Ask HN: New Grad Career Advice [YC Founding Engineer]

[rlogger]

I’m 19 and just graduated college (in two years) and got an offer to work as a founding engineer at a YC start-up. My compensation is 3% equity and an $80k salary.

I have 2 internship experiences: one at a start-up, and one at a FAANG-caliber company. I also made it to the final round of the interview at D.E. Shaw last year (SWE), and I’m fairly confident that I’ll be able to secure a new-grad offer if I go that route.

However, I feel like my compensation is too low. 1-3% equity is pretty standard for a founding engineer, but $80k is not standard at all for any founding engineer. The CEO of the start-up is one of my close friends from high school, I click well with the other co-founder, and I genuinely believe in the product. I would really like to work for the start-up, even with a pay cut. But $80k might be too low. Would it be a good choice career-wise taking this role? I also barely have the experience for this role (full-stack dev).

I have always wanted to work for a start-up, and I feel like this is too good of an opportunity to get my foot in the door. Down the road, I want to start a start-up of my own and I hope this experience would be valuable enough to learn from.

As a reference, before I got this offer, I was on a PhD track (already got accepted into a Master’s program and had a set research interest). I was going to work on my own ideas during my PhD. However I know that experience is key in this field and I would like to finally make some money of my own, lol.

[anna_tailor]

If you believe in the product and see long-term value in the opportunity, it may be worth taking the role, even with the lower compensation. As a new grad, gaining practical experience and being part of a early-stage start-up can be valuable for your future career and entrepreneurial aspirations. Taking a founding engineer role at a YC start-up is an excellent opportunity to gain experience and learn about the start-up ecosystem. While the $80k salary may seem low compared to industry standards, the 3% equity compensates for that. Keep in mind that start-ups often have limited financial resources, especially in their early stages. By accepting this offer, you'll gain exposure to the start-up world, learn from experienced founders, and potentially contribute to building a successful company. This experience can be invaluable as you plan to start your own start-up in the future.

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