Joining startups was a bad decision
Here is how my career has gone so far
2018 -> Graduated from tier 1 college. 2018 -> first job -> scale up -> 0 Esops 2019 -> switched to an early-stage startup -> worked my ass off -> Had Esops. 2021 -> Wanted to ride the high salary wave during COVID -> Joined another startup -> Had Esops 2022 -> 5 months after the previous company, got 2 offers - 1 from Germany and 1 from WFH in India -> chose the India offer because of money. Had Esops. 2023 -> got laid off. Did not buy Esops since the company is sinking. 2023 -> got into freelancing for an AI startup, working my ass off without Esops due to job fear. 2024 -> Here I am regretting my career choices
The only reason I joined startups was to get rich. Meanwhile, I got amazing hikes whenever I switched companies. In the end, I am now left with nothing but a bloated salary and a bloated lifestyle that I am used to.
The reason behind my rant: During this whole period, had I made efforts and joined FAANG companies, which are publicly trading, and got stocks, they would have amounted to much much higher net worth than any of the bets that I took. Do not make this mistake, folks!
Talking product sense with Ridhi
9 min AI interview5 questions
Still you have join time study for FAANG
Yep. I’ve already decided to join a public company. Not necessarily faang :p. Wealth accumulation is much easier.
What is public company? Can you give some examples?
Amazing hikes, bloated salary, bloated lifestyle Dont u regret!!
U worked your ass off, your work ethics and knowledge should be amazing
Also the reality of FAANG is now visible to many of us.
For me, it's opposite experience... one thing you missed is choosing the right startups to work for... now I have 1.2Cr worth of ESOP and now I am working in freshworks
Congrats on the esops. What I wanted to point out here is that there is no way for you to know which startup will succeed. I understood that this similar to how you place bets or choose stocks. I worked on startups where VCs were so bullish and yet ended doing sub par. So luck is always a factor.
but that's even true for stocks.. nothings is 100% known it's all about possibilities. anyways I have also sold some ESOP in buybacks
Go for 1yr masters abroad
How much ds algo did you prepare in this years
Prepare for interview and try good companies. U r still young
I don't think you have made any bad decisions, you can still grind and join faang. What you are not seeing here is, you have seen 0-1 startups so if you ever want to start something of your own you'll have a lot of knowledge, not only in terms of tech but other things like marketing, ops and sales
I am just 2 years experienced so you might not like what I have to say but I can 100% say if you work at startups its not a time waste at all (you can still make hell lot of money)