might have to watch that show :)
I’ve been blowing it off because IMO the effort to foment generational war was in order to get their grubby hands on desperate millennials :(
My guess, a lot of people working in these environments probably do not have the personality necessary to do well. But I guess my generation is a group of special snowflakes who can do anything they want without worrying about the consequence of their actions e.g., taking out a $200,000 loan to go to college to get a degree that you need to spend another $200,000 for a graduate degree. This whole scheme is forcing 18 year olds to take out a mortgage before they have any stable income.
bookmark
Bkmrk.
I was offered a job recently at a well known startup that had an atmosphere that was not unlike the one described in this article. “Change the world” and all of that other nonsense was plastered everywhere. Some people have stayed in the building for weeks at a time only venturing out due to some major family issues.
I might have bought a lot of that crap in my 20s (in fact, I know I would have) ... add a few years experience to the mix and the sales pitch is very transparent. This company still has a good shot despite those flaws, but I would have lost my mind if I’m honest. I decided to stick to the non-flashy startups where we do stupid things like make a product in stealth mode w/o a ton of hype and tons of cash from VCs that are sure to leave you with nothing in the end.
You won’t be on the cover of Wired doing things this way (anyone that wants to be on the cover of “Technology Magazine for Morons Monthly” is a beer short of a six pack anyway), but at least you know how things are going in the company and you might actually have a shot at making something that works, and works well :-).
I’d advise any youngster in the engineering field to avoid *almost* all startups like the plague (unless its your own or if it has a good reputation according to people you trust).
Try and get a good job at one of the larger companies first and put a few years in to get a feel for what the industry is like. You’ll have far better toys to play with (i.e. vastly superior test equipment & bleeding edge projects with semi-sane timetables), support from field application engineers will be top notch seeing that large companies love to have accounts with large customers and will send their best for support, and there are certain to be a lot of greybeards that are going to WANT to teach you how to engineer the right way. Startups that brag about top managers being in their late 20s are more than likely doomed (not always ... some have some ultra-bright people ... but most are going to have a “someone that knows someone” approach to dishing out management/lead titles to people that don’t deserve them.
Most importantly, you’ll have a well known company on your resume ... that coupled with your education will be a solid foundation for a career. You’ll also know what to look for and you’ll know the questions to ask if you’re ever attracted to working at a startup company. You’ll be spending a LOT of hours trying to make a startup successful ... make sure its worth your while.
Finally, any startup that has a recruiting pitch that sounds as if some self absorbed narcissist wrote a bio about himself, do yourself a favor and RUN from it. Their chances of success are pretty low. Some of the more successful ones I’ve seen give you a 50,000 foot view of what you’d work on, don’t oversell their stock options & their potential, and pay you a salary that’s pretty much in line with other companies.
I just came across that book today. Read the summary, and will definitely get the audiobook version.
I would love to work for a startup like these. I know they are mostly BS, but hey you only live once.
Start ups are like that always have been. Very few make it to IPO state. I always cashed my checks immediately upon receiving them. Sometimes you had to be first at the bank to get any money.
This is not new Has been going on as long as startups have existed. The millinials are too pampered for many of them to survive