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Choosing A Company
How do you decide or discover which company to join?
- If you have a company in mind, apply there
- If you not, then you have a discovery problem.
- Look for a rocketship company
- Look at job boards
- Talk to recruiting agencies to shop your resume around
In general:
- Join a rocket ship company
Eric Schmidt (as CEO of Google) to Sheryl Sandberg when deciding to join Google, and now COO of Facebook:
'If you're offered a seat on a rocket ship, get on, don't ask what seat.' I tell people in their careers, ‘look for growth.’ Look for the teams that are growing quickly. Look for the companies that are doing well. Look for a place where you feel that you can have a lot of impact.”
Lists:
I'm interested in companies with products I use, so I reached out to:
As you will be someone who is going through the job application process, you could focus on companies.
Pros:
- Should be able to make amazing financial returns
- You will get more credit for just being there at the right time
- You can get lost in the growth
Cons:
- Rapid growth, could mean a lot of disorganization
- You can get lost in the growth
Note:
- Large companies can also have rocketship growth
- Example: Amazon
- Some teams may have rocketship growth, some teams not
- Established teams, most likely will not have rocketship growth
- New teams may have rocketship growth, looking to prove themselves
Pros:
- Potentially more comfortable pace
Cons:
- Don't expect rapid growth
Pros:
- You can contribute to other areas of outside of your domain
- Room for larger impact across the organization
- Easier to find meaning from your work
- Potentially high reward, also high risk
Cons:
- Don't expect much mentorship, or good mentorship
- Unless the other people in your team have experience as well
- High risk, potentially high reward
- Most likely a Cowboy organization
Pros:
- Large number of people you can potentially learn from
- Low risk, good pay
- FAANGs
- Mature organizations
Cons:
- Just another cog in the wheel
- Glorified engineer
- Can be paid well for doing "non impactful" things
- Have to find meaning from it
- Different teams can have different cultures
- Established teams may not have rocketship growth.
From ex Facebook Software Engineer:
The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.
- How much risk are you willing to take?
- What is the company culture?
- Do they have a work from home policy?
- Do they allow anyone to take vacation?
- Who/what will you be learning at the company?
- Who is going to mentor you?
- What is the company's expectation of you?
Last modified 1yr ago