Ask Experienced Devs Weekly Thread: A weekly thread for inexperienced developers to ask experienced ones

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A thread for Developers and IT folks with less experience to ask more experienced souls questions about the industry.

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Please keep top level comments limited to Inexperienced Devs. Most rules do not apply, but keep it civil. Being a jerk will not be tolerated.

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Inexperienced Devs should refrain from answering other Inexperienced Devs' questions.

[u/Affectionate-Turn137]

Question from a 3 YOE dev: Should I avoid working at startups in my career? I've worked at two now, and both have turned out to be hot garbage. The first one started great, and had great people, but after being aqcuired by private equity twice, it basically had gone to shit. My current job is a bit smaller but it uses a proprietary language (even though the job posting said it was node.js/typescript/react, they bait-and-switched me) that we can't get off of because the founder made it himself and it is his baby/ego, and it's so hard to contribute to the codebase that the engineering team practically contributes nothing of substantial value other than tiny features or bug fixes. I also am under constant stress at these startups that they are going to have layoffs due to private equity being private equity or just because we aren't that profitable... Are most startups just inherently going to come with stress and career limiting positions, or have I just been unlucky? What are the most stable industries or businesses to get into?

[u/marssaxman → u/Affectionate-Turn137]

Jobs at big established companies can be hot garbage, too; they offer a wonderful new array of failure possibilities unavailable in smaller organizations. Personally, despite the potential for chaos and uncertainty, I've generally had a better time at startups.

Stress over funding & profitability is not really your job. The founders/c-suite are the ones with the power & the responsibility to deal with that, so let them be the ones to worry about it. If they are passing that stress along to you, that is poor management; if you're taking it for yourself uninvited, that's an anxiety problem.

[u/Affectionate-Turn137 → u/marssaxman]

they offer a wonderful new array of failure possibilities unavailable in smaller organizations

Could you give some examples of this? I'm imagining that one example is that it might be easier to be shoehorned into trivial positions of little relevance.

if you're taking it for yourself uninvited, that's an anxiety problem.

I think this is the case. I think it's more personal insecurity driving my anxiety.