Currently stuck between offers from two great startups. TC is more or less the same. Startup A is a mid-sized startup, that I REALLY liked the office and culture of. Team was young and collegey, and I felt like I could be real friends with all my interviewers. I have some friends already working there that absolutely love it, so I have a good idea of what I’m getting into. Worth noting that I’m especiallly concerned with my social life, moving to SF for the first time, and really want a solid group of friends to chill and go out with. Meanwhile, startup B is an earlier-stage startup, engineering team < 50 people. Talent bar at this startup is crazy high, and I’m glad I was accepted. Many engineers are ex-FAANG/other top company staff engineers. I know who my manager would be, enjoyed talking to him, and his experience is jaw-dropping. I think the existing talent is a very promising sign for the success of the startup, and I think if I join early, it can be very impressive to have this company on my resume if it succeeds. A small note: both qualities at the respective companies are already quite good, and both companies are well regarded on Glassdoor/Blind. By this, I mean that talent bar at startup A is well-regarded, but generally younger, less experienced, and coming from less prestigious companies, and while I also liked people and culture at startup B, I just gelled less naturally with them than with startup A. Really just nitpicking at this point and very happy with both. What would you choose? Can’t decide between FOMOing a comfortable social life in my early twenties vs FOMOing a potentially awesome product/solid team experience. Assume all other variables, from benefits to type of work, are constant.
I would say culture easy. I am going to be a recent graduate too, and had a offer from Microsoft and from a startup (and other mid sized companies). Choice was easy, startup. More learning, more development and impact and less mental health issues.
All my friends that went to companies with “super high bars” the company did very poorly. Their bar is artificial, they have high bars because they aren’t hiring a lot, they’re not hiring a lot because the business isn’t doing so well.
interesting point, but what about boutique firms and hedgefunds that VERY selectively recruit 3-4 associates per year, TC often being 300-400k cash? Other examples are Citadel and TwoSigma, both very selective but pay better than any tech company
Not sure if relevant here, company recently went series B, and will be explosively growing in the upcoming year
In B you’ll learn a lot more both from the engineers and the better, more impactful projects. I mean my advice would be B, but I’m in my 30s, don’t really need more friends so... If you go with B, is there a place where you could make meaningful friendships outside of work? Like meetups or some shit?
Yeah, I suppose, but it’s definitely less ideal. I hear about how hard it is to make friends once you leave college and I’m generally trying to avoid dealing with that. I’m also just a pretty shy guy in general, so going to events purposely for the sake of meeting people is a bit.... hard.
Definitely talent. Your early 20s will very likely define your rest of the life. You don’t want comfortable jobs with friends. You want challenging job and people who will inspire you and teach you.
I can teach someone with a base level of intellectual horsepower some new skills. I can’t teach someone who is an asshole how to be cool. On the flip side, for my personal happiness I’d rather work with people who are cool. I’ve worked with assholes on technically complicated projects and it has always sucked.
Culture is everything. Without a good culture you are not gonna learn anything and you will get burned out really fast
What if it’s like 8 culture, 10 talent, vs 10 culture, 8 talent
Only you can make that decision. You want someone else to tell you how to live your life?