Navigating through a “forced” career break
I got offers from 2 companies. Company A is a unicorn while company B is a well-funded series B startup.
I need to go back to my country to serve in the army for a year. Company A doesn’t have an internship program and has essentially asked me to either pick the army or the company (also in-person). On the other hand, company B has an internship program and can do remote work. My goal is to be able to return to the US and work full-time after serving in the army. I might be able to get a 1-year deferral from my home country, though that would take a lot of effort and chances of success are low. I’m a dual citizen with Canada so managing TN visa is easier compared to H1-B.
My military duties start in late Aug 2025. I have several options I’ve come up with:
- Give up entirely on company A. Intern at company B for summer ‘25 and hope for an RO for ‘26 new grad while going to the army.
- Work at company A for 3 months. Work remotely at company B while I’m in the military and use company B to get back into the US. The workload would be extremely high and I doubt that it’d be sustainable. Hopefully crush it at company A such that they’ll want me back (not sure how likely this’ll be). Worst case at least company A would be a brand name on my resume and my work experience at A would be more like an internship (would this be a viable argument?).
- Defer my military duties to Aug ‘26, work at company A from Jun ‘25 - Aug ‘26. When I come back, hope that I do well enough to return to company A.
- Defer military duties to Aug ‘26. Intern at company B for the summer ‘25, then work for company A from Aug 2025 - Aug 2026 (so barely hitting the 1-year vest). Start military duties in Sep 2026. By then I (hopefully) would’ve gotten an RO from company B, and I can start working remotely for company B. The workload would be extremely high and I doubt that it’d be sustainable.
My main concern is that the job market is so hard right now that it’s not like I can wake up and get a job when I want one. Company A is also my top choices during this job search. My fear is that going to the army will close the US door for good. Would like some advice on ranking these options.
![Mid-Level Software Engineer [SDE 2] at Amazon company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Famazon_logo.jpg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3Dff5f2302-08be-43bc-b7b1-d381ba508d99&w=48&q=75){kind=logo}
Discussion
(6 comments)- 12 months agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
I like option 1 to effectively pick the Series B company, since you can crush your internship, build very strong relationships with people you work with, and then leverage that as your ticket to the US.
However, this depends a lot on the specifics of the company. My concern is that a Series B startup may be unstable and therefore (1) not be hiring after 1.5 years or (2) decide not to sponsor visas. So 2 follow-ups I'd ask are:
- Do they have a history of sponsoring engineers with visas? Your case is easier with Canadian dual citizenship, but I'd confirm this. If they're making an exception for you in sponsoring a US work visa, I'd be nervous about what'll happen in Aug 2026.
- What's the pedigree of the people who work there? If many of them are ex-FAANG, or similarly talented companies, I feel better about the Series B co. Even if the company implodes, the people you meet can help you secure another job in the US.
I don't like option 2 since the internship is such a valuable time to build relationships and make a strong impression. It'll be hard to do that if you have the workload of the 40+ hour/week internship and all your military work.
How about option 5? I'm guessing you're finishing up school right now. I wonder if you can start working at company A (the unicorn) now. Then by the time June comes around, you'll have 6 months of data on how the company is doing, and you'll be able to make a better decision in June.
- 0
2 months agoSoftware Engineering InternTaro CommunityDo they have a history of sponsoring engineers with visas? Your case is easier with Canadian dual citizenship, but I'd confirm this. If they're making an exception for you in sponsoring a US work visa, I'd be nervous about what'll happen in Aug 2026.
I’ll need to confirm this but from my understanding Canadian visas are much easier to sponsor, so they shouldn’t have many issues. However with the unstable political climate this coming year it’s uncertain whether that’ll change in the future. They do sponsor remote work with global pay (there are people in Asia/Europe earning US-level wages) so in the very worst case I think it’s possible to work remotely at this company (ideally in Canada) and wait out the storm until I can enter the US.
