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The man I love hates me because I’m Vietnamese
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BREAKING: Internal sources confirm another round of layoffs just hit emails at Tesla. For real.
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Question about women in their 30’s?
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L4 Google -> 45 interviews, 5 offers, AMA
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Why can't india and china be friends?
I am one of those ex-FAANG engineer who left big tech cushy remote job paying 400k in 2020 to startups paying half the base salary, because I wanted to build something significant and in the process become rich as well. My comp was also 180-200k base + equity. I have 8 YOE. 3 years now , 2 startups, my lessons : * because you are faang doesn’t make you better than engineers from bootcamp who were here early stage of the company * almost no one knows if a startup with succeed. My startup had around 100 million funding and still failed terribly with all founding engineers leaving. * find founders, don’t find startups. If all things are equal, you have a better shot at building something significant if the founders are great and you love working with them. * stay away from crazies. Especially those that have a principle for the company and want you to drink the koolaid. They usually use company Principles as a way to justify toxic behaviors. * be wary of hype. I joined crypto at its peak and ai at its peak. Only to realize the valuation are 20-30x revenue sometimes. * at the end of the day, you need A LOT OF LUCK. The internet who became director in 3 years ? A terrible engineer you know joined a company that 20x their valuation in 2 years ? The 24-25 year olds who are hiring managers now ? Don’t think you can replicate it. * I worked 12hrs a day most days. But still that didn’t guarantee success. So dont think someone wasn’t successful in startup journey coz they didn’t work hard. * layoffs and severance: 1-2 week severance and layoffs no one cares about. Life can change just like that in startup. TC : 0k now. Laid off.
Thank you for sharing OP. Hope you land on your feet. It's better to have tried it then look back with regret thinking what could have been. Even though it may not feel like it now, this has made your future self proud. 🙏
Thank you ! I feel the same, hopefully in future I’ll look back and think “glad I did it and genuinely don’t want to do it anymore” than “wish I tried it, would have been great”
Brother, I hear you. Same story. DM?
Sometimes life puts you in such tough situations to be an example and pave the way for others. Thanks for sharing your experience OP.
Glad this was helpful 🙏
I interviewed with a startup where the two founders were PHD grads from Berkeley. I went to lunch with them and the main founder said even if I can just get 1% of 100M I’ll be happy. Me: ??? The other founder was super toxic personality and very terrible technical abilities. She got so confused between sql vs no sql. So glad they decided to not hire me. That startup failed.
Ponder?
Definitely not. Two very awkward looking Chinese women. I am Chinese myself and would not… LOL They had white boyfriends. I guess Asian fever is real.
> crypto and ai found the problem. but honestly it’s very well known that most (95%) of startups fail. don’t go to a startup for TC. the rest is just dysfunction. every company startup or not has plenty of dysfunction
95% fail. Yeah. Everyone hopes they are the 5% when they join :-)
it’s more than hope. everyone deludes themselves! i keep doing it myself. and i’m the first to post to people they are deluded. human nature i think.
So true. VCs invest in people, not ideas
One of the most honest post on working in a startup
This is so true and thanks for summarizing so well! There is some use from Blind again 😄
Great post. How to fix the coolaid?
You can never fix a culture. If your startup is all about koolaid and principles that founders and leaders use to often justify toxic behavior: you run.
I mean if you run a startup you’re kinda forced too. Companies do it because it works and workers don’t have much recourse. I wonder if companies will pay for the external hire, no internal promotion culture. Now nobody can keep workers
Thanks for the post, hope you find a job soon. Remember you're just a number on the payroll and this is capitalism.
This 😂
It is :-) just sharing my experience as not every startup becomes OpenAI or see the 2020-2022 valuation hype