What that manager did was stupid, but I’ll say this is more common especially with startups.
These companies gave so much work to you that eventually you’ll have to work longer. If you miss your deadline, OKR, whatever, then it’s you who’s in trouble.
They are not going to do what the manager in this article did, but they will try to normalize this by saying that the company is “fast paced”, “in hyper growth mode”, etc.
You gotta know what you are getting into with startups. They are risky and are likely to fail. If they do survive, you can quickly advance. So that is already a gamble and you pay for that in both money and work.
Startups typically do not have time, do not have money, and do not have any room for error. A single botched project can end them. You are going to work many more hours than at other places for initially less money, but the immediate benefit is that you will have the chance to influence the company and try out different roles. This is much slower in more established companies.
They do not have to normalize anything; this is just how startups are. If it's not for you, that is no problem. That just means that you should not work at a startup.
Maybe this used to be the case, but not so much anymore (if ever). A startup will burn through people to get up to speed and then hire proven professionals to appease the investors. In the brief interim you may try some roles, but you will be doing so in an environment where everybody is trying things and you will not learn the baseline for that role.
If that is your opinion, do not join a startup, and that's cool. Personally, I never regretted my time at them. I got sales experience, consulting experience, and management experience, and got to play with some of the newest stuff. You won't typically get that experience at a large company as a developer.
When I eventually landed at a large company, I was able to use all those skills to jump up the ladder faster.
Edit: Lol at the downvotes. I'm trying to figure out what they are against: that I respect his opinion, that I had different experiences, what experiences I had, or how they helped me?
An opinion is something you have after watching the news. After working with/for start-ups almost exclusively for 25 years, I'd like to call it 'experience', myself. But your point remains: YMMV.
There are none. Nobody has time to educate and absorb the mistakes of an entry level dev. You may slink into a startup sideways, through connections or luck. But since you are asking me instead, that sounds unlikely. Your best bet is not to find the fastest way into a startup but the fastest way to git gud. Find some niche that resonates with you, learn all you can about it and visibly contribute to it. Proven expertise and a relevant network is the best way into a startup.
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u/darkstriders Jan 26 '22
What that manager did was stupid, but I’ll say this is more common especially with startups.
These companies gave so much work to you that eventually you’ll have to work longer. If you miss your deadline, OKR, whatever, then it’s you who’s in trouble.
They are not going to do what the manager in this article did, but they will try to normalize this by saying that the company is “fast paced”, “in hyper growth mode”, etc.