I apologize if I won’t be able to share the name of my current and future employer, I am too afraid of being identified. Feel free to stop reading now if you expect names.
I am a tech lead/manager at a startup. I grew rather well, and my current compensation is $900k, $250k is liquid and the rest is very illiquid equity. I know the equity could go to zero, but the company is doing well so I am optimistic something will happen in 2020/2021.
I am feeling bored so I interviewed recently with a new company for a semi-director position (where I would have a few ICs direct reports and also a couple managers of small teams), way out of my comfort zone, and somehow I managed to pass the rounds of interview and everyone is excited about me, except me.
They made me this offer:
- Base: 300k
- Equity: 2.8M/4y
- Sign-on: 250k
The equity is absolutely liquid and the stock is stable, so effectively the comp is above 1M/y. The thing is, the role is very critical and impactful and I am afraid that being my first time in such a high leadership position (for me, at least) I will not be able to perform properly and be canned in a few months. The company is known for firing under performers easily, and that is affecting my confidence, I keep thinking that I am setting myself up for failure.
I know I should have thought of this before applying, but here I am, wondering if I should jump ship or just stay one more year at my startup to see what happens. I am virtually 100% safe at my startup, everybody knows me and I would be one of the very last to every be fired.
Age: 32
Yoe: 9
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comments
Met a woman last night who introduced herself and part of her introduction included that she was “supposed to go to Harvard law”. Don’t be that person.
If you’re excited about the position (assuming you are since you applied) then do it.
And so what if you fail? I know someone who was hired as CMO at a fortune 100, she wasn’t great at her job, didn’t understand the business, was a little out of her league in the industry, and didn’t make it a year before being let go. Now she’s head of strategy at a well known tech company in SF.
Even if you “fail” you’ll still end up somewhere great.
I understand that this sounds hollow coming from a 25yo, but you're only 32. Even if you're expecting to get fired within a year, you lose out at max 2-3y of career progression(worst case, can't get back to your old role, need ramp-up time in new role). Seems to me an exciting risk worth taking!
This comment was deleted by original commenter.
To answer the question: my boss at bigco quit and started a startup, and recruited me and a couple other folks from his previous teams to join him (with some delay to make sure it was not too illegal), and I said yes.