If ethics is not something to consider in your decision, I would say go for Google. Work life balance will be better, and the money although probably less are not a gamble. Plus having Google in your CV means you will probably be able to join any startup you want if you change your mind down the line.
Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
151–160 of 224 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
#1521. 6% of zero is zero. 2. 4 years is a lot of time to spend at a company for a high probability of making 6% of zero. 3. If you're an employee at a startup, you're in the wrong job. You're much better off being a founder. 4. Equity is a way to be paid less and to be fired in the first year if you haven't vested anything. 5. Who are you going to sell your equity shares to? It's not necessarily a free market in the sta…
This is a surprisingly jaded response that flies in the face of my experiences at multiple startups. I concur with assuming equity will be 0. Dilution is real and almost all startups fold. Counting on equity is unwise and dangerous. As for the rest of your commentary, I’d say startups are great because you get a better ability to shape your experience. I’ve now been employee: 21, 7, and 1 at respective startups. Whil…
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Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
#153It depends on your age, what sector the startup is in, the prospects of the startup and your relationship with the founders.
1. Is it a real startup doing real/cutting edge technology work ( aka cybersecurity, data, etc )? Will you be working on cutting edge development work?
2. Are you young with little to no responsibility ( aka no wife, kids, etc )
3. Do you believe the startup has a shot?
4. Do you respect and get along with the founders. And do they respect and get along with you.
If all the above is yes, then you may not earn as much initially, but you will most definitely learn a lot more than at google and you may be able to retire in your 20s rather than 50s if everything works out. If not, then you will be able to leverage the skill you picked up to get another job easily. Caveat being you do real development work in a real software startup.
If you are a single digit employee at a startup with a good relationship with the founders, not only will learn a lot technically and technologically, you will also learn about angel investing, VC funding, etc. You might even get to tag along to see what the hubbub is all about.
If it is a real startup, then the risks are higher but the upside is also higher. With google, you will get stability and name recognition, but you are still ultimately a corporate grunt and have to deal with burnout. Keep in mind google has extremely high turnover rates ( I believe the median tenure for a google employee is only 1 year ).
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
#154Advice from someone who had a similar choice and went the startup route: choose the Google option. It will not only open doors for you for all your future jobs, but you can invest the money now and create a nice start for yourself. There will never be any shortage of interesting startups to work for in the future.
It really depends on kind of person OP is, Personally I never want to work at any large corporation especially Google, the benefits do not outweigh the drawbacks for me. Apart from what others mentioned in the thread In the startup choice the biggest benefit not going the Google for me is that I choose to work in a domain(by choosing the startup) where I am passionate about, slim chance of it happening in a large org…
IMO one of the best things about working for Google is that it's so easy to move between teams to e.g. find the domain you want to work in.
While it's true that you may not have many options for your first team (unless you are already a domain expert, in which case you may get funneled into your domain), if you are performing well for your current team, it is extremely easy to move around.
I say this a a Googler who was originally slotted into a team that was fun but not what I was really into. I swapped teams a couple of times and found something much better for me.
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
#155Definitely Google. There will always be "promising startups" and once you have Google on your resume you will either be starting that startup or getting a bigger chunk of it.
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
#156Advice from someone who had a similar choice and went the startup route: choose the Google option. It will not only open doors for you for all your future jobs, but you can invest the money now and create a nice start for yourself. There will never be any shortage of interesting startups to work for in the future.
>There will never be any shortage of interesting startups to work for in the future.
You forgot to factor in the blatant age discrimination in most startups.
OP could build a nice nest egg at Google, but have a severe lack of free time + not be working on "interesting" work, and come out of it financially stable but unable to compete with fresh out of college grads with no lives, willing to work 24/7 and who have all the time in the world to mess around with the latest and "greatest" new foo
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
#157First job? Go work for Google. Make a lot of friends, figure out who is compatible with your work style and who isn't and remember them for future recruiting calls :-)
If you're more senior I suggest picking the job where you will learn the most. My personal experience is that wider experience is better than deeper experience in a fast changing world.
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
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Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
#159First job? Go work for Google. Make a lot of friends, figure out who is compatible with your work style and who isn't and remember them for future recruiting calls :-) If you're more senior I suggest picking the job where you will learn the most. My personal experience is that wider experience is better than deeper experience in a fast changing world.
This. Also companies like Google and Microsoft love welcoming back employees who were good and gad switched over to other companies. So, if you had a good reputation in google, and want to take a few years to work on a startup, you will likely have a fallback option if things don't work out
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
#160So here are your choices: 1) Work for Google 2) Work for startup for 1/3 the compensation, at least 50% more working hours, and options that have a 95% chance of being worth zero dollars at some point in the future. It seems like the obvious choice would be Google but it also depends on what life stage you're at. If young and just starting out, there's no easier time to take a risk. If you've got a family to support,…
>Work for startup for 1/3 the compensation, at least 50% more working hours, and options that have a 95% chance of being worth zero dollars at some point in the future.
Google has good work/life balance?