FAANG vs. Series A/B Startups: Which Path is Better for Career Growth in Tech?
Hi everyone,
I’m a mid-level engineer with 2 years of experience working in a DevOps/Infrastructure role. While I haven’t had as much hands-on coding experience, I’ve had some exposure to microservices and am actively working on sharpening my software engineering skills. Currently, I’m preparing for interviews to break into FAANG or other Big Tech companies, but I’m also exploring opportunities at Series A/B startups and wondering which path might better align with my long-term career goals.
Specifically, I’d love to hear your thoughts on:
- Skill Development: Would a startup provide a faster learning curve and more hands-on opportunities compared to a structured role at FAANG? Or would Big Tech offer better resources, mentorship, and exposure to large-scale systems?
- Career Growth: How do employers perceive experience gained at startups versus FAANG when switching roles in the future? Is one path more advantageous than the other for moving into leadership positions or more technical roles down the line?
- Tradeoffs: What are the main downsides of working at a startup (e.g., workload, instability, limited mentorship) compared to FAANG (e.g., specialization, slower growth)?
- Evaluating Startups: If considering a startup, what criteria would you use to evaluate whether it’s a good opportunity (e.g., team, funding, market potential, culture)? How do you identify startups that offer the best environment for growth and learning?
- Personal Experiences: If you’ve worked in either environment, how did it shape your career trajectory?
I’m trying to balance the potential for accelerated learning and impact at a startup with the stability, brand recognition, and structured career growth offered by FAANG. Any insights, advice, or personal stories would be super helpful!
Thanks in advance!
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Discussion
(4 comments)- 7
3 days agoML EngineerThere's a third option -- unicorns/pre-IPO (minimum series D, preferably E/F+) companies that I think provides a nice middle ground
- 1
3 days agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroI actually think this is the best option, even if you have never worked at Big Tech before. For 99% of engineers, if they have an offer from Notion and one from Google, I would tell them to take the one from Notion.
- 73 days agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
I have worked at both. I spent 4 years at Meta and 2 years at Course Hero, which I joined at Series A and left at late Series B-ish.
Big Tech
Pros:
- Brand name on resume
- Guaranteed competitive compensation
- Consistent learning foundation (FAANG generally has good best practices and the talent to reinforce them)
- Forced to develop soft skills
Cons:
- Lack of scope, abundance of politics and bureaucracy
- Hard to get promoted
- Raw technical learning is pretty garbage, most work is incremental
- Performance management (PIP, stack rank)
Early Startups
Pros:
- More fun
- Deeper relationships and better network building
- Excellent raw technical learning (lots of 0 to 1 work)
- You get a lottery ticket with the equity, and everybody loves gambling
Cons:
- Worse pay unless you get lucky and the startup pops off (most don't)
- High risk with your learning foundation (you might not have a real manager, you might not have any senior peers in your tech stack, perf review system isn't well-defined)
- Company might die next year
- Hard to build technical depth as startups usually sacrifice quality for velocity
I will make this all more structured with a course about career choices later on, but in general, for earlier-in-career folks like you who I presume have never worked at a FAANG-type company before, you should go to Big Tech.
Longer term though, it is very formative to work at both. There are more important things than money.
Here's a good thread breaking this all down more: "What's the difference between Big Tech and startups in terms of learning and growth?"
- 23 days agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
If considering a startup, what criteria would you use to evaluate whether it’s a good opportunity (e.g., team, funding, market potential, culture)? How do you identify startups that offer the best environment for growth and learning?
Check this out: "How to evaluate a startup?"
Similar to all other companies though, a lot of this signal comes from your ability to reverse-interview, particularly during the behavioral round. Go through my behavioral interview course, especially the lessons starting from here: https://www.jointaro.com/course/master-the-behavioral-interview-as-a-software-engineer/interviews-are-a-2-way-street/
