Startups vs MNC

It is more about what you care for.

MNC's:

• Work life balance
• Slightly better job security
• More peers to observe and learn from
• Brand name on your resume

• Not many exciting projects
• Limited role in project
• Slower promotions

Startups:

• More active role in project
• Rapid career growth
• Competitive Salaries
• Challenging and exciting work
• Faster promotions

• Little to no work life balance
• Less peers to observe and learn from
• No one to help when you're stuck

Now you can choose based on your priorities.

I think one should start his career in startups after spending 3/4 years should move to MNC for wlb or better pay.

Apart from what @tenxengineer shared, here's my list:

MNCs:

• You might find the opportunity to work on high scale problems
• You might learn a lot of great practices around software engineering, managing projects, leadership and communication
• Cash compensation is usually higher

• Fewer greenfield projects usually and you end up doing incremental innovation or maintenance work
• You might face lots of friction and bureaucracy if you try to change things

Startups:

• A ton of entirely new projects which are usually fun
• Little to no bureaucracy as the focus would be on getting things done quickly +/- You might get to explore auxiliaries like product management or design pretty well

• Scale is usually not that high so technical problems are a bit toned down
• Not a lot to learn in terms of good practices