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I agree with all of this, but I will say that startups can be great for fresh college grads. Not every fresh grad can land a FAANG job, and a startup might be m
by briHass 4y ago
I agree with all of this, but I will say that startups can be great for fresh college grads. Not every fresh grad can land a FAANG job, and a startup might be more willing to take a chance on a smart kid with minimal experience. Once there, they'll likely wear multiple hats: everything from coding to infra to even maybe some customer support. Drinking from a firehose can be a great way to learn a lot fast, and likely with more breadth and opportunity to try new things than being SDE Level I on a 10 person team working on a single widget for a multi-widget dashboard for one of dozens of products for 'Big Corpo'.
Of course, it doesn't hurt that a 20-something also has the energy and ability to take risk. A startup folding when you're 25 with no dependents or mortgage is much different than taking that risk as a 40 y/o married father of 2.
As someone in that latter category... nah, dawg, I'll take the steady paycheck and the reasonable work hours.
- ericbarrett 4y agoI actually think it's quite valuable for the young hot-shot to do a stint at a larger company. See how things are done, see what parts of the business you like and don't like, tech that works and tech you'd rather never touch again. Then go take that knowledge to a startup and roll the dice while you're not worried about babysitting or saving for a new roof. You'll have more perspective and more to contribute than a fresh grad for whom everything is greenfield.
- novok 4y agoIMO I think either or is ok as your first job. With a startup, you also get to see what is possible without the bureaucracy, while if your first experience is a big company, you might think the bureaucracy is necessary.
- gopher_space 4y agoI think the biggest downside to this approach is that people won’t ask very much of you as a junior.