Help me

It really depends on what your personal goals are. It personally for me I always believe starting at a top brand company is usually helps set a safer career for you in the long run and open more doors later on. The only scary part to avoid at a top company is to make sure you don’t forget to hustle and work hard. Don’t let the cushiony job spoil you

@MetalalGada If you think all of those are out of your hand, buddy, I'd suggest working on changing that mindset first. I've been where you are. I'm from a tier-3 engineering college and a middle class background. I've rejected offers from Facebook (back when it was Facebook) and recently Google in favour of lesser known firms and I'm happy with my choices. I've changed my career a couple of times, I've made 45 LPA despite that, and I still get a lot of interest from a range of companies in my inbox, including FAMANG. All I can tell you is that everything, including your career, starts with yourself and figuring what you'd like to do most and then finding an intersection of that with something that's in fair demand in the industry. There are plenty of opportunities out there for both A and B but that won't matter if you're doing something that you don't like. I'd suggest looking inwards and figuring out what matters to you. Is it association with big brands? Is it flexibility in career choices? Is it looking for stability? Is it money? Once you figure that out, things will be pretty clear when look outwards again. If you don't have any clear answers, that's okay too, and I'd still suggest starting with a start-up to figure out the answers since that would allow you to look into and perhaps explore different career lines to figure out your interests. All the best.

Mix it up. Why pick one direction? Your career will last years. Just figure out your priorities first depending on where you are in your career. A startup will multiply your learning and breadth of work much quicker than a larger company while the latter will typically offer more work-life balance, depth of work and money.

@MetalalGada No company is going to offer more than what they think they need to. A startup might offer more but they extract a lot more work with that than a larger company would, which banks on its name to offer lesser salaries. BUT, salary negotiation is usually possible once you've shown the hiring team enough value to get them to offer you top-of-the budget comp rather than the median. I've no idea who Tara Kapur is, but if you're referring to titles when you mean career growth, I'd advise to stay away from that race. It's hollow and it will make you feel hollow and give rise to impostor syndrome. And if not that, you'll get burnt out quick because of being on the treadmill. Picking something you're genuinely interested in as a career path will lead to growth, money and (if you still care about it after finding that thing) titles too. And a startup would still be the better choice to discover such a thing just because you can get opportunities to dabble in multiple areas and find what you like.

Depends on your age profile. If you are a beginner in you mid 20s, go for startup. Learn as much as you can. Target to settle with an established MNC by your mid 30s.