Need a reality check/advice.

I am 3 years into my career and I have deep passion for Software engineering. I genuinely like it. I want to become a better engineer by going deep. But since the time of my internships in college, I have always been fascinated by startups and want to have one of my own. Now I have an idea(again very passionate about) and I’m working on it but my dilemma is that if I run a startup, it’s going to take me away from my other interest of engineering. Any thoughts?

I've been in startups for the last 8 years. From Series B/C onwards to even a unicorn, over time worked at 3. One of them was an outright scam, raised many millions of $s from top investors, and then ultimately died. Also close with CXOs at decent sized startups, and there is a pattern out there. A few thoughts: 1. Being a startup founder is tough. There's pain. Some people thrive in pain. AKA Masochists. Know how to spot a founder who works 15 hours a day because they love their vision vs. somebody who works 15 hours a day because they're masochists. These people thrive in pain, and hence love to see you miserable as you slog away the hours under their leadership. There is absolutely no vision for the future that they have. They do it for the fame, money, and cause a lot of pain in the process. Nothing good comes out of it. Investors love this breed. 2. I wish I'd done more than just leave the scammy startup. At the point, I decided against whistleblowing. Because I thought there's so many people employed here, they would all be impacted. Over time, 200-300 people more joined after I left. Once the scam was caught, all of them lost their jobs. 3. I'm not a coder. I'm a generalist. Over time, my pay grew but not in line with my peers who went into consulting/VC and then came back to big tech/startups. Over time, you disadvantage yourself if you stick around as a generalist in startups for too long. The next team pays you at some premium over the last one, there's no step jump. You need to somehow find a successful startup early, and genuinely, that is impossible to game - even VCs have to bet on 20 to get it right. These are a few disjointed thoughts. I hope they give some insight. My only takeaways: - If you work at a scammy startup, don't stand it. At least, don't stick around. - I earn lesser than my peers (tier 1 undergrad), but I regret nothing. I love my work, and I'll never get over the kick. I cannot imagine working at a larger company ever again. - Ultimately, you have to be optimistic. Believe that India will grow, good founders will come around, magic will happen ❤️

Hi, I am a 2023 passout btech graduate. Currently I am working as a full time SDE (Full Stack) in a well established startup (8 years old , Series A funded). It's been nearly half year here. My compensation is 10.5 lakh base + 4.5 lakh performance bonus + free lunch and snacks + Insurance (Including parents) benefits I am pretty good at DSA (around 2000 rating on leetcode, 4 Star at codechef in 2nd year itself, 2000+ dsa problems) I have worked in 2 startups as an SDE intern during college days and completed 5 internships overall out of which one was a US based startup. Also, I have many publications under my name over the internet. I had many offers when I was graduating from college. Most of the time people say, "Hey, you have done so much so Why are you not working in a big tech". Well I always wanted to work for big tech during college days but after I started working in startups my thought process changed as here I got the ownership of the product. Now it has been nearly 1 year since I started working in startups. Should I give it a try for big tech now? Would like to hear your views guys

Im working as a developer in a unicorn startup with good salary for my age. But from college time I was interested in entrepreneurship trying different thing and later after completing college I joined this unicorn and worked hard, shifted to their new stealth startup and worked there with for 1yr, tried to work in every possible opportunity that I got with design team, product managers and learnt how to build a startup from scratch, but later due to creative issues in top level management and less revenue than the competitors the startup was shutdown and I was moved back to the unicorn and again started working as an developer. Tried different things from then 1. Tried joining top B schools but couldn’t afford 2. Tired pitching ideas to friends, seems like no one interested in taking risk leaving the life they have now 3. Tried starting few things on my own but always end up failing with no support 4. Tried attending conferences but that too never led me anywhere Now don’t have as many friends interested in entrepreneurship or mentors to guide me. Just passing the days doing the same work again and again please suggest me what to do next or give me any kind of advice

Hey people, I am a software engineer. I am thinking of pivoting to leadership kind of roles like EIR, founders office, product manager, etc. For people who are currently in such roles or know people in these roles, do you think people from tech(engineering) background, pivoting to this role at age of 24-25 yrs is advisable? Would people hiring for these roles see that I don't hold an MBA? What are the things about these roles I should be aware of?

Hi All, I want to change my current role from to TC to core business roles like business strategy and growth or planning, new business formation...A PURE BUSINESS ROLE. Management or strategy consulting might be not sure. I have been working around power bi for last 3.5 yrs but I never want to be a data engineer, analyst or scientist. I always want to be a businessman or an entrepreneur and want to be surrounded by these kind of peoples. I don't see myself doing business in technology sector.technology can be a part of it but not complete tech. It's the job market at that time that I have to start on power bi but now I want to change and follow my passion in business. Please guide. Thank you

I am a software engineer with 3 years of experience .For the first two initial years I was working as a QA in one of the good product companies with a very sorted work life balance . I had recently switched to a BE role in a startup I am very much lagging behind here because of my QA background ,the people here are very much talented and are great problem solvers .How do I reach that level ? I have been struggling to keep up with the pace here and finding it difficult to approach the tasks,even though i have been giving so much of time to work . And the TL in my team have a certain amount of expectations and hence they don't help according to that .(which i feel is fair) How should I approach this and level up here Anyone with a similar background and story please share your experience :) Any advice would really help

- Tried in the past or not, are you pursuing it now? - Experience vs corporate job? - Recommendations for those who think of shifting from corporate to entrepreneurship in the future? - Startup / Family business points if any? - Side hustle views? - Anything else?

I got laid off in December. I want to keep my head high and have decided to retire just after 6 years in the industry. AMA