a/s/l? (kidding, but really, how old are you, how long have you been doing it, and how long before you realize you only go around once and exchanging 45 years of your life to the grind is something you'll regret?)
My heart happens to be in ML. So when an ML opportunity came along, I went for it. Things worked out. They offered a full time salary position for equivalent to what I was already making. I told them "I understand that you're not able to afford market rate for ML engineers -- let me know if that changes! In the meantime, why not do a contract for that rate and see how it goes?"
They protested in the usual way, but the problem was, they needed me. Both companies need me, and I'm effective at both.
I make roughly three times the average SV startup salary. I don't get sick days, which is the only part that sucks. But -- regret? You overestimate how much work this actually is.
The best part is the work itself. I get to design some cool-ass banking infrastructure while also doing some cool-ass ML work. And the whole reason I'm doing all of this is so that my wife and I can have a baby, because IVF in America is $40k.
(I realized one day that if I worked as hard as I could -- or in my case, "at all" -- it wouldn't take that long to save up $40k.)
I would say it's a worse deal to gamble your life on startup equity in exchange for below market rate. The fact is, if you're someone who can get a job at FAANG in terms of skill level, you're underpaid at a startup, in exchange for the small chance of getting rich later on. I'd rather "sell my equity now" and take full market rate, as it were. But I don't want to work at FAANG, because FAANG comes with a lot of baggage that doesn't exist at startups -- which is the whole reason people take startup jobs.
It’s good to burn the candle at both ends and the middle once or twice, both to prove you can, and to determine why you shouldn’t longterm.
The money was good, I out earned my coworkers in Bonus compendation, but the color had literally drained out of my life. I had no hobbies, no plans, I just went to work, came home, and once or twice a month, lost a weekend to the latest DDOS.
ETA: DO NOT LOSE YOUR CHILDREN’S YOUTH to work. Just don’t.
100%.
They are young for such a short period of time. (Feels long some days, but it's short.)
I prefer to work a 9-5 for a single company/product than shuffle between 10 different projects. It's fun for a short period of time, but eventually it tires me out. People are different, of course.
I think it would be quite interesting to circle back with you in a few years about this. You might be right. Want to put some contact info in your public HN profile so that I can reach out? Otherwise, feel free to DM me on twitter :)
Wait to see the cost of a college education...;(
Off topic story: In the early days of the internet I had a friend named Sal, who didn't understand what asl meant. He was very confused how people in chat rooms knew his name as soon as he got there, but weren't spelling it correctly.
After probing in a diplomatic way, it turned out that they interpreted "Howdy" as "How are you doing today?" which was fascinating to me, because it makes perfect sense. I never would've made the connection.
Edit: Yep: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howdy