New Grad -- large company or startup?
I'm a soon to be fresh grad with 5 internships doing a variety of roles from front end to infrastructure. I am debating between joining a big company or a startup after graduation (no offers yet, haven't started interviewing) While TC is important to me, I prioritize personal growth as an engineer. I want to be confident in my skills and have my work make an impact on the company. I wish to start my own company one day and that's my dream goal. As a fresh grad, what path should I take? Smaller startup, less pay, but more impact and learn more things, or big company, more pay but less impact?
Typical path is large company and then startup. I did the opposite. You'll usually learn better practices in a large tech company but more customer empathy and business acumen in a startup. You should probably try to experience both. You won't learn more in a startup, you'll just learn different things.
Will definitely try both, but wondering which one is best for me out of school given my goals
Lol better practices at big companies? I didn't really know shitty code until I joined msft
You'll fall in love with large company benefits which a start up can't compare to. A FANG is good obviously but so are some other non-fangs good 401k match and health benefits can't be underestimated especially once you finally get a family going.
He’s a new grad he doesn’t have a family
Okay fair, but I will say larger more established companies give a better learning environment and the compensation is usually fair.
I would go for mid sized startups, especially ones with ex-FANG seniors. You can learn a lot of the technical skills and what it means to be a good engineer from them first hand while experiencing the challenges of a startup. Plus they will be super motivated to help you out as your growth will be critical to the success of the company.
Do you have some examples in mind?
Aurora and Nuro are some self driving car startups with some staff engineers from big names on their Infra teams
As someone who has experienced and compared both : either mid size start up or elite big company. If you can get top 4 big name start there to guild your resume. If not, mid size start up is actually better for learning and growth
How’s learning at big 4? Is it all playing ping pong and begging people to review my code as joel puts it?
Start up, hands down
Why
Accelerated learning, accelerated growth, and incredibly fun. Small bonus chance of a strong exit.
Take calculated risk. This means go for hot/new technologies. Don’t go for old stuff because it is a big company with brand name. Usually, startup by definition should be cutting edge. But you could be lucky and work for cool technology in bigger cie.
Pick whichever company has a better tech stack and engineering team, usually FAANGs or unicorns.