#TechCareer #FAANG #StartupLife #LondonTech
Hey everyone! 👋 So, I’m at a bit of a crossroads here and could really use some advice. I’m currently working for a big tech company in London, but I’ve made the decision to leave and join a friend’s startup as a founder engineer. I’ve had some mixed reactions to say the least, with my managers offering counter offers and some seniors trying to scare me into staying with statements like “you’ll regret it” and “you may never get this opportunity again”. 🤔
I’m really torn about whether I’m making the right decision by leaving the stability of my current job for the excitement and innovation of a startup. Has anyone else been in a similar situation and regretted their decision? My manager is even saying I can still change my mind and stay.
Here’s a bit more context:
– The salary is almost the same at both places
– The startup is fully remote, so no more 3 days per week in the office
– The startup position offers opportunities for leadership and innovation
Would love to hear your thoughts and experiences! And if anyone has any advice on making the decision, please share. Let’s help each other out! 😊
100% yes. Starts ups are terrible places to work and most fail. I get that you want to help and work with your friend but this was probably a huge mistake.
**”**According to Investopedia, as many as 90% of startups fail, and 20% of those fail within their first year. The U.S. Bureau of Labor says that all businesses have a 70% failure rate over time, but startups are especially likely to fail because of their innovative nature. “
I would imagine much more stress with the start up position plus I would think about job security, the start up could go badly. I would stay at the FAANG company but easier for me to say since I’m not there haha.
Either risk it for the biscuit at the start up or enjoy the security of being at a FAANG company. Good thing is if that start up doesn’t plan up, you’ll have some good things to put on that resume.
I’m guessing you’ve already got funding. Which is easier said than done in this current economy. So either VC is doing something dumb, which VC tends to do. Or they think it’s a sure bet.
You’re going to be pulling 80+ weeks and likely will end up hating your friend by the end of it tho.
I worked in London and am a few years older than you.
* If you’re leaving a PAYE job at FAANGM ***you might miss it but not regret it***. The real money in UK is in contract jobs outside of IR35, not PAYE anyway.
* The other way to get £££ in UK is work for a venture backed startup. Not all startups are equal. The management team, the product, who’s invested all matters. Your equity is more important than salary, especially since you can leave London to work remotely and save money if you want.
* UK’s FinTech sector is world class, so if it’s a FinTech with a good founding team and investors just go. You already have FAANG prestige, unless you come from a rich family, chase happiness and wealth.
* At a startup you will get experience you will not get elsewhere. Slow growth at FAANG vs being a VP in a few years at a startup? Grind out the startup and then go back to FAANG after a promotion or two if you really want.
>*from counter offers from my managers to some seniors trying to intimidate me saying thing like: “you may never get this position back” “I’ve been in that environment, you’ll regret it*
FUD. Old losers with mortgages they’re stuck paying trying to intimidate the young guy.
I had this happen when I quit my contract job at a sister company to Selfridges. They tried to tell me that their IT exec was well connected and essentially said I’d be blackballed for leaving.
I since worked around the world at some of the largest household names. Nobody cares that much and in a different department after a few years you can absolutely get that job back, prob even in the same company lmfao.
Lets look at the landscape.
Facebook – Cool to work at
Apple – Great to work at if you’re a bit older with a family
Amazon – Err…go for a few years and then bail (I turned them down 3x)
Netflix – Cool to work at
Google – Was cool to work at, is more just a prestigious job
What about:
SalesForce, Adobe, Notion, Figma, SSense, Uber, PayPal, Stripe, OpenAI, Revolut, Epic Games, Discord, Byte Dance, Snap, Waymo, Canva, Intel, Nvidia, Sony, Nintendo, Zscaler, Valve, Lockheed, Raytheon, Emirates, Goldman Sachs.
Oh crap! There are tons of unicorns and huge companies with ultra prestigious names*.* You already worked at FAANG.
You think recruiters would scoff at you working for Stripe, Nvidia or Lockheed? lol
Also, hate to break it to you but nobody outside of the UK will know you existed in these companies for the most part. If you leave FB UK, suffice to say FB Singapore or FB USA will not hold it against your application later on. Only Apple tends to get mad about people leaving and coming back.
Dude this is not f*cking 2010. FAANG has gotten *way* more corporate in the past few years and this will continue. Quite frankly? Goldman Sacs was offering me better quality of life than Amazon.
Go be happy. Don’t be a slave to a name on your resume that already is there anyway.
I would need guaranteed money, half up front and a HUGE motherfucking piece of the pie, but I would try it because there’s always a paycheck to go back to.
Early stage start ups fucking suck to work at.
Did it, was great.
After some decades i moved back to industry, but it was a really great time in the start-up bubble.
