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Why you should, and shouldn’t, join a startup

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Re: Why you should, and shouldn’t, join a startup

#11

Post by OmarIsmail »

strikelaserclaw wrote: post #6

how does one find startups to work for? I enjoy intensity, chaos, and learning in my job and my big corp job is just not providing that. I'm planning on moving to one of the tech hubs next year and trying to work at a startup of sorts, not sure where to start

https://www.workatastartup.com/

HN who's hiring threads (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17663077)

TripleByte.com Angellist.com Hired.com

Between all of those, if you're good, then you'll be swimming in startup opportunities.

Re: Why you should, and shouldn’t, join a startup

#12

Post by strikelaserclaw »

dumbfounder wrote: post #8
strikelaserclaw wrote: post #6

how does one find startups to work for? I enjoy intensity, chaos, and learning in my job and my big corp job is just not providing that. I'm planning on moving to one of the tech hubs next year and trying to work at a startup of sorts, not sure where to start

Go to startup oriented meetups in your city.

how do i find those?

Re: Why you should, and shouldn’t, join a startup

#13

Post by strikelaserclaw »

OmarIsmail wrote: post #11
strikelaserclaw wrote: post #6

how does one find startups to work for? I enjoy intensity, chaos, and learning in my job and my big corp job is just not providing that. I'm planning on moving to one of the tech hubs next year and trying to work at a startup of sorts, not sure where to start

https://www.workatastartup.com/ HN who's hiring threads ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17663077 ) TripleByte.com Angellist.com Hired.com Between all of those, if you're good, then you'll be swimming in startup opportunities.

awesome, I'll check these sites out. thanks for the input

Re: Why you should, and shouldn’t, join a startup

#14

Post by gkoberger »

strikelaserclaw wrote: post #6

how does one find startups to work for? I enjoy intensity, chaos, and learning in my job and my big corp job is just not providing that. I'm planning on moving to one of the tech hubs next year and trying to work at a startup of sorts, not sure where to start

I've never met a startup that wasn't desperate to hire :) That being said, many startups ignore inbound applications, because the signal to noise ratio is so bad.

If you want to work at a startup, I'd recommend a few of the following:

1/ Apply for A-List, Hired.com or Triplebyte

2/ Look at Who's Hiring posts on HN

3/ Update your LinkedIn and AngelList to seem hire-able (but not TOO hire-able!) Use a real pic of yourself, have a personal website with a resume, and fill out info about jobs you've had. (Related: put your name/info in your HN profile!)

4/ Have friends at startups? Talk to them! Everyone at a startup knows someone who is hiring.

Re: Why you should, and shouldn’t, join a startup

#15

Post by sbinthree »

I think the argument about existing at the extremes probably applies here. If I am going to work for an unreliable, unknown, unstable company, I'd rather own a big chunk and have serious skin in the game and control of my destiny. If not, give me the most well funded, monopolized, cushy job possible where I can accept that my agency is a small price to pay for very high standard of living. Applies to apartments too (live in a giant building downtown, for the benefits, or in the middle of nowhere, but not in the suburbs where you are lose-lose).

Re: Why you should, and shouldn’t, join a startup

#16

Post by BowBun »

mkozlows wrote: post #10
dumbfounder wrote: post #7

I think it's interesting that the major point is that you will learn a lot, but he also says that you should not expect to be mentored or given any real direction. This is definitely my experience, but it doesn't mean that startups teach you these things, it means that you have to teach yourself these things and you are in an environment where you are forced to do it. You can also do this and keep your day job if you…

There are a lot of things that you simply can't learn by yourself, though. The practicalities of doing things on a team, at scale, are just out of scope for personal side projects.

Agreed. The more I grow, the more I realize it is unrealistic to develop skills in scaling architecture, massive-scale software, etc. with only your own projects.

You either need to contribute to large projects, find large projects to hire you, or push for scaling patterns which may be out-of-scope for your current job.

This is actually something I've been thinking about lately: how can I train/practice these meaningful skills without the risk of damaging a reputation or losing sensitive data in real systems?

Re: Why you should, and shouldn’t, join a startup

#17

Post by Swizec »

WilliamEdward wrote: post #5

The problem with startups has always been a fundamental one, and not really one you can change without redefining what a startup actually is - people try way too hard to start them. Let me explain; it's reported very very often on YC that 90% of startups fail, and while a lot of these points in the article are disguised as separate ideas, they're all part of the same problem being that people want to make something f…

> This article was completely unnecessary because everyone should know by now what a startup entails, and that it is fundamentally unstable, but that doesn't mean it's not important as a venture and concept.

Strong disagree. Living in San Francisco I often hear the phrase “I work at a small startup, we have just 100 employees”

That is significantly different than what you describe which is more of a 5 to 20 people stage. By the time you have 100+ employees and are hitting proper growth curves, your management can no longer be shit, there has to be mentoring, and there’s little room for shit employees.

Re: Why you should, and shouldn’t, join a startup

#18

Post by strikelaserclaw »

gkoberger wrote: post #14
strikelaserclaw wrote: post #6

how does one find startups to work for? I enjoy intensity, chaos, and learning in my job and my big corp job is just not providing that. I'm planning on moving to one of the tech hubs next year and trying to work at a startup of sorts, not sure where to start

I've never met a startup that wasn't desperate to hire :) That being said, many startups ignore inbound applications, because the signal to noise ratio is so bad. If you want to work at a startup, I'd recommend a few of the following: 1/ Apply for A-List, Hired.com or Triplebyte 2/ Look at Who's Hiring posts on HN 3/ Update your LinkedIn and AngelList to seem hire-able (but not TOO hire-able!) Use a real pic of yours…

awesome points, in your experience does having experience in big corp tech (am a .NET dev) hamper your success in getting hired at a startup? I really do enjoy the .NET world and invested many hours in it, i would hate that to be a crutch.

Re: Why you should, and shouldn’t, join a startup

#19

Post by tlb »

gkoberger wrote: post #9
jonathankoren wrote: post #2

I joined a startup for stability once. It was way more stable than the megacorp I left.

I think it depends on your definition of stability. Megacorp: The company won't disappear overnight, but you might get tossed around different positions and have projects you've spent a year on shut down out of nowhere. Startup: The company itself may shut down, but in the meantime everything is more focused and transparent.

In some sense the startup is lower cognitive load, because everything is great until it all implodes and then you look for a new startup. A punctuated equilibrium. At a megacorp, everything is vaguely doomed all the time, but never so clearly doomed that it's obvious when to make a move, and you spend a lot of time reading political tea leaves so as not to end up on the wrong project.

The worst thing that most big companies do is continue to employ good people on long death marches.

Re: Why you should, and shouldn’t, join a startup

#20

Post by ihuman »

Swizec wrote: post #17
WilliamEdward wrote: post #5

The problem with startups has always been a fundamental one, and not really one you can change without redefining what a startup actually is - people try way too hard to start them. Let me explain; it's reported very very often on YC that 90% of startups fail, and while a lot of these points in the article are disguised as separate ideas, they're all part of the same problem being that people want to make something f…

> This article was completely unnecessary because everyone should know by now what a startup entails, and that it is fundamentally unstable, but that doesn't mean it's not important as a venture and concept. Strong disagree. Living in San Francisco I often hear the phrase “I work at a small startup, we have just 100 employees” That is significantly different than what you describe which is more of a 5 to 20 people st…

> I work at a small startup, we have just 100 employees

Is that even a startup anymore? To me, any company of that size is just a normal company, not a startup.

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