I agree. And I'd add that there are corporate jobs that end up being less stressful and "more sexy"TM than many startup jobs who start with a spirit only to later discover the culture speech was all BS and, at most, a "reality distortion field" to keep an illusion going.

I’d like to hope all startups aren’t like this, but the incessant talk about culture and values at my last one could only be interpreted as USSR-type propaganda.

The main reason to take a role at a startup "crappy" or not is to leapfrog your title. Want to be a Product Manager or Growth lead or Senior role? You can immediately at a startup and even if it fails, you have that on your resume for the same role elsewhere.

Just take a look at the titles you want at all the unicorn companies and see where their careers started out.

(2012)

I agree with all this (except I don’t understand the need to use the word “sexy” so many times), and it’s probably more true today than when it was written.

Lottery tickets do sometimes hit, though. :)