Great domain at a well known big tech company versus not so great domain at a high growth startup
Hey there!
I am trying to decide between joining a big tech company and a high growth startup.
The team and work at the big tech company seems amazing, its the domain that i am really interested in. The team is growing and hence there seems to be quite a bit of work. But its the company thats well known for its work life balance (read laidback culture) so creating impact might take time. I think i will have to invest at least 4-5 years to create meaningful impact and to see growth in my career.
The team and work at the startup is in the field of Devex, I don't get to code much, but i would be involved in solving their CI pipeline issues and improve the developer experience. I might also get to do other related things in the Infrastructure domain. This sounds exciting since it's a startup and there would be so many challenges to solve. I wouldn't be so excited by this domain outside of a startup since there are so many external tools that bigger companies use to solve Devex problems.
By going with the big company, i am securing my domain, my brand and my stability as a good hire in the market. However, i might not grow too much as an engineer. I have a lot of time in my hands and i dont mind working in pressured environments (not too toxic of course) and have a lot of ownership so the environment might get boring for me. But i will have a secure future for sure.
By going with the startup, i might end up having fun and creating a lot of impact and experience growth as an engineer but end up with a confused/unclear domain and might end up as a non favourable candidate to big companies once i am out of it due to my experience here.
They are both paying me almost an equal amount and the small difference doesn't really matter to me at this stage.
Would love to know your opinions on what i should choose and why.
![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
(2 comments)- 111 days agoEng @ Taro
By going with the big company, i am securing my domain, my brand and my stability as a good hire in the market. However, i might not grow too much as an engineer.
If all things are equal, and you don't have a big company name on your resume, I would probably go with the big company because of the external validation you'll get. It will open the door for you to join other companies in the future because it's a solid signal that you can meet a certain bar. A lot of recruiters will look at the companies you've worked for in the past to look for a strong brand name.
If I had to argue the other way, I have talked to some very early stage startup founders that have some trepidation around hiring people from the laidback company because of potential velocity concerns or getting stuck in a slower mindset of doing things. But, I do feel like this is a minority of cases.
You could just work at the big tech company for 1.5-2 years and dip if it's not working out for you.
- 1
11 days agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroStartups are specific, so I understand not wanting to share that, but can you share the Big Tech company at least? Among Big Tech/FAANG, they are very different when it comes to career growth, future trajectory, and compensation. For the startup, sharing the funding round (Seed, Series A, Series B, etc) would be helpful.
If you were a junior engineer, I would instantly recommend working at the Big Tech company. However, as a senior engineer, you have more options, especially if you have worked at a known tech company before.
In general, here are the "branches" of the decision tree I would give:
- If you've never worked at Big Tech: Go to Big Tech and get the prestige + resume boost.
- If you have worked at Big Tech: Go to the startup, they're more fun! Do this especially if you have never worked at a proper startup before.
- If you need stability: There are many reasons for this ranging from visa issues to needing to support a family. In that case, Big Tech wins.
