171–180 of 224 posts
It's hard to even say for sure without knowing what the startup is working on, but I would probably choose the startup because I think Google's tracking is creepy and unethical, I don't like big corporations, and the extra money isn't important to me.
Advice 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.
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Did you have to return any signing bonuses, relocation, etc in full?
I had to return a prorated portion of my signing bonus and relocation expenses. The larger financial hit was that none of my RSUs had vested, so I walked away from those entirely (my understanding is that Google has since changed their policy and RSUs now begin vesting immediately). To be clear, I don't recommend that anyone join Google with the intention of leaving in less than a year. Even though I wasn't particula…
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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…
You need to stay ~12 months in your initial team; if your performance rating is bad (non-trivial chance of that after 1st year), no other team would ever touch you and you'll be slowly driven out (rare exceptions happen). 18 months used to be average stay of a Googler inside company. If you are out of luck with your team/boss, you are done internally, and this happened to many clever developers. You'd also have to get used to usual corporate CYA, internal politics and all the fun that comes along, with many developers barely doing anything but excelling in those "soft" metrics. Smaller chance of that in a startup with strong pre-selection, a mission and personal relationships, if it has solid funding.
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Does Google really pay that well?
Yes. Base pay for a very junior hire is $140k - $160k and equity ranges from $250k to $400k or more (vesting over four years, so $62.5k to $100k per year). After annual bonus and raises, for a single person who lives reasonably and has no debt it's about 4-6 years from zero to $1M in the bank.
It gets confusing because of stock lettering and such.
Google, on the other hand, will provide a different kind of education. You'll generally learn the same amount of information but it will be more specialized and the pace will generally be slower (which can be a good thing). There will be less pressure on "getting something done and working" and more pressure on "doing the right thing". These two characteristics are often directly opposed which is why a lot of people who like startups say they hated Google and vice versa. The negative in that being if you spend several years specializing in a very bespoke part of Google, you won't be any more prepared to either join a startup or start your own -- the only way to get startup experience is to work for one. In fact, although people may respect that you've worked at Google, in my experience ex-Googlers aren't an assured success as startup employees and are no better as founders than someone coming from any of the other large companies. It can be a shell-shock coming from Google where there is a lot of support to join a startup where there is no support and you must loosen your standards and understand where you can and cannot cut corners. Also those people who make excellent early stage startup employees often don't survive the transition to behemoth tech company.
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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…
> easy to move You need to stay ~12 months in your initial team; if your performance rating is bad (non-trivial chance of that after 1st year), no other team would ever touch you and you'll be slowly driven out (rare exceptions happen). 18 months used to be average stay of a Googler inside company. If you are out of luck with your team/boss, you are done internally, and this happened to many clever developers. You'd…
Still, I would strongly recommend accepting the offer. Despite the drawbacks it's a great learning experience.
https://www.atrium.co/blog/work-at-a-startup/
I would also add that working at a startup gets harder and harder the bigger your monthly expenses are, so the earlier you can try that the better (source: I am in my 40s and recently left a startup that I believe in because of financial and family reasons).
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Google is also a very good learning opportunity; there is lots of training available to employees, you will be working with very talented people, and will get to see how the planet-scale dogfood is made first hand.
I've heard that many things are arcane in-house proprietary stuff, not easily transferable knowledge/experience.
Also, Google's best tools are increasingly open-source.