[xrd]

My advice: don't look at "big" companies. They optimize to avoid hiring the "wrong" person, which means to hire only people that come in with the exact set of skills they should be training for but won't. They won't value any of the incredibly valuable skills you've developed.

Instead, look at mid stage startups. But, find them through your connections and not by applying through job boards. People at those startups will get the value of what you've been doing. Shipping and getting harsh customer feedback is something you can't get in school and something people in big companies generally don't care about, which is why those companies can't innovate, despite hiring Chief Innovation Officers at 7 figure salaries.

Nothing wrong with wanting financial stability after seven long years. But if you go to a big company, practice your algorithm skills above all else and minimize talking about your startup experience. Sadly, it'll be either ignored because they won't understand it or they will bury it because it reminds them how they can't be innovative in their environment.

[therealdrag0]

OTOH: It seems big companies often have more flexibility in what your skillset is. Yes the interview process is cookie-cutter algorithms, but the application process is "we want smart people no matter which language/framework you've used before". Like I know people who got jobs with Microsoft with little programming experience (but other engineering degrees), whereas my mid-sized company we only hire people with the exact skillset we use because we can't afford to have them not productive right away.

[xrd]

I would love to hear more about Microsoft. They seem like they are doing different things since they aren't considered part of FAANG. Smart on their part and sounds like a good place to work and a good model for other large companies to follow.

[praveer13]

Microsoft interviews are purely core CS stuff. I think even for 4-5 year experience guys they ask mostly data structures and algorithms.

[mywittyname]

This is really good advice. To pile on, big companies tend to pigeon-hole their developers based on company needs, instead of considering developer skill. So a person coming from running a startup is probably going to feel highly constrained from the lack of autonomy and "big picture" involvement.

I'd totally hire a developer with a failed startup. Especially one that managed to stay around for seven years. That indicates to me that they know what they are doing, but the market feel out of their idea for some reason. Lots of great businesses go bankrupt because their product is no longer useful and it's difficult to pivot.

[scarface74]

Let me second that. If you have been working for yourself for years, you really will get frustrated at the politics, red tape, etc of a big company and you will get pigeonholed.

I’ve never owned my own company, but after one short three year stint at what was then an F10 (non tech) company, you couldn’t pay me enough to work at a large company.