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Comment by buscoquadnary | Hacker News Reader

So several times I've had the opportunity to join fast growing startups that offered quite a bit more compensation, and equity as well. One of the things that I always took consideration of was the stability of the company vs where I was at.

Many of these people made a bet that working for Robinhood would pay off, it didn't that is part of the risk that came with the SV salaries, and the stock. I get that it sucks, but it seems like it is part of the parcel that comes with joining a VC backed startup.

Do people really not consider company stability and long term projections when choosing where to work?

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Name one company where you could be confident there's no risk of being laid off. Big companies definitely go through downturns and cut significant chunks of their staff, and you're even less likely to be able to do anything about it there than at a small company.

This isn't based on any insider knowledge, but I will be very surprised if my current employer, Roblox, has layoffs in the next couple years.

Pretty sure they laid off at least recruiting and ops staff today

Why do you think that? I didn't hear anything about it.

Sufficiently big companies have a union and more financial buffer to weather downturns.

> confident there's no risk of being laid off

Companies are ruthless, but that's a straw man. Risk is not all or nothing.

The company I work for is profitable. That fact alone lets me sleep at night.

Public companies have shareholders to please quarter-after-quarter. If the markets remain bearish for long, public companies will have to do multiple layoffs as they restructure their operations.

Private startups, especially well-capitalized ones, have only their Boards (mostly, founders) to answer to. They can be, counterintuitively, more stable job-wise than many public companies.

Oracle is also doing layoffs today and would somewhat be in the stable class. It’s just like nature it just is. Think the thing to do is just take Larry Ellisons advice and GTFM.

Guide to financial management?

"Get The Fucking Money"

An [invented] Larry Ellison quote from "The Dropout", the Elizabeth Holmes Theranos TV mini-series funded by Hulu.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=sgd40T05KaQ&t=65

Solid effort

Stability is a bit of an illusion, as even profitable companies will do layoffs from time-to-time for a variety of reasons. When choosing where to work, I tend to look more at: Is this a reasonable business? Does management have a plan that makes sense? Do these people seem to have their priorities in order? Do I trust these people? Those questions hardly guarantee stability, but the right answers leave me comfortable that they've got a fair shot at it.

I’ve heard a lot of tech people not consider stability because it’s so easy to just get a new tech job. Everyone was hiring. Everyone was throwing money everywhere. Why be stable when you can find an employer easier than calling a taxi.

Obviously that’s over now.

For SWEs, I don't think it's over

> Obviously that’s over now.

Not even close.

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