

Ask HN: Career advice – What shall I do? - throwacc

Hello HN,
I work for small size company in mid-west(Chicago). I have near 8.5 yrs of experience. 
I recently interviewed at Yahoo and now have offer from them.<p>I can&#x27;t decide though whether I should join company ? Alibaba seem to be making news. They also did few good acquisitions in last six months.<p>I am positive this will be very good opportunity to work with some of the smartest minds in the industry. I am worried though about its flip flop on performance and equally alarming news about its core business capability. 
Honestly, I am worried about layoffs that may happen. I hope not.  But , if AOL and Yahoo gets together first thing any management would do is to reduce head count. Financially I haven&#x27;t saved anything sizable yet due to student loans and all.<p>What do you think I should do ? Is it good time to join Yahoo or not ?  
What would you do if you were in my position.
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Bahamut
The job market in the Valley is excellent for developers - if you for some
reason aren't happy at Yahoo, it would be very easy to find another position
nearby.

Otherwise, this is only a question you can really answer. I wouldn't think too
much about the stock options though - if anything, they'd just be a nice
bonus.

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unclesaamm
Also it depends what you're working on. Yahoo Research has some of the best
data mining people in the business

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dylanhassinger
take the job, duh

live modestly

pay off your loans and save an emergency fund

then start your own thing on the side

if you get laid off, use your new network to springboard to a better
opportunity

