Working at a startup is overrated, both financially and emotionally • Hacker News Board

Re: Working at a startup is overrated, both financially and emotionally

#21

Post by toomuchtodo » Sat, May 22, 2021, 1:22 PM UTC

BelenusMordred wrote: post #16

blakesterz wrote: post #4

As much as I agree with everything said in this article I wouldn't trade my years at a start up for anything. Both financially and emotionally it was awesome. I didn't get rich, and I worked way too much, but it was awesome. I loved the constant change and chaos. I learned so much, way more than I would've in any other type or work place. I made great friends too. It was as bad as the article, but it was way waaaay b…

This is relatable. It's incredibly satisfying building new things rather than maintaining decades old cruft, regardless of the paycheck, hours and stability. Also the joy of working in small nimble teams and the freedom to experiment with new technologies. Like everything in life these things are a tradeoff.

I will give you the other perspective. I get paid double what I’ve made at startups, for 35 hours a week, no overtime, no on call, and clear expectations of what success looks like for both myself and my team. I get six weeks of PTO (real weeks, not “unlimited”), 4 months off if we have another kid, and significant bonuses, while being fully remote. This is at what you’d call an “enterprise”.

I am happy to keep existing lines of businesses in maintenance mode for the above comp. My work is just work, I find satisfaction outside of it. My comp and work life balance affords me the ability to indulge my curiosity and academic endeavors outside of work while also providing high quality of life to my family.

As a friend once taught me, “Money and wealth are options, and options are freedom.”

Re: Working at a startup is overrated, both financially and emotionally

#22

Post by yawaworht1978 » Sat, May 22, 2021, 1:22 PM UTC

To work in a start up some times can be good, if you are a self starter and they appreciate that.

Just never do it for "equity" unless you have enough money on the side.

But to spend the vast majority of the career in a startup without being one of the founders is not recommendable I think.

Re: Working at a startup is overrated, both financially and emotionally

#23

Post by user3939382 » Sat, May 22, 2021, 1:25 PM UTC

In my experience as a manager I’ve found that the two major motivating factors for most people are stability and vertical mobility, and that most people and organizations favor one at the expense of the other. Startups, especially early stage, are great for those who value the latter. You may not choose the opportunity for “two in the bush” but that’s the compensation some people want.

Re: Working at a startup is overrated, both financially and emotionally

#24

Post by geofft » Sat, May 22, 2021, 1:27 PM UTC

cudgy wrote: post #17

What is success? The article assumes for the most part that success is mainly monetary, and further it makes the classic mistake of comparing success monetarily to companies like Facebook. Success is different depending on many factors. For example, if a person needs or likes guidance and structure, a startup is likely not a good fit, especially when they are inexperienced. There are some good points about the strong…

> However, that same community feeling and sense of purpose is what I remember fondest from working at startups. In addition, startups give you access to other capable and driven people that you might create a startup of your own with

Depends a lot on the specific startup and specific big company. The 50-person startup I worked at right out of college never really found product-market fit, and tried many things, and the product I worked on (and deeply enjoyed working on technically) was always a second-class product to the business. And we were selling B2B software, so I was never motivated by wanting to change the world, just by wanting to ship some cool software.

I get that same motivation at my current 1500-person employer, where I work on developer tools; I get to work on interesting technical problems, and the fruits of my work go to help people in, frankly, the same industry as most of our customers at the startup. I'm a little more involved in what out internal customers actually do and therefore find it more motivating to help them, though the work they do, per se, isn't interesting to me. And there are plenty of driven, passionate, and friendly people around who care about the same problems I care about, and it's much easier to find a few of those people and make a community when I've got orders of magnitude more people to try to work with.

Re: Working at a startup is overrated, both financially and emotionally

#25

Post by vinceguidry » Sat, May 22, 2021, 1:27 PM UTC

blakesterz wrote: post #4

As much as I agree with everything said in this article I wouldn't trade my years at a start up for anything. Both financially and emotionally it was awesome. I didn't get rich, and I worked way too much, but it was awesome. I loved the constant change and chaos. I learned so much, way more than I would've in any other type or work place. I made great friends too. It was as bad as the article, but it was way waaaay b…

Everybody’s got to make their bones somehow. The problem comes when you think you have to keep making them. Then you just get exploited your whole career.

Re: Working at a startup is overrated, both financially and emotionally

#26

Post by tuyguntn » Sat, May 22, 2021, 1:30 PM UTC

cudgy wrote: post #17

What is success? The article assumes for the most part that success is mainly monetary, and further it makes the classic mistake of comparing success monetarily to companies like Facebook. Success is different depending on many factors. For example, if a person needs or likes guidance and structure, a startup is likely not a good fit, especially when they are inexperienced. There are some good points about the strong…

> The main point here is that career decisions are highly personal and one person’s hell is another person’s heaven.

This. From "depends on person" perspective I fully agree with you, from monetary perspective I agree with the author.

After years of working for startups, now success for me means, financially independent to work on whatever I enjoy doing, not some OKR, KPI set by person who already achieved their success story.

Haven't reached my success. I was hesitant to do leetcode and join FAANG companies 10-15 years ago, worked for bunch of startups as an employee and contractor, all failed, financially I still depend on big boss, and even can be laid off if layoff season starts again.

FAANG are not only more stable, but total compensation for 10 years can easily beat 1B$ exit startups, assuming you get 0.1% of equity there

Re: Working at a startup is overrated, both financially and emotionally

#27

Post by sbarre » Sat, May 22, 2021, 1:30 PM UTC

jFriedensreich wrote: post #8

On the other hand i think working corporate jobs is also still way overrated (even if it is maybe already rated low). Whenever I think this will be different i want to shoot myself after 1 or 2 months latest, working for a startup just is the lesser evil.

It depends what you value..

Early in my career, I wanted experience with as many parts of the business as possible, I wanted to work on really hard problems and build really cool stuff, and I could take risks.. I was young and perfectly comfortable with a bad work/life balance because I had no other commitments.

At this stage in my career, I value stability and work/life balance much more, and while I am still looking to solve hard problems, it's not at the urgent pace that startups demand, and how I define "hard problem" has changed too.

Re: Working at a startup is overrated, both financially and emotionally

#28

Post by airstrike » Sat, May 22, 2021, 1:33 PM UTC

cudgy wrote: post #17

What is success? The article assumes for the most part that success is mainly monetary, and further it makes the classic mistake of comparing success monetarily to companies like Facebook. Success is different depending on many factors. For example, if a person needs or likes guidance and structure, a startup is likely not a good fit, especially when they are inexperienced. There are some good points about the strong…

> The author likely comes from a structured, religious background

How on God's green Earth did you jump to that conclusion? Can't it just be a matter of personal preference, as you said it yourself?

Re: Working at a startup is overrated, both financially and emotionally

#29

Post by ghaff » Sat, May 22, 2021, 1:33 PM UTC

amelius wrote: post #10

erwald wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

though at that point it sounds no different than a hobby, really.

This is the promise of UBI. Everyone can work on their hobby.

Enjoy working on your hobby on the government's $1,000/month because that's what any remotely plausible basic income is going to be like.

Re: Working at a startup is overrated, both financially and emotionally

#30

Post by marcinzm » Sat, May 22, 2021, 1:36 PM UTC

In my experience startups, equity NOT included, pay worse than big tech companies but better than non-tech companies. So if you can get into big tech companies then that's better financially but if you can't then startups beat the alternative.