| Pros: * Technical skills sink or swim very quickly - you'll learn vastly more in the same period of time at a startup than you will at a big company. Or you'll fail. * You learn to accept that failure isn't as bad as high school / college would have you believe - as long as you learn from it. * Invaluable leadership experience very early on. * A lot more responsibility early on - if you like to take charge and see things through it's a wonderful experience. * Startups are usually founded by intelligent, successful, driven people - based on head count you usually work closely with them and have the opportunity to soak in that knowledge and experience. * Connections. When you're young / early in your career a startup puts you in situations to meet people you wouldn't normally be in the same room with at a large company. Cons: * Equity is a joke. Liquidation preferences are always against the employee no matter how early. I'm at my second startup and anytime I hear a coworker talk about taking a pay cut because they got equity I cringe. * The pay CAN suck, it doesn't have to. It took two tries but at my second startup (current job) I'm paid fairly. Maybe slightly less than I would be making in the same role at a large company but coming here included a promotion I was 6-12 months away from at the previous large company. Neutral: * Transparency. Some startups keep everyone in the dark about cash on hand, burn rates, fundrasiing, etc. Do not work for one of those startups. |