I am married with a child and my wife does not work.
Ask HN: How to evaluate job offers?
11–20 of 22 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to evaluate job offers?
#12Which group of people do you want to become like?
Incidentally, this is one of the best litmus tests I've found for many life decisions. (college, hobbies, friends, dating, etc.)
Re: Ask HN: How to evaluate job offers?
#13Re: Ask HN: How to evaluate job offers?
#14Which group of people do you want to become like?
In a lot of circumstances it can be that simple however I don't think this is one of those circumstances.
Both options require a compromise. In this case it's a choice between achieving non-work life goals or achieving work life goals. Personally that would be a very easy choice for me despite the choice conflicting with your advice.
Re: Ask HN: How to evaluate job offers?
#15How old is your kid? Probably relevant. Building up enough savings to cover (surprisingly expensive) dental/medical/orthodontia and, more importantly, to serviceably help my kids get to college was supremely stressful for me in my last(=current) startup job. The likelihood that employment at any startup will pay out is low. You can cycle through lots of startup jobs to improve the odds, but if you do the math across…
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Well, you've got ~12 years to build up some kind of war chest. If you're willing to work for 15% less money at a startup, consider what that 15% saved every year for 12 years might do for the college problem? On the low end of software positions, I come up with numbers that more or less pay for college.
Re: Ask HN: How to evaluate job offers?
#16[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How to evaluate job offers?
#17Since you have a kid the startup should be very compelling to consider it.
Re: Ask HN: How to evaluate job offers?
#18IMHO you left out a couple key data points.
1) How senior are you?
2) How much do you respect the folks that will be your boss, and how much time will they give you?
The more junior you are, the more important #2 is.
Re: Ask HN: How to evaluate job offers?
#19Which group of people do you want to become like?
In a lot of circumstances it can be that simple however I don't think this is one of those circumstances. Both options require a compromise. In this case it's a choice between achieving non-work life goals or achieving work life goals. Personally that would be a very easy choice for me despite the choice conflicting with your advice.
He's saying forget about your goals or work-life balance. Focus on the people. If you spend 5 yrs with them, you'll become more like them.
Re: Ask HN: How to evaluate job offers?
#20Take the corporate job.
You have two people that depend on you to provide for them for both income and insurance (assuming you are in the USA). In a year or two your wife could return to the workforce, then go for whatever startup is in fashion at the time. Being as tech startups are, it has a >50% chance of failure anyway. It would also be possible to start your own side project while working the corporate job.