Comment by xxSparkleSxx | Hacker News Reader

Comment by xxSparkleSxx | Hacker News Reader

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I'm at a startup now. When I was looking for a job last year, I had 3 offers and this startup was the lowest in terms of compensation and while the other two offers were higher they were with large corporations.

While I'm a little disappointed in my pay, I get a ridiculously flexible schedule, work from home whenever I feel like it, I put in some extra work last weekend so my boss just told me to take tomorrow off (which is a common occurrence), the work I'm doing is 5x as interesting and I get to try my hand at a breadth of tasks. I also ended up getting a fantastic title after 6ish months as I was hired in under a pseudo title and they had the mentality of "show us what you can do." There's always new/more difficult tasks I can jump in on when I'm ready.

My other two offers did not have flexible schedules, one had no work from home and the other allowed it sometimes. They were both clearly defined roles, despite my interviewers telling me about all the cool projects I "might" get to do l've learned to never consider any "mights."

I think I'm another year or two my pay will be higher and I will have a more interesting career than if I had chosen one of the ther offers.

I don't expect to get anything from this startup other than experience and a paycheck. And the experience definitely makes up for the lower pay.

One thing to be aware of is that titles given by small and medium-sized companies are viewed differently than titles at large and well-respected, well-known companies.

For example, someone who is a VP at a startup might equate to a typical Manager at a larger company. Someone who is a CTO or Chief Architect at a startup might be a Senior Engineer at a larger company.

Large companies have an approximate scale in mind for their titles, where a Manager, Director, VP, etc. are responsible for (on average) a certain number of people reporting to them, and a certain amount of budget. "Director" level at a large company may entail responsibility for hundreds of employees and significant budget. That director has far more actual responsibility and scope than a startup "VP of Engineering" with a 10-person team.

To put it in different terms:

Anyone can pay $50 to incorporate online and they'll be a CEO. The actual prestige of the person and their CEO title significantly depends on the prestige and scope of the company. From a career perspective, what others will care about and evaluate are a person's actual scope, responsibilities, and accomplishments.

So be careful about viewing a title as a reward; a better reward is an actual increase in scope, responsibilities, and compensation.

Absolutely agree. It's funny, first time my boss brought up upping my title my response was "it really doesn't make a difference, but sure that's fine."

Because of my lackadaisical response it never got changed. Couple months later my boss's boss brought it up because they needed it for some form and she asked if I wanted an even higher title than what I was offered initially. I said "sure."

I don't expect much from it, but every stupid signal helps next time I'm job searching.

That's true, but even with size-adjusted titles you can get faster promotions in a startup. It's pretty common to go from being an individual contributor to running a small team to running a larger team, all within a year or two at a startup. That sort of career growth is unheard of at more established companies.

I've had a similar experience. I've loved the team I work for, the projects I've built, and the opportunity to have impact. I would not be as happy somewhere else.

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