
Pros and Cons of Working at a Startup - salamanderlike
https://underdog.io/blog/startup-jobs-pros-and-cons
======
planetzero
You get all of the cons of running your own business (stressful, wearing many
hats, little compensation up-front), none of the overall control, and if it's
ridiculously successful, your compensation will most likely be squeezed out
during one of the rounds of investment.

~~~
tylerFowler
Wearing many hats isn't always a con, my first job as a software engineer was
at a startup and I couldn't think of a better growth experience because of
that very aspect.

I'd also argue that you have more control as literally any employee of a
startup because of looser power structures, proximity to upper leadership and
generally more transparency. However how controlling your shareholders are
will be situational.

Likewise getting squeezed out of compensation very much depends on your
situation and status at the company. If you're a cofounder you'll probably be
alright, if you're within the first ~10 employees you'll probably be alright,
after that you'll probably still get a nice chunk of change. Though maybe not
enough to make up for smaller up front compensation but that also was not my
experience (outside of the bay area).

~~~
tylerFowler
On the first point though I'll admit that it's not better for everyone. We had
hired a GPU & camera driver expert and had him doing odd jobs on our Android
app for well over a year, but that was more of a problem with hiring and then
with management after he was hired.

