Downsides to working at a tech giant • Hacker News Board

Re: Downsides to working at a tech giant

#161

Post by jacquesm » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 7:21 PM UTC

ignoramous wrote: post #148

jacquesm wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but he did have the option to buy that lottery ticket. If Apple had gone bust there would have been nothing to write about. By the same measure I can review my life and take every decision I took with hindsight and re-calculate what my net worth would be if I had taken the other fork, I'm pretty sure I could come up with a few hundred million as well but that doesn't matter, you only get one life. Next time you h…

> No, but he did have the option to buy that lottery ticket. From Garry's blog [0], it looks the it was more than just buying a lottery ticket. Peter Thiel cut him a great deal, by all accounts, and he still let it go. The equivalent to that, imo, would be to have refused ticket offered to you for free which then won the lottery. [0] (Peter Thiel said) "Cash this check, quit your job. This is a zero risk opportunity…

Quitting your job is not a zero risk opportunity.

Re: Downsides to working at a tech giant

#162

Post by beardedman » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 7:22 PM UTC

Articles like this irritate me more than anything else. Why? The ENTIRE paradigm is based on $. Article could just as easily have been written as "Working for Microsoft allowed me to be a better father".

And strange a VC would invest in a (very socialist) statement as "Google's pure profit per employee is actually $1.6 million per year, after all costs.": easy buy in, very low practical value. There are very tangible reasons for wage differences.

Re: Downsides to working at a tech giant

#163

Post by thatfrenchguy » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 7:23 PM UTC

zainamro wrote: post #44

VCs feel the need to constantly remind us that working at a startup is worth our time as a means to fuel the startup workforce. I understand that he was simply sharing an anecdote, but I found the conclusions and headline misleading even verging on dishonest. I've worked at an early stage bay area startup -- hiring progressively got harder and harder because candidates were becoming more aware of the career risks inv…

> If you're hoping to make $200 million, don't bother

... And unless you’re IC number 1, you’re not going to make more than a million bucks even in the best case as well, which makes the risk/rewards ratio higher.

Re: Downsides to working at a tech giant

#164

Post by commandlinefan » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 7:25 PM UTC

senordevnyc wrote: post #21

This is such a weird post. Big fan of Garry, but I don't agree with most of this. 1. Just because it turned out that you would have made $200mm doesn't make it a mistake. If anything, that outsized return proves just how rare this kind of outcome is. If you look at the YC startups graduating every year, maybe 1 will ever generate $20mm for an early employee, let alone $200mm. Joining a new startup for that kind of ou…

Yeah, the moral of the story, as far as I can tell, is: 1) make sure to know the kind of person who can write you a $72,000 check as if he was leaving a tip at Starbucks, 2) impress him enough that he’s willing to offer you $200 million when you’re 23.

I see now where I went wrong in my youth.

Re: Downsides to working at a tech giant

#165

Post by milofeynman » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 7:25 PM UTC

eaguyhn wrote: post #152

I worked at four startups and gained so much experience at each. Even with the long long hours I really liked it. Three of the four failed - the fourth one eventually succeeded after 15 years and I received about $4,000 for my original shares as employee #3 (I can relate to the point in one comment about being a founder instead of an employee).

The founders entire job early on is to convince schmucks that they'll be rich if the idea succeeds while simultaneously making sure to give away as little in stock as possible. It takes people like Peter Thiel to pull that off

Re: Downsides to working at a tech giant

#166

Post by beardedman » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 7:30 PM UTC

asdfman123 wrote: post #159

He met Peter Thiel before he got so famous. It's important to be in an industry that's about to blow up. Getting access to future billionaires is much easier than access to current ones. I agree with the sentiment that you can do a lot more in smaller companies, which is why I work at one that doesn't happen to be a startup. However, thus far I've received no $200 million checks. Working in Silicon Valley might have…

I think quite a few people on here think this.

Funny enough - I'm pretty sure the article would have garnered a lot of criticism if it were authored by someone else.

Re: Downsides to working at a tech giant

#167

Post by BooneJS » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 7:31 PM UTC

Joining a startup and missing out on entry-level wages seems like an appropriate trade-off. It's the same reason most people go to college after high school - the opportunity cost is quite low and you can learn a lot of things quickly.

Re: Downsides to working at a tech giant

#168

Post by chrischen » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 7:31 PM UTC

keithwhor wrote: post #90

The pessimism in this thread really bothers me. I’ve read anecdotes on entrepreneurship being on the decline, but it pains me to read so many negative takes on startups. We’re actively training our young people to avoid taking risks, and it’s going to fuck us — especially if some of those young people have the ambition be early employees at, say, a startup that takes on climate change in a big way. Look — the fact th…

> The real substance is — how the fuck did he meet Peter Thiel at 23, and how can somebody recreate that?

I think things like this seem impossible when you’re thousands of miles away, but I believe the answer is to move to SF. It really works! Move here and rub shoulders with startup people and eventually you’ll be 1 degree of separation from Mark Zuckerberg.

I think I met Peter Thiel when I was around 21? And I sometimes play PUBG with the founder of del.icio.us, and Alexis Ohanian is a frequent customer of my business. I started out as a mediocre college drop out in Michigan. But to be honest while this is what a lot of people who move here chase for, they’re not really needed to make a business successful.

Re: Downsides to working at a tech giant

#169

Post by actuator » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 7:31 PM UTC

I joined a startup right out of school, I wouldn't do it any other way even now but the picture he paints is far from reality for most.

I learned a lot, had a lot of ownership and was involved with the product from a user level itself which I loved and even made my skill set very diverse.

But the 200 million line is just outright rare. The equity I was given was pretty low and even though the startup is a leader in its space the equity growth hasn't materialized to any noteworthy level and I can't exit right now. I would have made much more at any FAANG level of companies in RSUs by now like my friends over there have done.

This is why even now while discussing offers with companies I am interested in, I don't give ESOPs much value in the package.

Re: Downsides to working at a tech giant

#170

Post by lematsu » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 7:32 PM UTC

keithwhor wrote: post #90

The pessimism in this thread really bothers me. I’ve read anecdotes on entrepreneurship being on the decline, but it pains me to read so many negative takes on startups. We’re actively training our young people to avoid taking risks, and it’s going to fuck us — especially if some of those young people have the ambition be early employees at, say, a startup that takes on climate change in a big way. Look — the fact th…

thank you, this was the comment I was looking for