You can only wait and see, we don’t know you well enough to see if you could thrive in a startup
Start ups are insanely hard, you’ll be working a lot more and most fail. Also failed business ventures kill friendships. As funding gets tight I’m assuming they start to try to lower your pay for equity, which get awkward fast.
You’re 27, not 47. You still have a threshold for failure that won’t exist later in life. Do it.
Jobs come and go. Come on mate, take a look at LinkedIn. You’re not in Afghanistan. You’re in London with FAANG experience. There are tonnes of high paying jobs you can fall back on.
Let’s look at worst case, in 2 years and the startup goes tits up. Even if you fail, it will be valuable experience building something from the ground up plus FAANG on your CV. Some fintech firm will snatch you up for £100k+, they’d be dumb not to. I’ve seen senior positions for late £100’s. Dunno what you’re on now, but even if you take a pay cut, you’ll still live an exceptionally comfortable life on the salaries you’ll still qualify for.
If you’re good at what you do and interview well, you’ll always find work around London. Maybe not FAANG, sure, but close.
IMO the experience, both in life and work, makes it worthwhile.
Besides, what if it succeeds (long shot, but hey who knows) and you end up getting rich by building something from the ground up according to your own vision? And what if you say no now, only to watch all the early investors succeed – how will that make you feel?
I’ve worked for two startups and regretted it both times.
I prefer corporate environments. The work is boring but it’s predictable and I enjoy getting really good at a select few responsibilities vs wearing a bunch of different hats and having trouble keeping up with all the changes going on within a start up.
Some people enjoy start ups, and thats great. I just learned that it wasnt for me, especially after the 2nd time.
Yolo. Go for it. Considering the start up has some funding, you aren’t going to a startup that has zero potential. There is a stat I read somewhere that 90-95% of startups don’t reach profitability or get bought out. So while there is a risk, having it on your resume will make you that much more desirable.
If you get stock options, startups can make you wealthy, but that’s only if the startup surives and is actually successful long term, which is not most of them. The hours in a startup are going to be longer, and you need to prepare for the likely outcome that you end up without a job. The hours are also likely going to be nuts.
WFH is a big perk, but you’re taking the same salary for much greater risk. FAANG can be nuts, too, so it ultimately comes down to risk tolerance, if you have enough money packed away to weather the storm if you get laid off, and your desire to work remotely.
If you are even weighing remote work you don’t have right mindset. Startups are about going all in for the chance at 7 figure wealth.
If you have a family it’s hard to walk away from stability. If you are not encumbered yet I say go for it!
Yolo. Ymmv but I worked for a series of start ups in the late 90s early 2000s. 2 went bust in less than 2 years. The 3rd got bought by a major player and I got a health payoff from that. Got absorbed into the new org and stayed there for a bit. The connections I made were invaluable though. Now I’m old with kids and mortgage, so I need stability but the old days set me up for whenever I want to retire and a health network for when I get bored and want a change
I’m not seeing enough comments from people who actually worked at startups. I do have that experience. Let me tell you what it is like.
You need to be agile AF in a startup. The board will bend over backwards for funding and that means they will go back on decisions they promised to you and others if it means more money. What you got told that morning as the company goal that you need to help make happen could be the opposite that evening. You need to be okay with that. You need to be okay with working on features that please the eye rather than making something robust because it will get the attention of the check book. I’ve had my priorities changed on me 4 times in one day I shit you not and expected to get progress on it before I leave for that day. I hated those days. Everything I did felt meaningless. And the family wasn’t happy when that happened either.
You need to be ready to wear 8 different hats and getting paid for only one of those hats. Everyone will have to do that though. That’s just the nature of it. That means you will taking sales calls as a SME, you’ll be trouble shooting with software engineers, and you’ll be going out of your wheelhouse at times too (I personally liked that aspect of the job) and you need to be comfortable with that.
At my startup the top down comms were very open. I knew everyone on the board and they knew me. I loved this. If I did something good or important, the praise was very personable. They were also very understanding. I also really enjoyed the dev team I worked with. Some of the nicest and patient people ever. Like I said everyone wore many hats and it was just understood that someone might be out of their depth and support was always ready and just a text away.
The worse part though. When funding and sales driy up. The communication stops, your team gets chopped down to bare essentials as money gets tight and you have to shore up all that extra work somehow because none of them are getting replaced. I was the last guy on my team to get laid off. By the end of it I was at my wits end and thankful to be laid off.
The rapid and varied skill ups was crazy and good for my career. I established really good business friendships with very experienced people. I don’t have any regrets except one. Not getting out before it was impacting my sanity.
As long as you go in knowing all this and you are not bothered by these realities. I don’t see why you shouldn’t. I was much older when I did this too.