

Ask HN: Should I join a Startup or keep working on my own (for now)? - pravj

I&#x27;m a senior Computer Science student from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. Right now I&#x27;m facing a situation, surrounded with too many thoughts and unable to walk properly.<p>The situation is, some awesome people at my institute are starting up a logistic based platform, which is going to be great (no doubts here). I was asked to join them, I loved the product they have currently.<p>But the other part of the game is, along my journey at the institute here, I have created a passion for Open Source and some exciting fields of the computer science.<p>I (kind of) believe that I come up with too many ideas, ranging from anything to everything, I try to note them down and work on them to reflect them on my GitHub[1] and my blog[2].<p>I have a strong attraction towards &#x27;Data Science&#x27;, &#x27;Systems &amp; Infrastructure&#x27; and &#x27;Distributed Systems&#x27;.<p>Last year, I found out about Datadog[3] while working on the &#x27;GitHub&#x27;s 3rd Data Challenge&#x27;. I immediately loved the organization because it deals with all the things I like(Data &amp; Infrastructure), so I applied for an engineering internship, went through the interview process and got the job. But later things went wrong and I wasn&#x27;t able to go through the visa process.<p>On applying again, being pessimistic I think about not getting the visa (H1-B) this time too.<p>Initially I wasn&#x27;t interested in studying higher but now I&#x27;m getting a feeling for it, not because I&#x27;m out of other options, just because I have some things in my list(to-do) relating to academia and I would love to see them happening. Although I can&#x27;t go for it anytime soon, because I don&#x27;t have that much money.<p>So the situation is, what to do? The Startup is going to be awesome, their product is great but I&#x27;m lacking a strong ignition towards it, that I see while working on my own little projects. Not sure if it&#x27;s because of my addiction towards it.<p>[1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;pravj&#x2F;
[2] http:&#x2F;&#x2F;pravj.github.io&#x2F;blog&#x2F;
[3] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.datadoghq.com&#x2F;
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jeffmould
Why not do both? You say that you don't have much money, so why not take the
sure thing job and at least earn some money while also working on open source
projects that may or may not pan out?

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theworstshill
"but I'm lacking a strong ignition towards it" Then definitely continue on
your own. Enthusiasm is what takes you over the break it or make it point.

