We can all agree that there are opportunities in all kinds of businesses, especially if you are an engineer. If you do not really care, you only hear the big ones, because they make sure to get attention if they are only a fraction of the jobs available. Also, even in 2018, it could be said that entry into a company is uncertain, even dangerous for your career.
A fairly light and efficient organization
in its beginnings a startup is just a small team. of course, there is no chain of command, no managers, no heavy process or inherited systems. no matter what his oraganization is all the staff must be welded as a small team. which makes everyone efficient in his tasks, all for the good of this baby.
Your impact on the product
in the case where you launch a product, you do the most. you can also add new features or delete some of them to try others, it will always be cheap stock and your product will be competitively priced. In addition, in a team of 5 or 6 people, you certainly have a huge impact on the product. Not only do you represent 20% of the workforce, but in 3 years, many features and evolutions will depend on the work you did at the beginning.
What is happening in large companies?
What is the life cycle of a new idea in a big company? Of course if it's your idea and you're not a leader, it will take forever for it to be validated. Subsequently, you must consider the impact on your users, your technology stack, or the data. To do this you need a migration plan. And if the migration in question has an impact on the users, you will probably create a parallel user interface. Or if the data has to be migrated, it will be done within a reasonable time, of course. Oh, and most of the time, the migration is not worth it. As a result, you are stuck with your old interface, outdated data, or inefficient technology stack.
Build an inheritance or suffer from an inheritance?
Everything is a matter of timing, when you work on the product at an early start, you actually create a legacy, which, in my opinion, is much nicer than depending on someone else's legacy. In a few years, you will be more effective than others in working on the product, because not only do you know the context of most past decisions, but you have also been part of the context.
The risks you take
Let's face it. When you take a job, there are 20 jobs for 7 candidates, there is absolutely no risk to accept these jobs. Your startup fails in 3 months? Well, you'll be the only guy on the market, while everyone has 2 or 3 months notice. Do not you want to do that again? Well in this case you have to consider taking a quiet and easy job in a big company. Maybe you will join another small business and start your own startup in a few years, and ultimately lose a few years to get to the foreclosure.
That money you make
This is the uncertain part. Early employees usually get stock options when the company is really small. This percentage varies between 0.15% and 2% each, these actions may be worth nothing after a few years. But there is a small chance that the company is between $ 10 million and $ 100 million. In this case, your result can be a lot of money. Of course, the first employees have a lot more action than others, because they decide to join the company when the uncertainty is high, but also because you can not have 200 people with 1% of each ...
Let's be honest, if money is the main reason you join a business, maybe you need to start with other ways to earn money with a lot more certainty.
In your opinion, what is it like to be an entrepreneur?
Maybe, just maybe, one day, you intend to start your own business. What you see in an early-stage start-up is today's entrepreneurs facing challenges, successes and failures on a daily basis. From outside a company, you hear mainly about fundraising and IPOS, or sexual harassment-related disasters or massive confidentiality issues.
Learn from the trades of others ️
In a small company, our small team, all the skills are gathered in a very small environment. You collaborate all the time with people who do very different tasks and you learn from them. If you're an engineer, it's easy to learn more about marketing or design, or at least understand their challenges, which helps you develop your leadership and helps you have a great vision for your future and the future of the company. In a large organization, you work primarily with people like you, unless you are a manager.
When you're a director in a big company, the story is different. You talk to other teams in the organization. However, you do not do a lot of real work. This is because attending meetings, managing arrears, policy and managing your career takes a lot of time. This is why more and more managers become individual contributors.
Treat the organization as a product
A young startup is a young organization. Joining them gives you the opportunity to experiment with new types of management without having to deal with an established hierarchy. You will try brilliant and effective initiatives, such as having no meetings on status, asynchronous communication, transparency of em. You will have your say on how to collaborate with each other, how to deliver your product and how to talk to customers. Because you contribute to the organization, you will love it as you like the product you are working on.
You will constantly innovate, learn, experience new things in both the product and the way you work. Every day, you own as much what you do as how you do it.
