It's always a people's game. I'm very rarely frustrated by tech, more so by people. Working for a startup is hard, but I find it worst to have to deal with the people from more corporate places (in my experience they're really unskilled and don't care too much). Culture is just the reflection of the employees, the fewer people the easier to control.
I'm not aware of any startup like that. Except the ones that stayed small deliberately. I worked for a company that's 15 years old, still had 10 ish people. "Company of One" is something I'm personally very keen on.
So, I worked for 5 years in a small startup. I didn´t hate it, but I didn't really like the culture of it. Going too fast, writing shitty code to make "working" demos just to wow (potential) investors. The whole code was a mess, they never managed to turn it into a product and went bankrupt a few months after I left. Absolutely no pride in making a good product nor making it safe (we were making (non military) drones ffs). Now I'm working in a ~600 people company with a great culture, great people and great engineering. I finally feel like I'm working with like minded professionnals and it´s a joy. I've had the chance of doing a horizontal move to a new team, building a new greenfield product, and they literally told us to have a "startup mindset¨. I have about only 3 or 4 short meetings per week and they're usually productive while we're also having fun. I haven´t had to do any over time yet. I'm 2 years in and I really love this job. To me the only thing that matters is the culture, not the size of the org. Both were B2B companies.
Thanks a mill! It's been great to hear other people's experiences with some of these issues. I think your example does confirm how I've been feeling a bit, it's like I end up with worse versions of the big company problems after a while so I should probably find a company that's already "mature" and still positive. Thanks for sharing ❤️
At 600 people that other company probably already has business that gives them steady revenue that pays the bills. A small startup usually doesn't have that luxury so they can't wait around until everything is "done right", especially if it's not certain that the hypothetical customer wants the product. I don't think it's a culture thing but a money problem. I've spent the last 10 years working as an early employee for two different tech startups. One already failed and the other seems to be going nowhere. I've gotten really tired of watching the founders completely screw up the business side (and refuse to learn) and knowing that me coding my heart out can never fix it. If I'm going to interview for another job at an early stage startup, I'll be grilling the founders on their alleged business harder than any VC would. I've considered joining a bigger company, but unfortunately I've heard from my brother what it's like to work in those. At my current job I started on Monday and merged code by Friday. At his current job my brother sat watching on-boarding videos for the first month or two. Now he's being asked to recommend his employer to any good coders he knows while the company is laying off people from his team.
Great video. I recently went through a similar culture shift at a series A startup where directors for Engineering, Product, etc constantly shuffled and changed. It can feel pretty bad seeing a once good culture become not so great. In my case, the culture went from something open with trust into just a complete lack of trust, intense micromanaging, etc. I hope your job search goes well! It really does feel like culture is something that needs to be actively set and maintained. I worked at one series D startup that focused quite a bit on maintaining a good culture (and advertised it all over social media, job postings, etc), and overall it was really good. Of course, some issues naturally arise from being a bigger organization, but the culture overall felt great and open.
Look at al types, small medium or large, look for things you wanna do, and make sure the people are good, and make sure there are good managers if you can.
Glad i found you. I like your content and calm and vize personality. You. Remind me of The sweedish dev fredrick! Keep going. Looking forward to more videos👌👍
No one cares that you job hop. It's the only way to get a raise or promotion. As for what size, never go for an owner operated business. "We are family" means we can demand unpaid overtime Ave lots of abuse. I prefer small to mid-size bc the IT team has that startup, independent team, but the larger org is established. I've been trying to work on health care, where I can directly help ppl in need by making their intake easier, or staff's work easier, through automation for ex. But ppl are tired and overworked everywhere
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It's always a people's game. I'm very rarely frustrated by tech, more so by people. Working for a startup is hard, but I find it worst to have to deal with the people from more corporate places (in my experience they're really unskilled and don't care too much). Culture is just the reflection of the employees, the fewer people the easier to control.
culture is definitely something we do not take for granted.
Sorry about the audio folks, not on my usual setup. Initial version was so quiet I had to reupload.
I'm not aware of any startup like that. Except the ones that stayed small deliberately. I worked for a company that's 15 years old, still had 10 ish people. "Company of One" is something I'm personally very keen on.
So, I worked for 5 years in a small startup. I didn´t hate it, but I didn't really like the culture of it. Going too fast, writing shitty code to make "working" demos just to wow (potential) investors. The whole code was a mess, they never managed to turn it into a product and went bankrupt a few months after I left. Absolutely no pride in making a good product nor making it safe (we were making (non military) drones ffs).
Now I'm working in a ~600 people company with a great culture, great people and great engineering. I finally feel like I'm working with like minded professionnals and it´s a joy. I've had the chance of doing a horizontal move to a new team, building a new greenfield product, and they literally told us to have a "startup mindset¨. I have about only 3 or 4 short meetings per week and they're usually productive while we're also having fun. I haven´t had to do any over time yet.
I'm 2 years in and I really love this job. To me the only thing that matters is the culture, not the size of the org. Both were B2B companies.
I really enjoy your videos by the way! Very introspective stuff, I like it. Especially the one about ADHD, it really resonated with me.
Thanks a mill! It's been great to hear other people's experiences with some of these issues. I think your example does confirm how I've been feeling a bit, it's like I end up with worse versions of the big company problems after a while so I should probably find a company that's already "mature" and still positive. Thanks for sharing ❤️
At 600 people that other company probably already has business that gives them steady revenue that pays the bills. A small startup usually doesn't have that luxury so they can't wait around until everything is "done right", especially if it's not certain that the hypothetical customer wants the product. I don't think it's a culture thing but a money problem.
I've spent the last 10 years working as an early employee for two different tech startups. One already failed and the other seems to be going nowhere. I've gotten really tired of watching the founders completely screw up the business side (and refuse to learn) and knowing that me coding my heart out can never fix it. If I'm going to interview for another job at an early stage startup, I'll be grilling the founders on their alleged business harder than any VC would.
I've considered joining a bigger company, but unfortunately I've heard from my brother what it's like to work in those. At my current job I started on Monday and merged code by Friday. At his current job my brother sat watching on-boarding videos for the first month or two. Now he's being asked to recommend his employer to any good coders he knows while the company is laying off people from his team.
Great video. I recently went through a similar culture shift at a series A startup where directors for Engineering, Product, etc constantly shuffled and changed. It can feel pretty bad seeing a once good culture become not so great. In my case, the culture went from something open with trust into just a complete lack of trust, intense micromanaging, etc.
I hope your job search goes well!
It really does feel like culture is something that needs to be actively set and maintained. I worked at one series D startup that focused quite a bit on maintaining a good culture (and advertised it all over social media, job postings, etc), and overall it was really good. Of course, some issues naturally arise from being a bigger organization, but the culture overall felt great and open.
Look at al types, small medium or large, look for things you wanna do, and make sure the people are good, and make sure there are good managers if you can.
Glad i found you. I like your content and calm and vize personality. You. Remind me of The sweedish dev fredrick! Keep going. Looking forward to more videos👌👍
I'm almost sure, there are no such "good" big companies. Have been working for some.
No one cares that you job hop. It's the only way to get a raise or promotion.
As for what size, never go for an owner operated business. "We are family" means we can demand unpaid overtime Ave lots of abuse. I prefer small to mid-size bc the IT team has that startup, independent team, but the larger org is established. I've been trying to work on health care, where I can directly help ppl in need by making their intake easier, or staff's work easier, through automation for ex. But ppl are tired and overworked everywhere