I have a number of friends who work at Google. Meanwhile, I've worked at a variety of small companies, from privately held to "startups". My advice is, hands

I have a number of friends who work at Google. Meanwhile, I've worked at a variety of small companies, from privately held to "startups". My advice is, hands down, to get on with the Googles of the world. They have actual career trajectories, and bosses who actually care about moving them along it. Financially speaking, a startup is almost always the worst choice, unless you're a founder (and even then, the reward is most likely going to be satisfaction of seeing something through, rather than financial). I hear stories of bureaucracy at large companies, but I've been amazed at the amount of it at so-called startups. Unless you're a founder or a principal engineer role, you're probably going to see the same endless meetings and religious arguments over minutia.