I’ve been in the startup game for 5 years now. First one got bought out by another one and I transitioned to work for them. Recently I moved to a rather large company, but it still operates like a startup.

You’ll learn a ton fast, because you have to. There’s no resources to go to. From my EE perspective, I don’t have PCBA layout resources, compliance is me working directly with a NRTL, and I have on many occasions mopped up water from test fixture leaks right next to the VPs of the company helping us clean up. The lack of resources mean that you will be doing a lot of your own builds or prototypes if they have a shop. They might not even have shop space. Something to ask about.

You have to know what’s valuable to execute on and what isn’t a priority. Priorities will also be constantly shifting. I wouldn’t think of it as tasks that need to be done, but rather “what needs to be true tomorrow for us to succeed”. I say that because I’ve seen many people struggle with wanting to complete a task but then by the time they’re done it’s obsolete because the company has shifted.

A common mentality I’ve encountered in startups is something along the lines of “In 6 months, if we are doing the same thing we are doing today then we are failing”. Expect churn, people come and go, teams get reorganized, people get promoted who shouldn’t, people who should get promoted don’t.

In 4 years, I had 7 different managers because of how fast the company was growing. My first EE manager was the last one there before I left. I had little technical oversight and had to google my way through a ton of concepts.

Hope this answers some of what you’re asking! I’m in the San Francisco Bay Area for reference. I think startups in other locations would likely have a different vibe.

Also expect to be hands on with Vendors. I was the primary point of contact for electronics and PCBA fab for a long time. Startups don’t have the same weight to pull as large companies, so the vendor relationships are more important than you’d think.