I don't agree with the author on couple of aspects, it feels more like he had challenges rather than typical potential employee in a startup would. It is impor

I don't agree with the author on couple of aspects, it feels more like he had challenges rather than typical potential employee in a startup would. It is important to talk to people who have had similar and different challenges to learn from their experiences, however unless you are pretty junior, you will likely need to network internally and externally anyway for good Mentorship even if your work at Big Co. While there might good people in your org, you may have better connect with someone you met in a meetup etc. You should find the best suited person for you organization shouldn't be a constraint. Mentorship within the work environment can be overrated. It can become stiffing if the expectation is you follow some advise even if you think it is not best approach. If you don't have freedom to talk to people and decide your own path, it just another mechanism for supervision. -- Depth versus breadth is matter of taste and preferences, some people really like to be broad and across different stacks, that is not inherently bad in itself. It also nothing to do with startup, you are going to be horizontal in any small company job versus specialized one at large company. If you want to specialize narrowly then no small org startup or boutique firm is going to be suitable for you.