Has Anyone Worked at a Startup?

[Jonhnny123]

I found a positon at a company that's just starting that seems very interesting. But, there is some risk. I'd be leaving a very secure job for this.

Has anyone worked for a startup engineering firm? How did you like it? Did it ultimately succeed or fail?

Is experience at a startup well recieve when you put it on your resume?

 

[Chosen One]

You have to balance the risk/reward in my opinion...I took a job out of college (6 years ago) for a relatively new company and there have been ups and downs. When I first started we were so busy it was exhausting, but the recession hit us pretty hard in 2010 (no engineers laid off though). Business is now booming again....btw the business is consulting structural engineering with turnkey construction services. I have a friend who left a job with a big firm to start his own business and he is successful, however he had a good list of clients he uses. It is definately a big risk.

 

[solomonb]

There are variety of issues that need consideration here before you make a decision.

A. Where are you in life-- just getting started, new babies, mature, junior high kids or empty nesters with kids in college?

B. How much money is involved? More than you make now, less than you make now? About the same?

C. How secure is the start up? Are they fully capitalized, undercapitalized or just enough to make it?

D. What is the competitve market in which you are entering? Do you know the industry/market? What is the local, regional, national, international competition like?

E. If you take the job, the start up fails, can you find another job. Look at A above-- if you are 60 years old and am a empty nester, the job world is kind of cruel-- fact, not opinion.

F. If you take the job and the start up fails, can you take what you learned and parlay that into something better than you had before you started and better than the startup?

G. With any start up, the hours are long, the resources are constrained and there is always more requirements for resources than available resources. Can you handle that?

If you can answer these questions, honestly, you will have a better idea on how to proceed.

Good Luck!~

 

[Berry]

Start ups provide alot of experience, but are risky. The skills learned can make it easier to find other employment. You also put in more hours per week in a start up compared to an established company.

 

[Jonhnny123]

I almost took the job, because it would have been a 35% raise. I would have gained a lot of experience, and it sounded really interesting. I started doing more research and asking more questions and I decided against it.

The pay was dependant of them securing some large projects. If they didn't get those or business was slow, I could potentially make less than what I make now. It would be almost certain for the first 3 months I wouldn't make more than my current pay.

It also turns out that the technology they're trying to sell isn't as effective as they're claiming. There was too much wishful thinking and the president sounded too much like a salesman to me, which made me uncomfortable.