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Ask HN: What skills do I need to work at a startup?
Interested in seeing if I have what it takes to work at a startup as a programmer and if not see what I need to do to make it happen.
So I guess the question is what do you look for when hiring engineers? Are there any must have skills?
- sidcool 12y agoFor software engineers, I believe grit and persistence is the top skill. Startups need people who take ownership of their work as if their lives depended on it.
- notduncansmith 12y agoIn my experience, "as if their lives depended on it" means "for 10-14 hours per day, and most weekends". Also, don't expect to be terribly well-compensated for your efforts. Your pay will be below market rate, and job security is (understandably) pretty low. Your goals should be aligned with the startup's mission - you can't be in it for the money. I think a lot of people are attracted to the startup lifestyle because it's been so glamorized (I was). It actually really sucks, and more than likely the startup will fail. I couldn't find a single startup in SF willing to compensate fairly given that fact, because they have to "stay lean". You really have to want what the startup wants, and join for altruistic reasons - the pay is just to keep you from starving to death while you work there.
- JoeAltmaier 12y agoI've worked at startups all my life. Two lived; the others didn't. In each case I was fairly compensated when I joined, but no raises for several years put me behind the curve for most of my working life. Combine no raises with a poor starting salary (which is not the norm in my experience) and indeed you would have a recipe for a bad return. Even counting my two successes, in the cases we were bought, the parent company's stock subsequently tanked so I made very little of the difference back.
- notduncansmith 12y agoI couldn't find a starting salary for a mid-level backend + senior-level frontend engineer in the Bay area above 80k. One company offered 60k, which would be low for Alabama - in SF, that's downright insulting. I'm pretty sure I just got unlucky with the companies I talked to, though.
- seekingcharlie 12y agoI find that really hard to believe. I'm a designer / junior front-end dev & I would laugh at 80k now that I'm in SFBA.