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I am not sure why Jessica's post is in this discussion. She is pretty young, and I am not sure she has had a real job + startup experience to say what she is saying. While I agree that to do build a successful startup, that has to be your number one focus, and having a job will be really distracting. But, you can do some prototyping/idea vetting, while you are working full time, and quit only when you think you have something substantial, and already have a solid plan. If you are in a dilema, go ahead ad do it. The real question if, if you are in your 20s or 30s, and don't have a mortgage/kids or a green card application going on, why are you working on a big corp? 1. Save money, have at least one year to two years of savings. 2. Leave your job in good terms. Tell your manager and co-workers "I taking a break from corporate world this year, doing some traveling, and some little project. I hope I will see you guys again in the future, and would love to work again." 3. Start your startup. 4. In one year, here are your options: a) Startup went well,
b) Startup failed, you wasted 30-40k (no biggie):
a.1) Tell your company / ex managers you would want to work there again. If you left with a good terms, you should be able to come in.
a.2) Find a job somewhere else, and show your product (A lot of companies like people that can show a finished product, even though it wasn't commercially successful.
In one year, you will learn a lot more, and be a lot more marketable to other companies, (if you have something decent to show). The only risk your are taking is 30-40k (depending on how low your living expenses are), + whatever your are missing as a salary. Keep in mind, that if you can sawllow a lot of risk, you should totally do it. Once you get married with kids, it will be really really hard to do it (almost impossible).My point is: if you are 1) really good at building products from scratch. 2) You can take risks/have a low risk profile 3) Have at least 40-60k saved.
Why in the heck are you NOT trying to start something, or join something. Big corp job will always be there (if you are good, off course). ---- Ps1. Do quit a job, and build another stupid niche thing (you see many 'startups' that are just building a feature, and not a bussines). You can use the time at your company to test the market, verify your product-idea (or even build a prototype), before quitting. PS2. If you don't have at least 50-70k savings after 5 years of working as an engineer, you really should look at your spending habits. Start saving now. |