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Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup

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Re: Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup

#101

Post by andbberger »

owens99 wrote: post #66
Waterluvian wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the context of a startup, I would expect almost all of those to be disappointing. But maybe that's what you're hoping to see. In my opinion, if you're a start-up and you've got all those boxes checked, you're possibly doing the right things in the wrong order, and that's a red flag for me. What I hope to hear are responses like, "so this is how we're doing CI. It's awful, almost non-existent. But that's because at…

This. As I always say, "If you are building a startup, over-engineering is a far bigger sin than creating technical debt."

That's just a cop out! Such a tired meme!

Re: Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup

#102

Post by zakm »

decebalus1 wrote: post #96
tdumitrescu wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I joined a series A startup years ago for none of your "valid" reasons and have never regretted it. It was a company that I already knew of and admired their product, and they had enough traction at that point to offer at least several years' worth of runway/stability ie I didn't have to worry about my job disappearing unexpectedly (at least not more so than any other California job). Work-life balance was always tot…

Sounds super great! Congratulations on your anecdotal experience which means absolutely nothing in this context. I just hope a wide-eyed college grad doesn't come across it and influences his/hers decision about joining.

So do you have some kinda data breakdown on the typical startup, or just other anecdotal experience?

Re: Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup

#103

Post by programjoe »

This is great if the assumption is that the startup will be successful, however given the failure rate it feels like the focus should be on risk management. How much risk should I as a developer be willing to invest knowing that statistically things might not work out.

Additionally, it would be great if there was material like this that was much more approachable by someone early on in their career.

Re: Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup

#104

Post by ryanSrich »

owens99 wrote: post #66
Waterluvian wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the context of a startup, I would expect almost all of those to be disappointing. But maybe that's what you're hoping to see. In my opinion, if you're a start-up and you've got all those boxes checked, you're possibly doing the right things in the wrong order, and that's a red flag for me. What I hope to hear are responses like, "so this is how we're doing CI. It's awful, almost non-existent. But that's because at…

This. As I always say, "If you are building a startup, over-engineering is a far bigger sin than creating technical debt."

But having CI, proper logging, and code review isn’t over engineering. The time, effort and bugs saved by spending 1-2 days putting these policies and procedures in place is valuable early on.

Of course, each of those pieces is at risk of becoming over engineered. But hopefully the team has a leader that knows when to move forward and when to pull back.

Re: Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup

#105

Post by decebalus1 »

zakm wrote: post #102
decebalus1 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds super great! Congratulations on your anecdotal experience which means absolutely nothing in this context. I just hope a wide-eyed college grad doesn't come across it and influences his/hers decision about joining.

So do you have some kinda data breakdown on the typical startup, or just other anecdotal experience?

Do I need to provide data breakdown to prove that an anecdote is just an anecdote?

I'm trying to figure out if you're trying a full fledged 'On the spot fallacy' or just a basic 'shifting the burden of proof'.

Re: Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup

#106

Post by laythea »

ken wrote: post #88
seibelj wrote: post #42

The only valid reasons for working at a seed-stage / series A startup: You are a founder. They are working with a technology or in an industry that you specifically want to work with and it is very hard to work on it professionally, and doing side projects are infeasible. You need experience and you have no other option to get experience. You are getting a significant title bump that moves your career forwards. Inval…

> You need experience and you have no other option to get experience. I don't know how else to get the kind of experience you get at a startup. A big company will give you depth, but a startup will give you breadth. Also, if you ever plan to be a founder yourself, working at a big company might not give you any useful experience at all.

Better to be a contractor at large companies and move around. Then you get the depth, plus you can change role when you stop learning.

Re: Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup

#107

Post by C1sc0cat »

LaGrange wrote: post #76
aw1621107 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought standard work weeks were 40 hours (at least in the US)? Are your work weeks normally shorter?

Even outside of US, 40h is standard, some places have 35 hour work week. 30 is less than 4 days a week, or 5x6h. I actually think that _might_ be more efficient _and_ healthier, but it's unusually little, I think it's a typo.

in the UK 37.5 after accounting for lunch is common at BT it was 36 hours a week on average (not counting lunch).

Re: Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup

#108

Post by [deleted] »

tudelo wrote: post #14
ryanmercer wrote: post #2

(I think it's hilarious I'm being downvoted for making a factual observation...) It amazes me how different startup culture, and tech culture in general, is from the rest of the country. ---- Every job I've ever worked at: Relocation expenses? hahahaha Equity? haha we'll wave your brokerage fee to buy as our stock purchase program but if you wanna sell, you'll be paying brokerage fees. Responsibilities? You'll do wha…

Hmmm, I think relocation expenses are pretty standard, but not as high as they may need to be if you need to break a lease or something like that.

[deleted]

Re: Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup

#109

Post by ummonk »

seibelj wrote: post #42

The only valid reasons for working at a seed-stage / series A startup: You are a founder. They are working with a technology or in an industry that you specifically want to work with and it is very hard to work on it professionally, and doing side projects are infeasible. You need experience and you have no other option to get experience. You are getting a significant title bump that moves your career forwards. Inval…

>You are getting a significant title bump that moves your career forwards.

The title bump rarely moves your career forwards.

Re: Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup

#110

Post by bargl »

Get. It. In. Writing.

I will say this much. People have bad memories. That includes you. You think you remember that conversation perfectly? You probably don't.

Get. It. In. Writing. And don't trust anyone who won't commit to writing.

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