If you’re evaluating a Chief of Staff role at a bootstrapped revenue generating market intelligence startup vs a Project Manager role at a multinational market intelligence company, how would you compare the opportunities? The startup team has folks from MIT, Stanford grads who have consulting and corporate experiences so I’m not worried about the capabilities of the team.
Do I prioritize growth with a startup or the exit opportunity of a larger company? Curious to hear advice from folks who are ahead of me in their careers. For context, all of my prior experience has been with startups (BizOps, PM, roles). For those who chose to work at a startup and turned down an offer from a larger company, what compelled you to make that decision?
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I would go with the multinational.
The experience will translate better.
Maybe I’m just saying this because a startup absolutely tried to screw me on pay and couldn’t even hack it with a direct deposit, they were awful.
Take the corporate job, you can still join a startup later, but going back from a startup to a company is more difficult unless you have already worked in a company before.
Personally, I would advise everyone to work in a company first and then go to a startup. For the simple reason that a bad experience in a bad startup can ruin your whole career.
EDIT: For context, I’d be jumping from a startup to another startup (I’ve only worked at startup/scaleups, the largest company I worked for had 30 people)
I am in my 40s and mid-career. I have gone the corporate path for 15 years and working at a startup now. I started my career working for an entrepreneur and moved into larger multi-nationals to get more experience and better pay. But I have always wanted to work for a startup or a small company where I can have more impact.
I agree in general that the training and network benefits of working for a larger company are real. At some point, you may start to plateau. Some people are able to be pulled through the ranks quickly but there are only so many positions at higher levels. I neglected internal corporate networking, and put too much reliance on my output and contributions.
There are other ways to switch, but for me I went back to school for an MBA to rebrand myself. I didn’t want people to look at me as a purely technical lead and I also wanted to increase my options as I am more risk-adverse now with a family. I can’t say this was easy either, as most companies who hire MBAs are looking to put you through a rotational program or work you 60 to 80 plus hours a week. Neither of which I am willing to sign up for anymore. I was hired at a startup through my network.
I would say that career changes are hard. You can change industry or change your role, but in my view not both in the same time.
Working at a startup now, I can tell you that unknown factors can always change promises / contracts so you are definitely taking on more risk.
But a counterpoint to all the above: if you plan on having a family, you will likely become more risk adverse naturally as you move through your career. And even if you don’t, I do think ageism is real, even at 35+. So in some ways, the best time to take a risk on a startup is when you are young and don’t mind sleeping on a futon. But that is also the time when you have the least experience to bring to the table and perspective.