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Downsides to working at a tech giant

blog.garrytan.com

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Re: Downsides to working at a tech giant

#491

Post by smolder »

elfexec wrote: post #380
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 pessimism in this thread really bothers me. It's the demographics. The HN population skews extremely old and older people are generally more pessimistic, cynical and risk averse. Also, there is a large amount of traditional media workers on HN and they, for obvious reasons, are not fans of the tech industry since the tech industry is eating their lunch. Don't let the thread get you down. It's a skewed and biase…

Is there some kind of demographic data for HN or is this based on your impression from comments? I wouldn't expect a large amount of traditional media workers.

Re: Downsides to working at a tech giant

#492

Post by ojbyrne »

niravs wrote: post #226
ojbyrne wrote: post #203

Another upside to working at a tech giant: you make enough to be an accredited investor. Which means you can do angel investments, which is an arguably better way (Than being an early employee) to get those “outsize” returns from startups.

good luck with getting into anything good with insane amounts of time & effort. capital is cheap.

How is the luck different from the luck involved with being an early employee? Labor is cheaper than capital.

Re: Downsides to working at a tech giant

#494

Post by whiskyant »

stoicShell wrote: post #27
lordleft wrote: post #2

The simple truth is that working for the equity of an unproven start-up is a gamble, and statistically unlikely to pay off. And sadly more and more start-ups are undermining access to equity in shady ways. Not that one should never work for a start up on the hopes it breaks big, but we should also never forget that the successes are outliers, by a massive margin. Just understand the trade-offs of your decision and th…

> statistically unlikely to pay off > probabilities involved with your decision While this is a good general approach to life IMHO as well — if you mean "be rational, not just emotional" and "work on your cognitive biases, seek objectivity" — it might also prove terribly counterproductive in this context. It would take a book or five but briefly: - you just can't use statistics when they say "95% fail", otherwise you…

Small business does not equate to a startup. It's not nearly as huge of a gamble starting a small business as most aren't pursing new ideas in unproven markets, and trying to find product market fit/scale rapidly.

Re: Downsides to working at a tech giant

#495

Post by austenallred »

dragonwriter wrote: post #451
austenallred wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has an ATM printing money in the basement. Startups do not.

> Google has an ATM printing money in the basement. Startups do not. Venture capital is supposed to be (and certainly was a few years ago, though it may have gotten more conservative) the transfer pipeline between the money printing enterprises and the high-risk, high-reward startups that provides the unlimited cash the latter don't otherwise have while unlocking the return potential the former lack.

I mean my company raised $14 million from Google Ventures, so it’s working to some degree

Re: Downsides to working at a tech giant

#496

Post by dlp211 »

Grimm1 wrote: post #401
jarjoura wrote: post #221

For all the startup founders and VCs in this conversation, you are cheap motherf*ckers. When I read that engineers and employees prefer FAANG companies because they pay better, I want to remind you that it wasn't always like this. 10-15 years ago startups paid way better than big tech. Big Tech rewarded you by getting to specialize on problems and working at scale. The reason FB and Google pay well is because when th…

The average turnover is a little over 2 years at BigTechCo so half of the people never see that 4year total compensation.

I doubt this very much.

Re: Downsides to working at a tech giant

#497

Post by ignoramous »

novok wrote: post #272
ignoramous wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except tech is nothing like oil. It's a knowledge based industry and the pace of innovation rapidly keeps breaking barriers to entry. It effectively enables a lot of other industries to move swiftly and get a lot done with fewer resources [0]. A rising tide lifts all boats. Instagram scaled to 30M users with 13 engs [1], and WhatsApp to half a billion with 32 [2]. Oculus was started by a then 17yr old Palmer Luckey […

Yay you're citing lottery winners, the most engineer efficient unicorns in the world, in a lottery that you can only buy 5-8 tickets in for your lifetime. What I mean by 'go do the best thing you can do now', doesn't exclude working for yourself or starting that company that becomes your biggest thing also. But if $500k/yr as a staff eng at bigco (north dakota) is your best thing, there is no shame in it. It's doubtf…

> Yay you're citing lottery winners

You do realise that I can only cite lottery winners to make my point?

> What I mean by 'go do the best thing you can do now', doesn't exclude working for yourself or starting that company that becomes your biggest thing also.

I guess, then, we are on the same boat and agree with each other?

The salaries in the US are significant [0]... but the barrier to entry is lower than before, that it doesn't hurt to try. If one is a staff eng at BigTech, they probably are worth more money than what they get paid.

[0] https://danluu.com/startup-tradeoffs/

Re: Downsides to working at a tech giant

#498

Post by arjie »

mattlutze wrote: post #406
arjie wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just the reversion-to-the-mean effect described elsewhere[0]. It seems bothersome that on a startup news website run by an incubator, the view is that startups aren't a good idea. However, that's only because HN is now what /r/programming+technology+apple+google was, not what HN was. It's not really a startup news website. So I wouldn't worry too much. The people in startups are probably in real-world groups, an…

It may also be that the big pile of folks here with experience in startups have done the math and can argue that working a startup isn't the best way to maximize the outcome of your time. HN doesn't just have to be a "startups are the best" echo chamber.

I would be surprised if your hypothetical situation more closely models reality than mine. It's possible. I just don't think it's likely.

I would revise my position if more successful founders argue that it isn't worth it and I'd mildly revise it if more failed founders argue that it isn't worth it anymore.

Re: Downsides to working at a tech giant

#499

Post by L_Rahman »

The choice in front of Garry is fundamentally different from the one he tells most people to make.

I think virtually everyone here would quit their job and try a startup for a year if a famous investor believed in them and wrote a check for a year's worth of comp (assuming this includes healthcare).

BigCo jobs are revolving doors. The only thing you would be putting on the line by doing the startup is the small amount of money you would have gotten from a raise/promotion.

This is vastly different from telling a 23 year old not connected to Peter Thiel, without a check 1yr salary to go work for a startup.

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