Ask HN: Three startups, but only one of me. Which one should I choose? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Three startups, but only one of me. Which one should I choose?

7 pointsdumpc11 comments

So without going into too much detail, I'm taking a year off to get professional experience before I graduate from university. I applied to three startups, and each of them have offered me a job. Money is not a concern (I live cheaply). I just want to get the best experience for my future developing software, maybe even at a company of my own. So, I figured I should ask for a little advice.

My situation is pretty easy to pinpoint if you know me, which all of these great startups do, but I would still like to remain fairly anonymous, so the information I give will be to the point.

At Startup #1, I'd be building the application from scratch with another developer. I know very little else about this place.

At Startup #2, I'd be working on one product, using technologies I already know, with a small team of great people. One thing I gathered when I visited is that while I may know the frameworks and technologies they use here, I definitely don't know anything about the software development cycle at all. Here, I would get a mentor for a short time and then essentially be a full team member, with all of the rights and responsibilities that come with such a role.

At Startup #3, I'd be one of many, working at an Agile firm doing pair programming the entire time on several different and varied technologies. I don't know very many of the people here. In the interview, they were very down to business. The offices look much more laid back, but I simply don't know.

Typing them out like this, I already know which one I'm leaning towards; but it can't hurt to ask for a little advice, right?

I would do the first or second one. As the team gets larger you will be given a more reduced roll. If you are working with only a few other devs you will probably have the chance to make decisions that influence the product, and if you stay long enough you'll be able to see the consequences of those decisions.

Number 3 sounds cheesy. Pair programming sucks, and the description you gave sounds like its straight out of a marketing flyer.

As stated in the other comments, there's really not enough information. I would lean towards #2 because of what Mark Suster calls, learn before you earn.

#1 you're going to have to figure out a lot of things on your own. Now that's not a bad thing, but the experience may come quicker if you have some more senior people to watch and learn from.

#3 sounds like a consulting company so the things you learn will be around how to run a consulting company

Now of course the big assumptions I have made are:

You interested in product oriented startups vs consulting

You are pretty confident in your ability to pick up technology. You are more interested in learning the process, etc

You're not in it for the money but the chance for eventual glory

If any of these assumptions are wrong then the answer of course changes

Don't go for startup #1 unless they're able to concisely explain what they did wrong. Typically a startup recoding from scratch means they're afraid to invest in good programmers (leaving too many cooks in the kitchen and a dish that needs to be thrown out).

Startup 2 and 3 both sound interesting, but you wouldn't be a coder in the startup world if you didn't like to go with your gut. So listen to it and enjoy the great opportunity at #2!

I don't think the OP said "rebuilding".

I took the OP to mean that at startup #1 they have an idea and a plan, and they need the OP to help execute on it.

To the OP >

IMO you will probably get a good rounded experience from #1, but it is the most risky. Also, if you cap yourself at 1 year and you're building from scratch, you'll probably leave just as things start to get interesting at startup #1. Right as they start to get traction etc.

I would go for #2. It sounds like the best place to get 1 year of valuable experience, honing skills that you already have on live products. I think that's the best use of a year, rather than trying to get experience on a bunch of technologies you might never use again a la #3.

The one with the most technical challenges. Very few attributes at a company will grow you as quickly as being asked to do really hard stuff, regardless of team size, or methodology... That said, I feel pretty irresponsible giving any advice with this amount of detail.

Go with your gut feeling (which sounds like is leaning towards #2). Your gut feeling might be capturing a lot of subtle hard to articulate facts and the vibe you picked up from the teams.

Avoid #3 like plague.

I would say second one because you get to apply the knowledge you have in a meaningful way.Having a mentor would be the added advantage.

Well, the pair programmers would be mentors in #3, but the fact that #2 realizes they need to assign a mentor says a lot of good things about them.

If you're really going to limit this experience to one year, as noted by others #2 or #3 are your best bet, and it sure sounds like #2 is a better/surer fit.

What matters most is what that one year on your resume is going to look like (e.g. how will you be able to boast of success) and what you'll learn about working in the real world. #2 sounds by far the best for those two goals (e.g. pair programming is not widely used). Also note that is sounds like #1 and #2 are going to be a lot more committed to making the relationship work, whereas one bad senior pair programmer at #3 could be the end of your experience there.

Good luck!

2nd one

You really didn't give us enough information to help you with this decision. Without knowing which each of those companies are, we won't be of much help. We couldn't even take an educated guess.

You seem to be leaning towards 2, no interest in 1, and slightly interested in 3. That's really what it comes down to, unless you decide to share the 3 companies so we can bring some facts and debating to the table.

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