Assuming it's a smaller startup, and not in the scale-up stage, I'd be wondering why the company is hiring grads and not senior engineers. There are plenty of r

Assuming it's a smaller startup, and not in the scale-up stage, I'd be wondering why the company is hiring grads and not senior engineers. There are plenty of reasons, but I've seen a lot of startups try and capitalise on "cheaper" grads over seniors. I'm sure it works out sometimes, but it often screams that they're looking for cheaper shortcuts in engineering which is a red flag for me. I'd want to know what their mix of senior to grad/junior engineers is, if it's strong then maybe they're just starting to scale up a bit. If you're going to be in the first 5 engineers though that feels like an odd decision to me and I'd want to know why. Really, what I'd be looking for is an answer to "why would they hire and spend time on-boarding someone that isn't a senior when they will be under so much pressure to deliver correctly?" Assuming that can be answered well, I would start to think about what learning environment best supports you. Are you okay being throw in at the deep-end and expected to deliver under pressure? Or, would you prefer a slower paced environment with more time and money to pour into your learning? It works for some people, but not for everyone and you don't want to risk your opportunity to learn in your first 2-3 years in the industry, it's critical.