4 ms·

This is awful advice. I have worked for startup's and large companies, and I would hands down say you will learn more and become a better engineer working at a

This is awful advice. I have worked for startup's and large companies, and I would hands down say you will learn more and become a better engineer working at a well run startup then you will ever become by joining a hyperscaler as a line engineer and trying to play the corporate politics. The author is correct that by the numbers it is far more likely that you will make more money if you just sell your soul to a FAANG, and if all you want is to make a quick buck and spend it all on overpriced real estate they are entirely correct. Every single one of their other points is just indicative that they have worked for awful startups. Large companies can be just as bad, but the difference is in a large company most of the problematic points will break down lower in the organization. If you think every team at all the FAANGS is great at mentoring or doesn't put in long days or has anything approaching a reasonable hiring and review systems you are ignorant of just how much variation there is on different teams.

deleted 5y ago
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WJW 5y ago
> working at a well run startup True, but this also assumes that you can 1. identify from the outside (and as a very junior engineer!) which startups are well run and 2. actually get into said well run startup. There are plenty of poorly run startups as well, where the things a young engineer would learn could actively hurt their career later on. Since junior engineers are by definition not very experienced, they cannot yet tell which startups are good and which aren't.
- dkhenry 5y ago
  This is very true, its hard to tell if the company you are going to join is well run, or awful. Stories people tell about startup's don't help since it can normalize bad behavior and make it seem like that is the industry norm ( i.e. 14 hour days being standard, very low pay, toxic management ). When I joined my first startup I had already worked in a large engineering firm for 5 years, and due to the nature of the work ( small team with responsibility to do everything from funding projects to delivering them ) I knew what kind of questions to ask to figure out how well run the company was. I think advice about how to spot well run startup's would be much better for junior engineers then telling them to just join a large public company.

deleted 5y ago

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WJW 5y ago

> working at a well run startup True, but this also assumes that you can 1. identify from the outside (and as a very junior engineer!) which startups are well run and 2. actually get into said well run startup. There are plenty of poorly run startups as well, where the things a young engineer would learn could actively hurt their career later on. Since junior engineers are by definition not very experienced, they cannot yet tell which startups are good and which aren't.

dkhenry 5y ago
This is very true, its hard to tell if the company you are going to join is well run, or awful. Stories people tell about startup's don't help since it can normalize bad behavior and make it seem like that is the industry norm ( i.e. 14 hour days being standard, very low pay, toxic management ). When I joined my first startup I had already worked in a large engineering firm for 5 years, and due to the nature of the work ( small team with responsibility to do everything from funding projects to delivering them ) I knew what kind of questions to ask to figure out how well run the company was. I think advice about how to spot well run startup's would be much better for junior engineers then telling them to just join a large public company.