* Less bureaucracy, more building
  * Larger impact on a product; not just being a cog
  * Generalist rather than one narrowly defined job
  * Ability to learn many new skills
  * Experience for starting their own startup
  * Working on something they believe in
  * Working with newer technologies
  * Can't get a job at a larger company (due to skillsets)
  * Easier place to make a jump into product management or people management
  * Flexibility (work from home, set own hours, etc)

I have less meetings than I had at most startups by a significant fraction. I have total technical direction on the product I work on (within reason). I have gotten to code in more languages than at any other shop I’ve been at, most of which I had zero professional experience in prior. I work on an internal product that excites me & is more complex than anything else I have worked with prior professionally. I work with any technology I like that does the job, new or old. Have no competition to jump into management because not enough engineers want to become managers. I also have flexibility to take days off unofficially because I work hard of my own volition, as well as work from home, and almost all of the flexibility I have gotten from startups.

Not to say I don’t like some things about startups - after all, I worked at them for about 75% of my career spanning over 5 years. There are a lot of myths about bigger companies out there though I have found at my current job, and friends at similar companies like Facebook and Netflix.

  * Less bureaucracy, more building
  * Larger impact on a product; not just being a cog
  * Generalist rather than one narrowly defined job
  * Ability to learn many new skills
  * Working on something they believe in
  * Working with newer technologies
  * Flexibility (work from home, set own hours, etc)

Less bureaucracy, more building - Only if the founders give you autonomy. Lots of micromanagers in the startup world.

Working on something they believe in - When you're hired, they try to hook you with this line. But startups are not charities. The longer you work at one, the more cynical you get.

Flexibility (work from home, set own hours, etc) - In my experience, startups want you to work more than 40 hours a week, and expect you to check your email during your free time, in case something urgent comes up. You can call that flexibility, but it's not in the employee's favor.

I've found the rest of your points to be true, more or less.

Here's some situations where you might prefer a startup.

1. Do you want to change career paths? A startup provides a much lower barrier of entry than traditional companies.

2. Do you want to pursue a career without having the credentials i.e. skip school completely and become a programmer, salesman, businessman? An internship or job at a startup might be a good choice.

3. Do you want less bureaucracy, a lot of ownership, challenging problems, but not have to have the weight of everything on your shoulders (like when you're a cofounder).

Monetarily, its almost always going to be a bad choice to work at a startup (unless #1 or #2 are your reasons and you want to jump into a career where you can long-term earn more). But there are a lot of other things in life to consider besides money, and money isn't a motivator for everyone, some people weight more control over their day to day work, flat hierarchies, and working on innovative products, etc. - all over money that's all. I don't think, knowing that, there's enough to make any hard recommendations for anyone.

Working at a startup can be a form of investing in yourself. Obviously you shouldn't invest in yourself unless you think that investment will pay off in the longterm. At the same time though, if you don't invest in yourself then it's almost certain that no one else will either.

Everyone's situation is different so try not to assert that any choice is incorrect based on a single, somewhat vacuous metric.

Wouldn't you ask the same set of questions that you describe for this position as well? Why is the outcome different? Arguably, you're taking so much risk as a founder that your expected financial outcome will almost certainly be worse than working at Facebook/Google/Amazon in the early days.

One of the best ways to get into YC is by working for a YC startup, especially if you don't come from a top tier school or company.

However if you want to break into software engineering then startups can be a great place for a hungry developer to make their own waves, and potentially ride them to success.