make a lot of money, I would look at investing (especially commodities now that stocks/bonds/houses are overvalued) instead of trying a startup. Most people get rich ($3M+) by investing and letting compounding do its jo…

I’m finding this out the hard way. I recently shut down a startup that became very distant from my interests, and now I’m having trouble finding jobs in my actual interest area, hardware engineering. I’m no longer a ‘recent grad’ so my college internships don’t have much weight. I wish I had taken advantage of the amazing opportunities afforded by being a fresh grad instead of starting my own thing, and I wish I had…

I'm sorry for you, I know heavy is the age bias in the industry.

Get a software engineering job at a company thst has hardware engineering as well, it's usually easier to switch as an insider.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#67

Post by jriot »

DVassallo wrote: post #28

If you have savings to cover at least 1.5 years worth of expenses, do it. If within a year you don’t manage to pull it off, you can always go back. I just did so myself. 2 weeks ago I left a very cushy job at Amazon making $500K/year to work for myself. I wrote more about it here: https://medium.com/@dvassallo/only-intrinsic-motivation-last... Don’t bother with people saying you can only do this at a very young age.…

You were making $500k a year, that isn't normal, regardless of what you tell yourself.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#68

Post by halfjoking »

throw-away-5000 wrote: post #48
technics256 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in a similar situation. How are you holding up?

Thanks for asking, I'm alright. I used to have this thought process which was 'if I didn't make X metric by Y date, I'd give this all up and go back to BigCo', well sure enough I've never ever made it but I'm still kicking around. I had to read a bunch of philosophy particularly on stoicism to get me through some of the tougher times a couple of years ago. There's no point in focusing on the money/wealth that I didn'…

"If I don't make X metric by Y date..."

I've found this to be the most dangerous type of thinking. It's always going to take longer, go worse and be harder than any of your best estimates. When you don't meet your dates or metrics, that's when you'll lose your motivation.

The key to keep grinding away relentlessly on a project is to improve habits and systems for making progress. The creator of Dilbert wrote a great book about it:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/scott-adams8217-secret-of-succe...

Personally I don't consider myself successful, but because of the advice to stop making goals I'm failing faster, staying motivated and getting stuff done. So hopefully eventually it will pay off.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#69

Post by davidjnelson »

jriot wrote: post #67
DVassallo wrote: post #28

If you have savings to cover at least 1.5 years worth of expenses, do it. If within a year you don’t manage to pull it off, you can always go back. I just did so myself. 2 weeks ago I left a very cushy job at Amazon making $500K/year to work for myself. I wrote more about it here: https://medium.com/@dvassallo/only-intrinsic-motivation-last... Don’t bother with people saying you can only do this at a very young age.…

You were making $500k a year, that isn't normal, regardless of what you tell yourself.

His medium post said he was making that while leveled as a senior engineer.

Using levels.fyi and the sde 3 title, it looks like the average for that position in San Francisco is $482,000/year.

https://www.levels.fyi/SE/Amazon/Google/Facebook

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#70

Post by wolco »

digitalixus wrote: post #47

I've seen people speak of how big corporations state-side offer more pay and packages, and that startups are mostly for the bored looking for new challenges and make their mark (plus a little gambling of their time that the startup will make it big). Can confirm the same situation in Europe (Germany). With that said, I'd advise against joining a startup. In Germany, even with stereotypically strict laws favoring the…

Founders fall in love with there idea and that shades the conversation creating lies.
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