I was lucky enough to have received 4 great offer this new grad season and am wondering which one I should take. The 3 I posted are the three I’m considering: Scale AI, Bloomberg, and Microsoft TC isn’t as much of a concern to me as the following values: Which will look the best on an MBA action to HSW 5-7 years from now Best growth and networking opportunities Best exits (can I go to google or Jane street or a good tech company from there) Location and WLB Let me list pros and cons SCALE AI PROS -Craziest talent pool and exits. Everyone there seems to be Harvard Stanford MIT Berkeley. People exit into venture capital, quant firms, big tech, or their own startups (I wanna do a startup one day) - Lots of learning, not a lot of red tape, engineers can participate in business stuff - Huge prestige unicorn - innovative product in ML space, great on resume - Probsbly has a bright future due to being partnered with openai and seemingly wants to ipo within 5 years - can move to NY office after a year SCALE AI CONS - is in San Francisco (I wanna stay in east coast) - just had layoffs - I hear it’s grindy and ppl here burn out fast. I’m kind of prone to burn out and am worried I’ll be out worked and out performed by the insanely smart ppl there - 0 diversity whatsoever BLOOMBERG PROS - great WLB - great new grad support - seemingly great culture - NEW YORK - potential to learn about finance - seems layoff proof and stable in this rough market BLOOMBERG CONS - potentially least impressive on resume - potentially worst exits out of my 3 options (unsure) - slower to promote - no stock - might stagnate my career - will I be looked at favorably when applying to YC when working here? - potentially old tech MICROSOFT PROS - it’s literally Microsoft - non new grad role - tc seems negotiable as they haven’t drafted my offer letter - chill team MICROSOFT cons - I’m pretty sure this is a front end role and I wanna do backend - Seattle with no chance of ending up in NYC ANYWAY WHERE DOES BLIND THINK I SHOULD GO?!?! TC - 0 #engineering #software #swe #newgrad #offers #microsoft #scale #scaleai #bloomberg #new york #sanfrancisco #seattle #newgradsalary #help #tc #askblind
NEW YORK! You don’t wanna end up in shitty Seattle or boring SF. Go to New York!! Especially if you’re a guy. Trust me on this one lol.
source. Trust me bro.
If you're an antisocial guy NYC is the worst for social life. If you are sociable, it is great. I reckon that most people on Blind are antisocial though.
If you’re really gunning for YC then Scale. I worked at Bloomberg before and the coworkers were clearly unambitious and dull — it’s a soul-deadening job.
Can you go into further detail please?
I think you should solidify your goals a bit, you mentioned you want to do an HSW MBA, do YC, but also maximize your chances of going to a "better" tech company down the line like Google or JS. Thats a lot of criteria to hit for your first job. Anyway, I think the option that maximizes most of these (if not all) is Scale. Scale has super smart people, lots of people that exit for starting their own thing, and a strong network of driven people. Going to a startup and being a self starter is probably also a good look for when you apply to an MBA, but like I said for a top school MBA its not really like recruiting where brand named jobs matter, its more about crafting a narrative. That narrative is probably easier to make if your someone coming from a scrappy startup vs bloomberg or msft. The only con I can see is, anecdotally big tech recruiters are not that great and might not really recognize strong unicorns like Scale, but given that you already have Microsoft this shouldn't be as bad. Trading firms (at least places like 2s, JS, Cit) should recognize that Scale has strong talent.
Congrats on the 3 offers. As someone working at MSFT, I’d say picking either of the 3 would help you achieve your goals. What you should really focus and consider is the team you will land into, at the end of the day its the people who you work with matter more than the company. That being said, given the pros and cons you have listed, I’d suggest scale ai as you will be in a dynamic environment which will push you beyond your limits and that is what you wanna do out of college IMO. Also, is the youngest company out of the 3, so I’d definitely recommend that one.
Bloomberg has good tech too, very team dependant however. For new grads, great place to start out. You'll make a lot of friends
As someone working in ML space I wouldn’t say scales product is that innovative..it’s just data labeling with extra bells and whistles. Smart people sure but it’s no Deepmind.
Yea so where would you go ?
I would still choose Scale, but don’t go in with the impression that the product is revolutionizing ML
Congratulations, OP! I would go with Scale AI or Bloomberg. Good luck in your new role. TC: 105K
Seattle is terrible. I would do Bloomberg or scale depending on how important it is to you to stay in New York and avoid burnout vs. chasing prestige unicorn. How easy do you burn out? How bad does it make you feel to be the dumbest person in the room? If the answer to these was easily, and anxious and frightened, go to Bloomberg. The other question is how bad would you feel to not achieve your dream of working with the best and brightest at a hot unicorn start up? If this is something you would regret on your death bed, then do it and be ready to quit and get some other offer in NYC when (when, not if) you burn out. You will burn out - that said, now is the time for this type of job - while you have no wife and no kids and no current major obligations to care for elderly parents who are sick or dying.
How easy do I burn out? VERY How do I feel being dumbest person in the room? I don’t mind this at all and never have
Have you considered a high stress job like Jane Street or Citadel might not be a good fit for you? Scale AI might be a good new grad job as a stepping stone to Google. But leaving NYC sucks if you're a New Yorker! There are NO good bagels or pizza on the West Coast, for any price and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. If not trying to work at a hot start up will be a major regret in your life, go to Scale and be ready to quit and move back to New York if you need to. 9 months or a year is enough to have it on your resume. No one will judge you if you leave and say "start up culture was not a good fit for me". If it won't be a major regret in life, go to Bloomberg. It's a great job but definitely less cool and shiny. The West Coast is not that great especially outside LA and Portland.
No
Bloomberg does exit to the SWE side of quant quite often btw.
How to?
How to x2. I’ve had citadel and HRT recruiter hmu, but want to optimize for when I’m ready to bounce
If you want to stay in east coast then Bloomberg