Re:Ask HN: Pros and cons of working at a startup in 2018?
by bcruddy on Tuesday June 12, 2018 @10:04AM
(#17293326)
Pros:
* Technical skills sink or swim very quickly - you'll learn vastly more in the same period of time at a startup than you will at a big company. Or you'll fail.
* You learn to accept that failure isn't as bad as high school / college would have you believe - as long as you learn from it.
* Invaluable leadership experience very early on.
* A lot more responsibility early on - if you like to take charge and see things through it's a wonderful experience.
* Startups are usually founded by intelligent, successful, driven people - based on head count you usually work closely with them and have the opportunity to soak in that knowledge and experience.
* Connections. When you're young / early in your career a startup puts you in situations to meet people you wouldn't normally be in the same room with at a large company.
Cons:
* Equity is a joke. Liquidation preferences are always against the employee no matter how early. I'm at my second startup and anytime I hear a coworker talk about taking a pay cut because they got equity I cringe.
* The pay CAN suck, it doesn't have to. It took two tries but at my second startup (current job) I'm paid fairly. Maybe slightly less than I would be making in the same role at a large company but coming here included a promotion I was 6-12 months away from at the previous large company.
Neutral:
* Transparency. Some startups keep everyone in the dark about cash on hand, burn rates, fundrasiing, etc. Do not work for one of those startups.
* Technical skills sink or swim very quickly - you'll learn vastly more in the same period of time at a startup than you will at a big company. Or you'll fail.
* You learn to accept that failure isn't as bad as high school / college would have you believe - as long as you learn from it.
* Invaluable leadership experience very early on.
* A lot more responsibility early on - if you like to take charge and see things through it's a wonderful experience.
* Startups are usually founded by intelligent, successful, driven people - based on head count you usually work closely with them and have the opportunity to soak in that knowledge and experience.
* Connections. When you're young / early in your career a startup puts you in situations to meet people you wouldn't normally be in the same room with at a large company.
Cons:
* Equity is a joke. Liquidation preferences are always against the employee no matter how early. I'm at my second startup and anytime I hear a coworker talk about taking a pay cut because they got equity I cringe.
* The pay CAN suck, it doesn't have to. It took two tries but at my second startup (current job) I'm paid fairly. Maybe slightly less than I would be making in the same role at a large company but coming here included a promotion I was 6-12 months away from at the previous large company.
Neutral:
* Transparency. Some startups keep everyone in the dark about cash on hand, burn rates, fundrasiing, etc. Do not work for one of those startups.