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Is the grass greener? Yes and no. Startups and big tech are two very different environments. The environment that is best for you depends on many things. Suffi

Is the grass greener? Yes and no. Startups and big tech are two very different environments. The environment that is best for you depends on many things. Suffice to say, it’s best to understand your goals and motivations for the next 5 to 10 years. You can learn a lot at either big tech or a startip if you surround yourself with the right people. Big tech has more people, which means your chances of finding excellent mentors is higher, but the risk of having toxic people around you is also high. Compensation is usually good at big tech, after the stock vesting starts to kick in ( Which can take a couple years). If you look at the base salary that isn’t stock based, then it’s not that different from a startup. However, this is also something that is highly depemdemt on what you are doing and who you are working for. Is the grass greener? I think we are biased humans who are always looking for something better. It’s human nature. So yes, the grass is probably greener on the other side. But how’s the grass where you are currently standing?

johnjungles 7y ago
Thanks for this, I think I have to do a bit of soul searching and figure out what I want to do for the next 5-10 years and have that figured out more clearly. As for mentors, working at startups I’ve had some pretty good success finding mentors who were essentially advisors and at larger companies or retired seasoned vets for the therapy, professional growth, and debugging strategies/technical problems. I think that would be the same because you’d have to make an effort to get something out of that mentorship - I don’t believe mentorship is bought or falls into your lap, it usually happens because of good chemistry (being in both sides of this). As for stock compensation, from my understanding it’s usually options? Where the company has to grow correct? If it stays flat, it’s basically nothing? (Please correct next if I’m wrong, I’m a bit oblivious to this). Also from tax perspective it also eats into this? Just want the post tax perspective and assess the risk/rewards. Understandably, startups the stock is 99.9% worthless.

johnjungles 7y ago

Thanks for this, I think I have to do a bit of soul searching and figure out what I want to do for the next 5-10 years and have that figured out more clearly. As for mentors, working at startups I’ve had some pretty good success finding mentors who were essentially advisors and at larger companies or retired seasoned vets for the therapy, professional growth, and debugging strategies/technical problems. I think that would be the same because you’d have to make an effort to get something out of that mentorship - I don’t believe mentorship is bought or falls into your lap, it usually happens because of good chemistry (being in both sides of this). As for stock compensation, from my understanding it’s usually options? Where the company has to grow correct? If it stays flat, it’s basically nothing? (Please correct next if I’m wrong, I’m a bit oblivious to this). Also from tax perspective it also eats into this? Just want the post tax perspective and assess the risk/rewards. Understandably, startups the stock is 99.9% worthless.