Alphabet company vs latestage startup
New grad here - I’d like to move into a small startup in about two years, and in the meantime am fortunate enough to choose between engineering roles at a Bet (not Google) that’s a couple hundred of people and a late-stage/pre-IPO startup that’s a few thousand people. I want to prioritize learning so that I can make the most impact once I join a smaller startup or enter a higher level role. I’d like to hear people’s thoughts on the trade off between potentially having greater ownership/impact at the Alphabet company but only using Google internal tools that don’t translate to the rest of industry versus going to the larger startup, which uses a variety of different OS tools and is scrappier but might not give me as much responsibility.
I would say an Alphabet Bet is the safer choice here. You’ll also be able to make impact faster since you’ll already be familiar with the tools. How does one find about Bets in various locations? Are they all in Bay Area?
FWIW I’ve interned at both places before so ramping up isn’t a concern for me. My main concerns are google infra being largely useless outside of google and the other startup being too large. I believe most of the Bets are in the Bay Area, with the exception of Sidewalk Labs being in Toronto!
Just a SWE position.
What’s your rationale?
Hmmm. Just make sure that at Google you're learning adequate technologies. Not all external companies use the same thing. Try to be exposed to production, not only coding.