5 ms·

As an employee, I would advise positioning yourself not to be the one that gets hurt. For example, if you want to be an entrepreneur, then be one and start a c

As an employee, I would advise positioning yourself not to be the one that gets hurt. For example, if you want to be an entrepreneur, then be one and start a company (ideally with other people's money). But if you want to be a programmer, then focus on that. Work in interesting places with interesting people. Build your career based on the work you are doing. If the work you are doing is crap, do everything in your power to move to a place where it is not crap. The golden handcuffs are more handcuffs than gold. Ask for a reasonable wage and make sure you get it. Anything else is gravy. Understand when you join a start up that it might disappear under your feet and make sure you have a plan B. But, always, always make sure that you are building the career you want. In startups I have seen so many people (employee #single-digit, usually) who get promoted out of the job they want to do. They hang around doing stuff they hate because, "It might be a big deal in a few years". If there is a downturn, then they are the first ones to be asked to work months (or years!) with no salary because, "I'm sure we can turn it around and they are giving me equity!" Obviously, it's up to the person, but if I could sum up the antidote for the misery I've seen in my career: 1. Cash on the barrel head, 2. freedom to do good work, 3. interesting co-workers. As a programmer, I never ask for more (or less). (and seriously... if you miss payroll... I'll still be your friend, but I won't be working for you... sorry. See rule 1.)

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
Swizec 10y ago
As always, "Don't believe in money that isn't on your bank account" Your landlord and your grocery store don't accept equity as payment. You shouldn't either. Except maybe as a neat-o bonus.
OpenDrapery 10y ago
Interesting co-workers is a big one. Very hard to vet before accepting a job, however. You won't know how uninteresting they are until after you start.
- nunez 10y ago
  YES. This is impossible to gauge during an interview or even within the first week on the job. The only way to de-risk this is to have known the team members for some time prior to working with them (hence Buffer's bring-your-own-team experiment).
  - mikekchar 10y ago
    To some extent you can at least gauge management's attitude to hiring in the interview. Are they hiring anybody they can get? Or are they being choosy? If the latter, what is it that they are looking for? Do you feel confident that they can discriminate and find those people? Some questions I recommend asking are: What attributes are you looking for in candidates? Have you ever hired someone and wished that you hadn't? How do you resolve that problem? What are the best attributes of the people on the team for which you are hiring? During this interview process, you are obviously trying to make sure I'm a good fit for the team. How do you normally recognize this? The last question is quite cheeky because you can then change your behaviour to what they are looking for ;-) But the main thing you are trying to discover is: Have they thought hard about their team composition and do they understand what it is they want? Do they hire all the exact same people (good if you like that kind of thing, but potentially very boring)? Have they thought about the difficult problem of recognizing the attributes that they are looking for?
caseysoftware 10y ago
I think we should do as much due diligence and reference checking on a company as they would do on us: * Dig into LinkedIn to find mutual connections and drop them a note. * Check out Github, Hackernews, and whatever communities might be relevant. * Look up and attend conference or meetup presentations from their staff. * Check out what kind of events and causes they attend, sponsor, and promote. * Contact support (anonymously?) with a legitimate question/issue.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

Swizec 10y ago

As always, "Don't believe in money that isn't on your bank account" Your landlord and your grocery store don't accept equity as payment. You shouldn't either. Except maybe as a neat-o bonus.

OpenDrapery 10y ago

Interesting co-workers is a big one. Very hard to vet before accepting a job, however. You won't know how uninteresting they are until after you start.

nunez 10y ago
YES. This is impossible to gauge during an interview or even within the first week on the job. The only way to de-risk this is to have known the team members for some time prior to working with them (hence Buffer's bring-your-own-team experiment).
- mikekchar 10y ago
  To some extent you can at least gauge management's attitude to hiring in the interview. Are they hiring anybody they can get? Or are they being choosy? If the latter, what is it that they are looking for? Do you feel confident that they can discriminate and find those people? Some questions I recommend asking are: What attributes are you looking for in candidates? Have you ever hired someone and wished that you hadn't? How do you resolve that problem? What are the best attributes of the people on the team for which you are hiring? During this interview process, you are obviously trying to make sure I'm a good fit for the team. How do you normally recognize this? The last question is quite cheeky because you can then change your behaviour to what they are looking for ;-) But the main thing you are trying to discover is: Have they thought hard about their team composition and do they understand what it is they want? Do they hire all the exact same people (good if you like that kind of thing, but potentially very boring)? Have they thought about the difficult problem of recognizing the attributes that they are looking for?

caseysoftware 10y ago

I think we should do as much due diligence and reference checking on a company as they would do on us: * Dig into LinkedIn to find mutual connections and drop them a note. * Check out Github, Hackernews, and whatever communities might be relevant. * Look up and attend conference or meetup presentations from their staff. * Check out what kind of events and causes they attend, sponsor, and promote. * Contact support (anonymously?) with a legitimate question/issue.