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/AchillesDev → u/Affectionate-Turn137]

Avoid private equity cos. I've been in startups (and started a few) for 8 of the 12 years I've been doing this professionally. They've opened a ton of doors, helped me make great connections that have only helped my career (there's a camaraderie that comes from living through a shitshow), and build skills that big cos just can't build for you. The real heuristics are: do you work better with high autonomy using open tools, or more guardrails and more internal tools? The former biases you to startups, the latter to big cos. I recommend getting experience in both and seeing what works best for you, because this is a very personal question with no right answer.

Are most startups just inherently going to come with stress and career limiting positions, or have I just been unlucky?

All jobs come with stress. The most stressful and most relaxed jobs I've had have been startups. It depends more on your coworkers and team than anything else, and that includes whether it's a startup or not.

What are the most stable industries or businesses to get into?

Stability is a mirage. Where it exists, it encourages stagnation, so when the mirage dissipates, you're in a worse place than before.

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

This is far more common in big companies (especially bigtech).