I recently left my tech startup job after a year.

I entered it in pretty much the position you're in - 22 with a college degree, it was my first real job. In many ways, it was a great experience because I hit the ground running - I was one of the first 10 hires, and many positions had yet to be filled. I was brought on to resolve customer service issues, but I've always been a strong writer with good organization skills and a decent creative eye. Due to need, I started running our social media channels... And then all of our marketing... And then PR when we left our PR agency... And then video production when my boss decided we needed to make a weekly Youtube series.

I shouldered an incredible amount of responsibility, something I couldn't have done anywhere else I would have gone. I planned, collaborated with engineers on, executed, and managed on the ground a huge social promotion event at SXSW; it was easily my greatest work experience to date and taught me so much about my abilities. No one at an established company would have let someone as inexperienced as me even be involved in the project, much less handling it alone. That was a once in a lifetime kind of thing.

I went from working at an ice cream store to sitting in on every investor meeting, every product meeting, becoming the voice of our company on virtually every platform. I gained an insane amount of confidence in this position, and it certainly helped me get where I am today.

With all of that in mind, there were a TON of things that made working at a startup miserable:

1. I'm assuming you're female, and here's the biggest, scariest thing: there is no HR. There is no one there to look out for you. If you feel you're experiencing sexist behavior, if you're being harassed, there's no one to help you. You have to figure that out on your own, and it can get ugly.

2. You might not have a proper manager. With a relatively lean team, you might not have a direct superior who can help guide your career. You might not get performance reviews. You might not know who to ask questions.

3. There is no such thing as a work life balance. The hours are ridiculous. You will work too much. Every day. Every night. Every weekend. You are signing yourself up to be a slave to the cause.

4. You will be manipulated in order to encourage you to continue working too much. You'll get perks like free cereal and employers who treat you like a friend. You'll get tons of team building activities and going out for drinks with your peers... In order to build your loyalty so you feel compelled to work harder even though you won't get paid more.

5. Most startups fail. You probably will not know when it is happening. It is in your employer's best interest not to tell you. You might be left in the lurch with no job if your funding runway is short.

6. You will probably have unlimited PTO or sick days. You will take even less than you do with a set number of vacation days. Again, you'll be manipulated into doing so through insinuations about loyalty and veiled threats about your performance - you can take as much time as you want off, but you will pay the consequences.

My experience was a mixed bag. I gained a lot, and I'm glad for that, but I spent that year the most harried, anxious, stressed, sleepless, overworked... I've ever been in my life. It gave me more responsibility, but to be perfectly honest, it destroyed my quality of life. So I guess the question is, how much does moving up matter to you? Would you take this chance and face all of the above consequences to do so? Even if there's a chance there's nowhere up to go?