What does HN think about leaving a posh job at big tech giants for creating a startup?
Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup
1–10 of 71 posts
Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup
#2Most of us here on HN have done a startup, been an early employee of a startup or hang out here at least in part because we dream of doing a startup. Given those biases I think the default is leaning that way.
On the other hand you already appear to be living the alternate dream talked about often here on HN - good job at a tech giant at least if it is one of the FANG and not one of the older school tech giants.
My own experiences would indicate that one should not underestimate the likelihood of market failure. When we say "high risk high reward" many of us focus much more on the second half of that phrase and discount the first half. We assume that we are smart enough to avoid the risks and persevere till we reap the rewards. And, sometimes we are, but often we are not.
Just the other day I ruminated with a friend that I almost certainly would have been a lot better off financially picking a boring but useful domain and getting really good at that rather route that I did take. Focusing on R&D, innovation and a couple of versions of startups. On the other hand I feel like my life has been pretty interesting.
Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup
#3Depends on the type of person. For some it’s the only way to have a sense of control over ones own destiny. Others who lack the discipline to always be selling and pushing forward are better off sticking to their current role.
Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup
#4In 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 experience, i jumped into the entrepreneurial journey right after my graduation. Was it a well thought out decision. No of course not. It was a kid chasing his dreams. All cliches aside sometimes dreams don't feed you. But if you ask me "do i regret", i would confidently say No. If you choose to be an entrepreneur, no one or no book in the world can prepare you for the shit that you are going to face and 60% of the time you'll have bad experiences. So why choose it over a well-paying job? That's a question you might have to answer. And that answer will change over time. If you go with it, be prepared for the following
It not fun (As mainstream media portray it to be). Every morning when you wake up & your rational mind will ask you why? be prepared with an answer. Embrace the uncertainty and learn to survive on hope.
And finally, save some money at least to survive for 3 years. Live frugally
Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup
#5Most of us here on HN have done a startup, been an early employee of a startup or hang out here at least in part because we dream of doing a startup. Given those biases I think the default is leaning that way. On the other hand you already appear to be living the alternate dream talked about often here on HN - good job at a tech giant at least if it is one of the FANG and not one of the older school tech giants. My o…
I work at a startup in India. I saw many articles on quitting jobs from big companies and pursuing dreams. I was very curious to know how are they balancing their work and life. Creating a startup is very difficult than a job at the company. Unless it's a high funded startup, most of the founders handle all the department. The stress is very high. Iteration over the product idea is another thing that makes crazy. How are you guys manage all that? But passion is a fancy word!!!
Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup
#6Creating a startup is very tough, If you have a great job I'd be careful. If you can I'd try to do something small as a side project first and see how much money you can make. A lot of people here are good coders but have no clue about business, if that is you tread carefully.
It also depends on how much experience you have. If you've been working 1-2 years I'd say no way. 5 years: maybe.
But as others said its good to do when you're young. Combined with living in Thailand or something sounds great.
Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup
#7Creating a startup is very tough, If you have a great job I'd be careful. If you can I'd try to do something small as a side project first and see how much money you can make. A lot of people here are good coders but have no clue about business, if that is you tread carefully. It also depends on how much experience you have. If you've been working 1-2 years I'd say no way. 5 years: maybe. But as others said its good…
That sounds cool. A fair idea. Working on a side project, validates it and then take a decision based on that. Experience also plays a major role.
Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup
#8Creating a startup is very tough, If you have a great job I'd be careful. If you can I'd try to do something small as a side project first and see how much money you can make. A lot of people here are good coders but have no clue about business, if that is you tread carefully. It also depends on how much experience you have. If you've been working 1-2 years I'd say no way. 5 years: maybe. But as others said its good…
The problem here is the dilemma when to go full-time. Its always a tough call.
Compared to a side-project building up a scalable business model is a different ball game altogether.
So brace for that once you go full time everything changes and without going fulltime you'll probably reach nowhere
Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup
#9Most of us here on HN have done a startup, been an early employee of a startup or hang out here at least in part because we dream of doing a startup. Given those biases I think the default is leaning that way. On the other hand you already appear to be living the alternate dream talked about often here on HN - good job at a tech giant at least if it is one of the FANG and not one of the older school tech giants. My o…
My experience working at a startup biased me against it. I'm much happier at a big tech giant.
Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup
#10YOLO
I peek at Blind every now and then (and take everything I read with a grain of salt) but main takeaway is that there are plenty of people at FAANGs who pull in a good amount of money but are completely miserable because they have allowed themselves to get wrapped up in a rat race where all they can think of is their next raise/promotion within some arbitrary leveling system to measure their self worth against.
Also reminded with how money is not happiness with the crazy story with Jussie Smollett staging his own hate crime because he was depressed about his salary of $1m a tv season.