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Letter To A Young Programmer Considering A Startup
11–20 of 162 posts
Re: Letter To A Young Programmer Considering A Startup
#12one point al3x didn't talk to: not all startups will teach you to be an awesome engineer. If a startup is really hiring the best of best, a less experienced programmer is not likely to make the cut. Ever look at your code from 6 months, a year, 5 years ago? and how bad it is? Many tech startups don't have time for that, the quality of your work can make or break a startup. Elite startups want "ex-googlers". So if you…
There are also plenty of startups that don't value or recognize technical skill and where it's easy for a junior engineer to get hired. Those are terrible as well, because (a) they'll make you stay mediocre and (b) you end up learning the wrong lessons.
like that HN'er's story of wiping a production DB accientally and the company (a social gaming company) blaming him and bullying him into resigning. (instead of asking why they had given a Jr. Dev write access to production in the first place)
Re: Letter To A Young Programmer Considering A Startup
#13one point al3x didn't talk to: not all startups will teach you to be an awesome engineer. If a startup is really hiring the best of best, a less experienced programmer is not likely to make the cut. Ever look at your code from 6 months, a year, 5 years ago? and how bad it is? Many tech startups don't have time for that, the quality of your work can make or break a startup. Elite startups want "ex-googlers". So if you…
Great point. A good rule of thumb in jobs is that if you are the undisputed top , make sure that you are being compensated very, very well. Because you just sold out. It is quite hard to reach new levels of expertise without explicit, task-related mentoring, and if you're trading off that kind of growth, do it explicitly.
Back when I was a manager, I used to find it somewhat depressing to interview people who had gone to startups or non-tech firms for 5-10 years, reached "senior developer" or "architect" roles, and whose levels of expertise were indistinguishable from the median recent stanford grad. Certainly, they knew more "things" but had failed to grow in either scope or depth.
Re: Letter To A Young Programmer Considering A Startup
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are also plenty of startups that don't value or recognize technical skill and where it's easy for a junior engineer to get hired. Those are terrible as well, because (a) they'll make you stay mediocre and (b) you end up learning the wrong lessons.
like that HN'er's story of wiping a production DB accientally and the company (a social gaming company) blaming him and bullying him into resigning. (instead of asking why they had given a Jr. Dev write access to production in the first place)
Giving a "junior dev" access isn't the issue; after all, that dev probably writes code that can execute SQL.
The problem there was not having any safeguards against running arbitrary commands and not being able to just rollback from the transaction logs. Seriously, it should be a small annoying incident. Screwed up some data? OK, stop things, restore, rollback to the transaction before you screwed it. Apologize and move on.
Re: Letter To A Young Programmer Considering A Startup
#15Startups have become something of a career path or lifestyle. It has developed into a scene, with its own media coverage and drama. I see a lot of clueless college students wanting to "do startups" as if it were any old job. My perspective is this: Found or join a startup if have a specific product/service you want to build at a large scale. You'll earn your wealth through the equivalent amount of pain ( http://www.p…
"But coming to SF and floundering around"
Depends on the alternatives though. Much better to be "floundering around" and amongst a group of people with similar goals then trying to do the same in Topeka Kansas (arbitrary nothing against that city.) To start you could end up meeting people who do something that will give you opportunity. Environments like this are rich in contacts as well that you can make. (Not a reason to drop out of something that you are on a path to but if you can't find that path it certainly will give you a leg up.)
Re: Letter To A Young Programmer Considering A Startup
#16"plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"
Re: Letter To A Young Programmer Considering A Startup
#17"There are so many ways to make a dent in the world", he says, but fails to suggest any. So what if the startup thing isn't all it's cracked up to be? It's still better than the alternative. What else are you going to do? Go waste your time in a big corporation learning how to withstand endless, meaningless tedium? If you're young you can probably afford to take some risk, so go take some risk! Take a shot at accompl…
I agree, the whole post seems to be written by someone writing a sad and sullen reflection of their last decade or two.
I think having a mix of both startups and high profile tech companies in one's CV is great backing to do your own startup, enter contracting or find yourself in a challenging and stimulating career job at your employer of choice.
I think the article makes some good points about potential bad eggs in the startup world but is not a balanced true representation of the landscape.
Re: Letter To A Young Programmer Considering A Startup
#18I liked this part: "Startups have been systematized, mythologized, culturally and socially de-risked; reduced down to formulas and recipes. Yet, there is no enduring formula for creativity and rebellion."
Most of these startups would be just regular corporate projects except for the fact that corporate stinginess and lack of vision is at an all time high. Startup "CEOs" are just project managers on a shoestring race to the bottom, as observed in the long hours and extreme personal sacrifice involved.
The reason the strategy works so well is that corporate politics are even more stifling to experimentation than VC-istan (but not by much).
In ten years, there'll be an open-allocation (Valve style) company that has figured out how to solve this for realz.
Re: Letter To A Young Programmer Considering A Startup
#19http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/dont-waste-yo...
Thank you for posting this. I know it's from last year, but there are realities here that should be understood by every engineer who is considering working for a startup.
Be as hard-core about your negotiation skills and awareness of employment terms, as you are about your coding skills.
Re: Letter To A Young Programmer Considering A Startup
#20Startups have become something of a career path or lifestyle. It has developed into a scene, with its own media coverage and drama. I see a lot of clueless college students wanting to "do startups" as if it were any old job. My perspective is this: Found or join a startup if have a specific product/service you want to build at a large scale. You'll earn your wealth through the equivalent amount of pain ( http://www.p…
But coming to SF and floundering around is no better than aimlessly moving to LA to become a movie star.
Not to be nit-picky but getting start-up experience isn't quite the same as going to casting calls while working at Olive Garden to make ends meet.