Startups vs Big Tech

To the people who've experienced both ends of spectrum, as an new grad, which is better overall?

What, in your view, is the difference between tech startups and tech-enabled startups? For example, in my humble opinion, Swiggy, Zomato, CRED, and PayTM are tech-enabled startups. I can name only a few Indian tech startups, such as InMobi and Ather. (There may be more, It’s just i don’t know). This also suggests that India's startup scene is dominated by tech-enabled startups. In contrast, Amazon may have started as a tech-enabled e-commerce company, but it is now a fully-fledged tech company. They ship software, technologies, etc. Why isn't it the case with India's tech-enabled startups? Additionally, I would like to know how difficult it is to secure venture capital (VC) funding for tech startups.

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

To the people who've experienced both ends of spectrum, as an new grad, which is better overall?

Folks working in FAANG or comparable large tech companies, do you miss your startup days, does big tech give same level of exposure and learning opportunities. What do you miss the most ? With well funded startups I see a few benefits - 1. Not being cash strapped so more stability 2. Large scale so good exposure and impact 3. Good engineering practices as large startups are open to adopt and provide resources for learning and integrating new technologies 4. Company still has speed of execution hence plenty of exciting work 5. Comparable pay scale to big tech companies What are some added benefits of large tech companies now that layoffs have become a common trend across the industry ?

I’ve been noticing a trend lately and wanted to see if anyone else feels the same. After about 10 years in the tech industry, it seems like a lot of us are shifting towards people or product management roles instead of continuing deep technical work. I get that management roles often come with perks, but it feels like we’re losing out on technical growth. With how fast the tech space is changing and AI taking over a lot of things, it feels even more crucial to stay updated technically. Is anyone else struggling with this? Is it any different in startups versus big tech companies? How are you dealing with it? Are there ways to stay technically sharp while still advancing your career? Any decision making framework/parameter to evaluate career growth?

hello viners, Want to know about startups which are doing AI based solutions in the manufacturing / process industry. which are the current big names and how does the future look like?

3 years in Google 16+ years of experience 8+ years of EM experience Google hiring committee member Ask me anything