Shall I accept a contract role at Google or full time role at a startup?
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zipzap⚡️
Mar 10, 2021
9 Comments
Hi fellow blinders! Please help me choose between two offers. TC, benefits, and job-profile wise, these two offers are almost comparable.
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Contract work at Google varies from team to team, or even from contractor to contractor. Not sure if you are applying for software positions, but some contractor roles at Google will allow you to grow your job skills. Still a lot of contractor roles don't, and you're mostly doing busy work that full time employees don't have time for. You could wind up in a position where someone else takes credit for your work when it's good, but you get thrown under the bus when it's bad. And forget about mentorship, my manager at Google would tell me legally they cannot provide contractors access to classes, or mentorship/career advice.
However, I did get lucky on the work side and was able to do serious coding work that helped me apply to other FAANGs and get real experience. If you were able to get a good grasp of the team's work flow during your interviews and it seems like a solid role, this could be a good opportunity to go into other FAANG or similar companies. But you could also get trapped and become "permatemp".
I was full time at a start up before being a contractor at Google. I left because the work was not fulfilling, the work life balance was horrible, and the tech was super outdated. My experience at Google was the complete opposite on these three fronts. Also, I got a bigger jump in compensation than I would have from vesting more shares if I would have stayed. The company eventually got acquired but the upside to the stock was not that high. If the start up seems solid, and you feel comfortable about its future, then joining the start up could be a better long term bet.
I didn't vote on the poll, since with the information you've provided both options could be good for different things. I think it depends on how well you vetted the two options during your interviews and how the specific teams compare.
Honestly, after speaking to the hiring managers from both the teams (one from Google and one from the startup), I loved the HM at Google (who I will supposedly work most closely with), whereas I totally hated the one from the startup.
1- Join the startup full time
2- Learn as much as you can for a year or two
3- Apply to Google and other companies to join Full-time and hopefully join with a good compensation
I doubt joining as a contractor will accelerate this. You might even leave after the contract ends...
Also, in these big companies contractors tend to be doing the shit work.
And also, this may not be the rule for all. But what I saw many times is that when full time employees get too busy with their work and end up spending time stuff that isn’t interesting, repetitive and doesn’t require lots of skills, then they get some contractors to do it. So the full timers focus in their more valuable work.
I hope this makes sense.
But if the manager you talked to seems nice and promised you good work/development then it might be fine.
I believe that at the end of the day it goes down to the manager really. You could have a horrible full time job with a bad manager and a not so bad contractor job with a good manager.
Contractors at big companies are usually given work that the full time teams don’t like to do.
It’s up to 1 year. Your project can be easily canceled or moved to cheaper vendor (Europe/India/Mexico).