In terms of money you can't even make an argument. Working for a big company will usually be better for you fiscally speaking. Even the average exit or IPO won'

In terms of money you can't even make an argument. Working for a big company will usually be better for you fiscally speaking. Even the average exit or IPO won't usually make up for the investment opportunity cost. There will always be a lucky few who have life-changing exits, but this is the minority. HOWEVER, money is not the main reason that most people in startups are there. Try surviving your 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th year in a big company, while still caring about what you do. Big companies will always struggle with internal politics, because they are the brand-name place to work, so they are going to attract political types who want to struggle for a piece of the pie. If you work for a startup you will likely have a level of freedom, responsibility, and chances to do interesting things that only a select few people (who are both talented, lucky, and adept at politics) at larger companies get to do. Big companies are a great place to start a career, because they are super invested in making the best engineers and retaining them. Especially at Google, so many resources are given to junior developers and the code that you get to work on will be world-class. However, after a few years of working at a big company you will probably be overqualified for whatever you are doing and it will be very easy to get bored unless you are very clever at maneuvering into the right positions at the right time. Go get baptized at a big company, make some cash, pay off those student loans, go join a startup and have fun. Edit: OR, you know, you could come join the light-side right away ;)