Ask HN: Corporation or Startup?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26157198

by gchamonlive • 5 years ago

2 5 5 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I am in a position I can choose whether to stay at my current company or move to a startup.

The company I currently work as DevOps is in the middle of an agile transformation and while it is interesting to see the transition happen, it is sometimes annoying having to deal with old or fuzzy processes to get things done, and I feel it gets in the way of my learning more often than I am comfortable admitting.

I am fairly at the beginning of my career, being 3 years in IT, only a year as full time DevOps.

What I fear if I accept the position I am being offered in this startup, is that I will be leaving a team of great professionals to be on my own, in charge of a big data project that is in its infancy. All the agile processes and infrastructure have to be implemented from scratch, and while it provides a lot of room for learning, being all by myself with limited resources could pose unforseen challenges.

I wish for some insight that could help me understand my choices better. Any opinion is welcome.

davismwfl3• 5 years ago

This is really a decision only you can make of course, but some input like you asked. I am generalizing here of course, there are exceptions to every comment I make.

The startup will be fun and exciting most likely, it will also likely be more stressful but you will learn more in 3 to 6 months then in a year at most larger companies. You will screw up, you will define and redefine processes multiple times yourself because you've never done it (and likely they never have either), but you can also quickly change a bad decision to make it good without going through committees etc. This isn't a situation for everyone though as it is a lot to take on many times so you have to know if you are up to it. I do think being in an earlier startup takes somewhat "thick skin", where you are more resilient and confident in your abilities so you'll move forward even through the eventual mistakes. You will have online communities for help but at least likely initially, you'll have very few people internally to turn to for help, so it'll be up to you to figure it out and do so timely.

The corp role will move slower, you'll likely be more frustrated by the back tracking and slow progress then anything. This is the role you already know, if you produce you'll be safe for a long time and have a decent salary and benefits likely.

I highly recommend you try a startup while early in your career, you will learn a ton, usually have little to risk and it will pay off even if you decide to go back to the corporate world, plus you'll have no regrets of never trying it. This gets harder when you are married, have kids and responsibilities that require you to have more steady income and benefits.

gchamonlive2• 5 years ago

Would you say the downside to leaving a senior team is worth it in this case?

By the way, I spent most of my career, however tiny it is, in startups and only recently I took this job at a large company. Sorry I didn't say earlier. But that, knowing how it is on startups makes it that much more difficult, because I can very well be making a huge mistake, and in 5 years staying in a company with more resources I could be much more experienced with a better résumé. But that is all speculation. Right now I itch for having my own project in a startup where things go Lightspeed.

davismwfl3• 5 years ago

Yea, given that info, it is a little different IMO. You already have seen what a startup can be like. So you have to consider what you need/want most, a) learn from a more experienced team that does things in a more controlled process driven environment (assuming that is a true statement) or b) the startup life where you need to do a lot of self learning.

For me this choice would be, what is the startup vs what is the corp job. If you are leaving a good senior team to go to an unknown startup that has unknown founders I'd likely stay at the corp job for 2-3 years and learn. If you have an opportunity at an early startup that has experienced founders or has already hit some key milestones of growth/market/funding it might be different, especially depending on the tech stack and what you'd be doing really (not the romanticized version but actually). Really hard to judge honestly, there are pros and cons on both sides.