What's the pedigree of the people who work there? If many of them are ex-FAANG, or similarly talented companies, I feel better about the Series B co. Even if the company implodes, the people you meet can help you secure another job in the US.
Doing a quick Linkedin search most of the people there come from top schools (47% MIT, Stanford, Berkeley). Work-experience wise it’s a mix. I compiled some rough statistics and at least 65% of people have had at least one form of big tech, quant or unicorn experience through either full-time work or an internship. If we only consider full-time big tech/quant/unicorn experience then that proportion is 42%. Some highlights include the VP of engineering leading Google Cloud and Netflix, director of ML was ex-OpenAI/Google AI and the director of SWE lead multiple initiatives at a pre-IPO unicorn.
How about option 5? I'm guessing you're finishing up school right now. I wonder if you can start working at company A (the unicorn) now. Then by the time June comes around, you'll have 6 months of data on how the company is doing, and you'll be able to make a better decision in June.
Unfortunately this isn’t possible. Company A is a stickler for in-person culture and the company and I are located on opposing ends of the US. They’re surprisingly inflexible for a startup.
- 0
2 months agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroOof, unicorns are such a good place to start your career and are amazing to work for in general. Sorry to hear about this - It is definitely extremely awkward.
I know the 1-year deferral is unlikely, but can you at least just try it? The unknown here is making the decision tree very difficult. Or do you need to make a hard call very soon?
The way I see it, this is the best option:
- Get military service deferred for 1 year
- Work at Company A for a little over a year (it's very standard for junior engineers' first stint to be just 1 year, that's what PayPal was for me)
- Do military service
- Come back, ideally to a return offer from Company A (ideally you were a high performer in step #2 and people are willing to stick out their neck for you).
- If #4 doesn't work, go back into the job market with a top company stint on your resume (which gives you a huge boost)
If the deferral doesn't work, company B seems like the best bet. Working at a company for just 3 months is super thrashy and looks terrible on your resume.
- 12 months agoSoftware Engineering InternTaro Community
I know the 1-year deferral is unlikely, but can you at least just try it? The unknown here is making the decision tree very difficult. Or do you need to make a hard call very soon?
I'm working on the deferral right now. Since it's government-related, processes are on the slower side (will likely take a few weeks at least). Company A doesn’t need me to make a hard call as of this moment.
I’ve come up with another option which is to renounce my citizenship. It’s a pretty nuclear option as it would negatively affect my relationship between my family (hopefully not too seriously). Without going into too many details, several influential people from my country gave me the opportunities that I have today and I’d be damaging the relationships with them as well. From a career perspective I can imagine losing access to networking opportunities, but the upside is that I get to start my early career in the right company. I feel conflicted if I should sacrifice personal/professional relationships if it benefits my early career, especially since early career is so important.
- 1a month agoSoftware Engineering InternTaro Community
Just wanted to quickly recap what we went over during OH:
There are 2 main decisions. The first is to do summer internship at the unicorn/startup, then do army, then hope for a unicorn RO, and retain OPT status (easier to sponsor). The second is to defer army, lose OPT status and apply by TN visa (harder to sponsor than OPT, easier than H1B), and do the unicorn for a year.
- Unicorn 1.25 years → Army → Unicorn RO
- Worst case: I don’t get RO. Have TN (Canadian) visa (slightly harder to sponsor than OPT) but I have a year’s worth of work exp at a good company.
- Unicorn Summer ‘25/Series B Summer ‘25 → Army → Unicorn/startup RO
- Worst case: I don’t get RO. Have OPT (very easy to sponsor) but will need to find a job in a short time span (5 months). Have intern experience at a good company.
The conclusion is that since the visa issue is much more important, it’s better to do an internship regardless of which company since I retain OPT status. lmk if I missed anything!
- Unicorn 1.25 years → Army → Unicorn RO
- 1a month agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
That makes sense to me - Good luck!
