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Working for a startup makes less sense, unless you are into the mission

jatins.gitlab.io

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Re: Working for a startup makes less sense, unless you are into the mission

#2
Early stage hires at startups have the worst of both worlds: they face the downsides (lower wages, tons of risk, expectation to work long hours) but have muted upsides (small equity grant relative to founders, not even guaranteed to be hired in an acquihire situation). It is arguably even riskier than being a founder.

Re: Working for a startup makes less sense, unless you are into the mission

#4
The comp packages at big tech companies are becoming insane.

In Seattle it's not unreasonable for a senior software engineer with some good connections to be making 200-250k.

With that comes life insurance, health insurance for your whole family, disability insurance, etc.

That's more in cash AND benefits than a doctor.

Re: Working for a startup makes less sense, unless you are into the mission

#6
> In my experience, the deadline-driven culture crushes any scope for creativity and experimentation.

This is true anywhere. It's amplified in a startup because you can't switch teams or move around to get on an innovation driven team, it will also have a much bigger affect. If you only focus on deadlines, developers (by necessity) start taking short cuts and laying code that pushes boundaries less. If they get punished for taking a risk, then they won't take a risk.

Taking smart risks are the bread and butter of innovation. I've seen what it means to be punished for taking risks and it changes the entire atmosphere and dampens innovation.

Re: Working for a startup makes less sense, unless you are into the mission

#7

The comp packages at big tech companies are becoming insane. In Seattle it's not unreasonable for a senior software engineer with some good connections to be making 200-250k. With that comes life insurance, health insurance for your whole family, disability insurance, etc. That's more in cash AND benefits than a doctor.

>That's more in cash AND benefits than a doctor.

Does the company make wildly more money than a doctor's practice?

Re: Working for a startup makes less sense, unless you are into the mission

#8
Did it ever make sense financially?

The idea that you'd get rich was always a gamble / not likely. I knew some folks who went to startups telling me how great it would be if the company took off, but none of them I felt were capable of predicting how likely that was.

Outside of enjoying a start up like environment and the environment you get from an early stage company / like the people .... I don't see any obvious advantages that were ever true enough to count on.

Re: Working for a startup makes less sense, unless you are into the mission

#9
tl;dr working for assholes gets you treated poorly. BigCo will always treat you more consistently, but they won't necessarily treat you better or worse than a small or new company. This headline could have been one of those questions where the answer is no.

Re: Working for a startup makes less sense, unless you are into the mission

#10
post #7

The comp packages at big tech companies are becoming insane. In Seattle it's not unreasonable for a senior software engineer with some good connections to be making 200-250k. With that comes life insurance, health insurance for your whole family, disability insurance, etc. That's more in cash AND benefits than a doctor.

> That's more in cash AND benefits than a doctor. Does the company make wildly more money than a doctor's practice?

For my dad, a psychiatrist, running a private practice netted him around $400,000 yearly.
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