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Should I join a promising early stage startup or a FAANGMULA company?

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Senior Software Engineer at Taro Community18 days ago

I work in AI and am considering working in my next company, Google, Meta/Facebook, and Apple have all called given my reputation in the industry as a past startup founder and well known open source contributor.

What should I think about in joining a company beyond perks and benefits? Should I optimize for learning with an AI legend in their early stage venture that has raised half a billion but hasn’t built or released a product yet, or go for a larger publicly traded company with many layers of management that has established promotion paths and product market fit. What else should I consider before taking a job?

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(3 comments)
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    Tech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
    18 days ago

    I need to convert this into a course, but I still recommend this: [Masterclass] How To Choose A Good Company And Team As A Software Engineer

    In short, it depends on your priorities. While a startup will have more velocity, scope, and learning, Big Tech brings compensation, stability, and credibility. Since you're a senior engineer, it can easily go both ways as that's when you have the most optionality (in contrast, I recommend junior engineers start off at a Big Tech company if they can).

    Check this out too: "What's the difference between Big Tech and startups in terms of learning and growth?"

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    Tech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
    18 days ago

    I like this advice from David Pan, VP of Eng: Figuring Out The Best Company To Join As A Software Engineer. Basically it boils down to "Follow The Talent You Know"

    Should I optimize for learning with an AI legend

    This could work, but the main thing I'd want to know is how much interaction you'd have with the legend. Be careful of famous people doing startups, but not actually being very involved in them.

    Do you have a large brand-name on your resume already, or some credibility otherwise? Sounds like you do as a past founder and open source contributor. If you don't fee like you have the logos on your resume, I'd lean toward taking the Big Tech role.

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    Thoughtful Tarodactyl
    Taro Community
    18 days ago

    There are tons of AI companies in the post PMF era that are doing really interesting stuff. I would suggest looking into unicorns or late stage high growth AI startups. e.g. perplexity, elevenlabs.io

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