Why Computer Science Undergrads Should Work for Start-Ups

http://www.stanford.edu/~pgbovine/startup.htm

by antiform • 17 years ago

4 4 17 years ago

This is basically an anthology of three Paul Graham essays. If you're here, you've probably read the essays, and if you've read the essays ...

gamble• 17 years ago

Working for a startup is a sucker's game. Even assuming it succeeds, with the amount of equity a typical employee holds and the size of an average buyout, the best-case scenario is that you'll emerge with a pittance after years of very long workdays. More likely you'll end up with nothing, and little professional respect for having spent years at a company few people have ever heard of. The odds are really only in your favor if you're a founder, not an employee.

comatose_kid• 17 years ago

The experience you gain at a startup can be pretty worthwhile, payout or no.

strlen• 17 years ago

That's misleading. There are web-startups that aren't tech centered and there are medium and big companies that solve hard technical problems that startups don't (or can't) encounter. Obviously there are also tech-centered start-ups and "business" centered big-cos.

A better dichotomy isn't start-up/big-co: it is is whether you're looking to do fairly simple, business-oriented programming or CS-focused programming. Or whether you'd prefer to work in an environment that's demanding in terms of output but flexible in terms of work-style or one that's strict 9-5 (no overtime, but no flexibility either).

The stereotype is that big-companies are "9-5, business centered" and start-ups are "demanding but flexible, tech centered". Yet there are other combinations available ("9-5, tech centered" -- think Intel -- "flexible, business centered" etc...) -- in both start-ups and big companies.

Better advice is to work on something you're passionate about in an environment that gives you the chance to gain skills/experience you won't otherwise: once you find such a place, it shouldn't matter whether it's a start-up or not. You'll always have time to make gobs of money later (whether from options at a start-up or bonuses/salary/stock at a big-co).

Essentially: don't work at a start-up for the sake of working at a start-up. Starting your own is a different option -- and isn't the same as joining an existing one; joining a start-up will give you exposure to the "whole picture", but it may also not give you a chance to learn technologies you could put to use at your own start-up.

Why Computer Science Undergrads Should Work for Start-Ups

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