One of the things I rarely see mentioned when discussing career prospects of startups vs large corporations is how different their hiring filters are.
If you are self-taught, lacking credentials, and don't live in a major market, it can be difficult to get in the door at a FAANG. Whereas start-ups can be much more likely to take a chance on someone with a non-conventional background.
So for some of us, large corporations aren't even an option until after we've taken that startup job and the startup has done well enough that people have heard of it.
I just went through the job search again, and I found the exact opposite to be true. for context, I went to a regionally-known (at best) state university and have just a few years of experience at a small company you've probably never heard of. so not quite "self-taught" but pretty far from what you'd think of as a the typical FAANG employee.
I applied to at least twenty roles at startups and small/medium-sized companies that seemed like a good fit for my skills and wrote thoughtful cover letters for each one. not a single one of those employers responded, not even to reject.
I also applied to a couple FAANGs, thinking it was a pretty long shot. but I ended up getting two on-sites, one of which I converted to an offer. there's definitely some truth to what people say about the unreasonable/irrelevant DS/algo problems, but I found it comforting to know for once what I was actually being assessed on.
not sure whether I got lucky with the FAANGs, unlucky with the smaller companies, or what, but just thought I'd share that anecdote. not the outcome I was expecting at the beginning of the process.
> If you are self-taught, lacking credentials, and don't live in a major market, it can be difficult to get in the door at a FAANG. Whereas start-ups can be much more likely to take a chance on someone with a non-conventional background.
Don't self select out of these jobs. I've been an interviewer at FAANGs. We take talent where we can and count ourselves lucky.
Our recruiters call everyone given enough time. Reach out to one directly on LinkedIn for an even better chance at an initial screening call. Ask for a referral from someone already working there in your wider network. Ask for a referral from Blind. Ask for a referral from HN.
From there it's your ability to pass the interview, not any set of credentials (different thread please on the interview process).
This has reverted in the last decade. Albeit the competition for companies with big names like hard makes it virtually impossible to pass the filter without a referral.
If you are self-taught, lacking credentials, and don't live in a major market, it can be difficult to get in the door at a FAANG. Whereas start-ups can be much more likely to take a chance on someone with a non-conventional background.
So for some of us, large corporations aren't even an option until after we've taken that startup job and the startup has done well enough that people have heard of it.