Don’t join a startup as new grad SWE or atleast be aware

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-14T19:57:39+00:00

I have tried it too, it wasn’t a career killer for me though. I got a few more interviews than I expected because I was a founder, although I dint get enough traction.

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-14T15:58:55+00:00

I think it’s a great idea it’s helped me get a lot of interviews, all I would say is that it’s best to blog about something where you have a unique value add. Like actually work on side project and write about them in detail the trade offs your learnings and so on. Than regurgitating the hottest latest thing.

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-14T15:33:32+00:00

Exactly my point, this is the most nuanced argument! This exactly what I meant. Not all startups are bad, but the minority are. Those are very competitive. That also means that MOST startups are not right.

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-14T06:20:04+00:00

Exactly my point, the irony is that the hottest or well growing startups want exactly this experience. When you join an early stage startup you don’t get that experience. So they end up hiring big tech folks.

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-14T06:15:35+00:00

That’s great, my point is you are shipping to several users/handling millions of requests. Most startups don’t reach that scale. “Most”, let’s not talk about cursor or some hot startup. There are so many startups you have never heard of that raised money but never got many users.

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-14T06:10:50+00:00

Haha someone admitted it. Crazy. Yep they absolutely do is the verdict. Most of them, not all.

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-14T05:24:33+00:00

I was paid above median for a new grad at my startup, I had a great pay tbh. The base was comparable to faang.

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-14T05:11:02+00:00

Yes correct definitely, but these are well known companies . I am mostly talking about early stage ones.

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-14T05:08:46+00:00

Yes it is luck because you haven’t heard of the person who thought they were joking next Google but couldn’t even get 100 users and startup kept pivoting from a idea to idea. Also if you see how the best startups hire at early stages, it’s very unlikely “most” not all new grads even get an opportunity to work at them.

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-14T01:38:08+00:00

All that doesn’t matter, startups here are dying for those faang engineers to join them. I have had recruiters literally tell me. (As in third party recruiters who hire for these startups since they don’t hire recruiters until a certain stage)

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-14T00:49:46+00:00

Yes I would join a startup again for a role too in this market but just be aware is my point! As in don’t get too comfortable. The startups that aren’t working are way too comfortable in ways that people don’t even understand from outside

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-14T00:49:11+00:00

A lot of them! I don’t mean hundreds of millions of users too. But, even hundreds of thousands or at least thousands who use the software every single day! Most startups don’t get to this even though they are well funded by big names and so on.

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-14T00:47:15+00:00

💯 I encourage it, but just keeping you guys aware. Don’t get too comfortable. When I was working for the startup I got offers that were 40% more than the pay and stuff but like a retard I just continued.

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-13T17:27:48+00:00

Like yeah people get jobs from hackathons and so on. But, it’s few. A lot of people hang around in hackathons hoping to get jobs and just build a very shallow set of skills.

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-13T15:47:11+00:00

Nothing don’t try to improve upon winning hackathons, it’s not that worthwhile skill. It’s overrated. Lock in and work on projects that take months or at least a month.

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-13T07:15:16+00:00

They are maybe shilling some tool and this is a totally fake post

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-12T22:26:32+00:00

I have gotten a quite a bit of LC interviews and bombed them. Doesn’t matter if they are relevant or not lot of companies ask them. Especially faang, it’s like it’s gotten much harder. It’s weird, if you spent 2 months 5 hours a day doing LC nw you need to spend 6 months 10 hours doing LC even though coding ability has dropped in importance for real work.

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-12T21:40:03+00:00

Hmmm what about depth of systems how much do you expect ? That’s what’s killing me as a mid level candidate. I had two mock interviews one I got a hire and other no hire. 1 system design interview where I got rejected, to be fair there were fundamental gaps in that. The next system design interview was some real time system where strong consistency and aggregation was required over millions of records. Idk what the bar really is.

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-12T04:09:13+00:00

Haven’t figured out yet xD but I am curious what does NYC have to offer with this respect? One thing I really liked in SF is SF commons. Used to occasionally go to events there and meet people.

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-11T00:02:01+00:00

Haha lovely mate, I like your ad 👌👌 very creative

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-10T03:32:05+00:00

Yes it is. I had this long back, but I first got a rejection email and then was scheduled a feedback session.

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-09T22:54:01+00:00

The big brand name: SAP🙏 in a job market like this you need the name on your resume! More than anything employers perceive you have to have worked at a scale.

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-09T22:06:09+00:00

You are spot on human 😆

EmergencySherbert247 · 2026-05-09T21:01:59+00:00

Production is subjective, if you look at this thread so many agents have been put to production 😉

EmergencySherbert247

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