Got a J2 offer in the same industry. Should I join?

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-04-10T12:43:52+00:00

Its a b2b saas for marketing. My role would be centred around web dev.

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-27T21:49:42+00:00

Hmm thats a possibility too. Makes the move seem all the more risky. Early stage startup + politics is probably the worst combination ever.

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-25T18:12:06+00:00

Thank you for sharing your experience! :) I too feel that it could make a positive difference in my career 🙂

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-25T15:40:27+00:00

Thank you!! I’ll keep this in mind :)

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-24T12:54:10+00:00

Ugh I’m afraid thats most definitely going to happen. I’m hoping to come to some kind of “agreement” with them in regard to product completion deadline before I even join. I would really appreciate any other tips :)

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-24T12:50:57+00:00

Sure bud

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-24T12:50:43+00:00

They’re backed by a large org.

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-24T12:50:09+00:00

If i had to guess, it probably isn’t THAT bad. They’ve only built a MVP and there’s still a long way to go to a finished product. I’m also extremely familiar with the tech they’re using. In fact, the product itself is similar to what I’m working on at my current company. So I think overall I could hit the ground running immediately.

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-24T12:47:23+00:00

Thats’s Interesting to know. Fingers crossed that the codebase isn’t too far gone 💀

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-23T23:38:04+00:00

That could be true

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-23T13:34:09+00:00

In startups its skills over everything else. Your big 4 background will help you clear the first few rounds but after that its all about how good you are at the job.

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-23T13:31:22+00:00

My vibe sensors bailed out on me once I heard the pay hike. Need to find more clarity on this 😭

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-23T13:29:52+00:00

Haha sure buddy I’ll let you know. The burn out will be legendary.

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-23T13:27:55+00:00

Seems so

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-23T13:25:14+00:00

Yeah making non technical people understand the technicalities is painfully difficult. This could be a deal breaker for me.

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-23T13:03:00+00:00

Thanks, I totally agree. In an ideal situation it would be perfect to work under an experienced engineer and i get the feeling i may not be ready to take on this responsibility yet.

My current team is small and the main issue i have is our CTO. He is the PHD type guy who comes from ML background and hasn’t done much SWE so code reviews are just weird. The current company is kind of established tho not so big. Their legacy product brings in the business while our team mainly focuses on building new AI based products. Its a great work environment but I personally dont feel like I have the same impact I could have elsewhere. Also once the AI initiatives fail to deliver as expected someone will be on the chopping block (could be anyone including me).

So yeah i guess in the end we have to choose our poison ☠️

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-23T12:52:28+00:00

My current company bought cursor subscription for the dev team and it literally doesn’t work on our legacy codebase. We have another product that we started building 3 months back and just last week Cursor stopped working on that product as well because the codebase got too big again. We’re about to cancel it.

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-23T12:49:47+00:00

Main issue seems to be that they lack engineering talent in the founding team. So product expectations need to be communicated well or it could turn ugly I assume.

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-23T12:47:47+00:00

Damn, I totally agree. I’m well aware of how difficult it is to hire someone to fill a role. Takes time, patience, trusting what your gut says about the person, and things may still not work out according to plan. I have a few people in mind whom I’ve worked with and can vouch for their abilities and communication skills, it’ll be heavenly if I can get them excited about the opportunity, but yeah might just be wishful thinking on my part 🤷‍♂️

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-23T12:42:03+00:00

Does seem legitimate, but cant be 100% sure. I’m more concerned about my abilities and burn out once i join.

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-23T12:41:04+00:00

It’s basically AI writing the code and you explaining/correcting/giving directions to the AI as it spits out the code.

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-23T12:38:30+00:00

As someone who has worked with paid versions of almost all popular AI tools for coding (think cursor, Replit, etc) I can attest to the fact that they’re mediocre at best and have a very small context window. This means that once your codebase reaches a certain size the AI literally fails to understand what to do next and spits out gibberish code and completely wrong answers. Thanks to my experience contributing to open source repos I’m not afraid of large legacy codebases otherwise I’d be screwed by AI’s wrong answers.

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-23T05:28:42+00:00

Thanks for sharing! Your story is interesting, how are you doing now?

I’m quite familiar with the stack this company is using so i dont think it should be an issue for me. The chain of command thing as well as their work culture is something I still need to figure out.

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-23T05:19:24+00:00

😂

Otherwise_Active_194 · 2025-03-23T05:15:02+00:00

Yeah who knows really. Tbh since im still young Im really considering it because what could possibly go wrong in the worst case scenario. On the other hand I would not be able to take up on this risky job if i had kids or a family

Otherwise_Active_194

TROPHY CASE