tldr: I have an offer from Meta and a niche growth-stage (series D+) startup. My gutfeel is telling me to go to the startup even though it’s all against conventional wisdom to go to big tech, and I don’t know if I’m making a mistake. I got into a growth-stage startup that’s relevant to my background and aspirations to be a founder. Engineers talk to customers, work with sales and scope projects with PMs. These tasks are important skills for me. Meta is more siloed until E5, and even then it’s still not quite end-to-end. I talked to over 10+ engineers (including 2 friends) and all of them love working there despite the long hours. I’ve heard both the pros and cons and I know what I’m getting myself into. I aggregated all of the new grads’ starter projects and compared them with my friends at FAANG. My big tech friends say that the new grads at the startup are doing FAANG mid-level work as their first project. The team I’ll be matched to aligns very well with my strengths and interests. Whereas I won’t know team matching with Meta until later. Business is doing well. VC friends said there’s a strong growth trajectory in a hot space. Cap table is all the top VC firms and angels. It’s a stable company and few performance-based layoffs, in contrast my friends at Meta are all stressed about PSC. If I don’t take a risk now then when will I? However, it seems like every forum and well-regarded figure (Interviewing IO, Ryan Peterman, Dan Lu, even Taro, etc.) in the SWE space advises the opposite: join big tech over a startup for career growth and brand. Brand is especially important and is what’s holding me back. I don’t have any name brand companies on my resume. My friends with big tech have a 20-30% callback rate whereas mine is 5-7%. I might learn way more at the startup, but won’t be able to transfer these acquired skills if I can’t find a job in the future to transfer them to. Throwing away Meta feels like keeping myself trapped. This makes me question whether I’m being overly optimistic (even delusional) of the startup. I feel like I did reasonable due diligence and, reasoning from first principles, it seems like this is the better opportunity for me. I’m wondering if someone was in my position and regretted not going to big tech? Is there any more due diligence/questions I can do to reach a more definitive decision? Is Meta’s brand name worth more than career alignment or goals?

Conventional wisdom just doesn't work. You'll have to decide for yourself whether you want the accelerated growth of a startup life or not. Big tech on average produces better results. But you are not the average (or so I hope). Remember these folks did really really well at FAANG compared to the average actually. They're telling you what worked for them. From the information in your post, I can smell you've already made up your mind about the startup. Just do it.

When to trust conventional wisdom when making career decisions?

Software Engineering Intern at Taro Communitya month ago

Software Engineering Intern

tldr: I have an offer from Meta and a niche growth-stage (series D+) startup. My gutfeel is telling me to go to the startup even though it’s all against conventional wisdom to go to big tech, and I don’t know if I’m making a mistake.

I got into a growth-stage startup that’s relevant to my background and aspirations to be a founder.

Engineers talk to customers, work with sales and scope projects with PMs. These tasks are important skills for me. Meta is more siloed until E5, and even then it’s still not quite end-to-end.
I talked to over 10+ engineers (including 2 friends) and all of them love working there despite the long hours. I’ve heard both the pros and cons and I know what I’m getting myself into.
I aggregated all of the new grads’ starter projects and compared them with my friends at FAANG. My big tech friends say that the new grads at the startup are doing FAANG mid-level work as their first project.
The team I’ll be matched to aligns very well with my strengths and interests. Whereas I won’t know team matching with Meta until later.
Business is doing well. VC friends said there’s a strong growth trajectory in a hot space. Cap table is all the top VC firms and angels.
It’s a stable company and few performance-based layoffs, in contrast my friends at Meta are all stressed about PSC.
If I don’t take a risk now then when will I?

However, it seems like every forum and well-regarded figure (Interviewing IO, Ryan Peterman, Dan Lu, even Taro, etc.) in the SWE space advises the opposite: join big tech over a startup for career growth and brand. Brand is especially important and is what’s holding me back. I don’t have any name brand companies on my resume. My friends with big tech have a 20-30% callback rate whereas mine is 5-7%. I might learn way more at the startup, but won’t be able to transfer these acquired skills if I can’t find a job in the future to transfer them to. Throwing away Meta feels like keeping myself trapped.

This makes me question whether I’m being overly optimistic (even delusional) of the startup. I feel like I did reasonable due diligence and, reasoning from first principles, it seems like this is the better opportunity for me.

I’m wondering if someone was in my position and regretted not going to big tech?
Is there any more due diligence/questions I can do to reach a more definitive decision?
Is Meta’s brand name worth more than career alignment or goals?

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Discussion

(3 comments)

1
Elliot Kang
•AI/ML Eng @ Series C startup
a month ago
Conventional wisdom just doesn't work. You'll have to decide for yourself whether you want the accelerated growth of a startup life or not.

Big tech on average produces better results. But you are not the average (or so I hope). Remember these folks did really really well at FAANG compared to the average actually. They're telling you what worked for them.

From the information in your post, I can smell you've already made up your mind about the startup. Just do it.
1
Rahul Pandey
•Tech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
a month ago
First thing I want to mention is that careers are long and you'll have many jobs across. So don't feel like a certain decision has finality. If you've found that you don't like a company or domain, you are empowered to move on and change your career. Nothing is permanent.

On average, Big Tech (and Meta in particular) is an amazing option. That is the safe choice, which is why you see the typical advice recommending Big Tech. Brand, compensation, and people are all generally high quality.

A Series D company that is undergoing hypergrowth could also be an amazing career move. It's really hard to say without knowing the company. If the company continues growing, it could have even more brand value than Meta. (e.g. imagine joining Robinhood or DoorDash in 2018)

It sounds like you've talked to many people there and they've all said great things, which is a positive sign. You could also try talking to people who have left the company to get a more balanced perspective.

There's some great advice about evaluating a company here: How do you sift through noise when evaluating a company?
0
Charlie Vuong
•Eng @ Taro
a month ago
I would try to go through the worst case scenario and decide whether you'd be okay if that ends up getting realized.

The financial expected value is probably higher by going to Big Tech, but it's possible to have more upside in a startup. You have to also factor in that at a public big tech company, the stock will most likely be appreciating by 20%+ each year, and it's very liquid. Whereas, at a startup, if it does end up succeeding, you might not be able to access that money for 10+ years. (but, the paper money can definitely grow way beyond 20%= each year).

aspirations to be a founder.

If you have founder aspirations, you are probably very risk-on, and you probably care less about career trajectory, so you probably know deep down what choice you want to make.