Ask HN: Join a “unicorn” startup or a well established giant? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Join a “unicorn” startup or a well established giant?

4 pointswavelander9 comments

Hey there !

I have offers from a "unicorn" status startup and a well established giant (~ $6B - $8B in revenue). I'm 22 and have recently graduated and plan to do my masters in Computer Science sometime in the next year or two.

Considering such a short time horizon, and ignoring facts such as pay, city involved or closeness to home, which could be advised as better time spent working and learning ? What factors do I consider while making my decision ? Do I not ignore factors mentioned previously ?

Lastly, if I do end up joining the startup, I'm also worried that I'll end up staying at the place for too long, and not doing my Masters as planned.

Any advice and outcomes/experiences involved in both paths would be welcome.

Thanks !

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Wealthfront CEO Andy Rachleff on this:

"Ignore Company Size

Great engineering mentors reside at companies of all sizes. Coding best practices are broadly similar between both large and small companies, provided both are on the leading edge. That should come as no surprise because engineers need to solve many of the same root problems, no matter what the size of the company.

Failure at a small company with a great engineering team is not as risky as you might think. Even if your employer fails, recruiters are quite knowledgeable about which companies have recruited great technical leaders and are desperate to hire their disciples. Perhaps even more surprising is engineers from failed companies with great technical reputations are far more vigorously pursued than engineers from successful companies that lack killer technical reputations.

Once again, the most important consideration is the quality of people from whom you can learn."

http://eng.wealthfront.com/2014/02/career-planning-for-new-g...

I'd throw my support behind Andy Rachleff's comment. With the added observations ...

You would be best served to interview your prospective employers. Try to ascertain where you would learn the most and have the most fun.

If you are serious about pursuing your masters, sooner rather than later, then you should bring that topic up in the interviews as well. You might find one of the companies more willing to support your on-going education. Doing a masters part-time might be a viable option.

If you go the startup route, you will likely not do your Masters anytime soon. Not saying you couldn't but I've just seen it a number of times, and you'll likely get caught up doing the startup dance (its fun). Honestly, that isn't a bad thing. In a lot of ways going through the startup process is a better education. Not discounting an advanced education but frankly I'd rather get practical experience over a Masters.

The large company you can easily complete your Masters as the amount of work and the type of work you will be doing will be the entry level work. Not that it is bad, just that it is different than a startup where you could be tasked with a critical feature or bug fix that the company really is depending on. Another factor to consider, if you do really want your Masters now, the bigCo might wind up paying for a lot of it, if you agree to stick around for 1-2 years after they pay for it. Sometimes that is worth taking less fulfilling work so you can fulfill your education, just a thought.

For my 2 cents, I'd go the startup route. But if you are a risk adverse person, don't.

Pick the unicorn.

* Your stock options should be worth a lot more down the road. * It's fun and a better learning experience to be part of a growing company. * The unicorn's name will also look good on your CV. So don't pick the giant for that reason.

Imagine joining Google or Facebook when they were small and considered a unicorn!

Of course there's the unlikely scenario that the unicorn will fail but even then the overall experience will teach you a lot more.

>The unlikely scenario that the unicorn will fail

Why is this the 'unlikely' scenario, and not the likely scenario?

I am really curious on what unicorn OP is talking about.

Choosing between two good options with unpredictable outcomes, my favourite rule of thumb is: choose the one that leaves you with the more options afterwards.

1. With the startup you’ll learn a lot in a short period of time. You’ll meet entrepreneurs and others who can help down the startup road.

2. The giant will look great in your CV and will lead to better positions, better salaries (and you’ll still learn a lot if you want).

It all comes down to your preferences really.

Was in your exact position a few weeks ago. Useful advice that I had was, pick the company that loves the same stuff as you.

If you love tech and want to learn and try new stuff, make sure the company feels the same way. If you're crazy about shipping cool stuff, does the company share that? This is irrespective of the size of the company.

Failing that, I'd go for the risky option.

I have two friends in your position, who both picked the big giant (a multinational company). They both are in their early 20's. They both are fixing bugs. They both have regrets.

Not saying that fixing bugs is a bad thing, but in six months they hardly did anything else but this.

take more risk while u r young and single: a unicorn is gonna be materially different experience than the giant. u can join a large corp at anytime.

a Master's degree is nearly useless in industry, unless ur resume needs help from a prestigious name-brand school. ppl usually pay more attention to where you get ur Bachelor's, or Ph.D. degrees from. a Master's only takes 1.5 or even 1 year to finish, too short for anybody to change/improve a lot.

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