this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2026
16 points (100.0% liked)

CSCareerQuestions

2455 readers
1 users here now

A community to ask questions about the tech industry!

Rules/Guidelines

Related Communities

Credits

Icon base by Skoll under CC BY 3.0 with modifications to add a gradient

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
ericjmorey@programming.dev
odium@programming.dev
16
What is it like working for a startup? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by abbadon420@sh.itjust.works to c/cs_career_questions@programming.dev
16 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I just had an interview with a startup, where I would be working as a junior fullstack engineer. However, the most senior person in the company (of 4 devs) has three years experience in software, and comes from an electrical engineering background. They work a lot with AI, but they are looking to bring more structure in the code. I am supposed to work with AI also and I get to work on all three applications that they have. I said I don't vibecode, I can use AI,but I need to know what I'm doing. They said I don't have to vibecode, but sometimes they need fast delivery.

This would be my first real job. I've been working as a tutor for 4 years, so I've seen a lot of simple code and greenfield code, and I've written texts and taught classes. So I have some valuabke experience. I was looking for a job in an enterprise company where I can learn from seniors, but this might also be a valuable way to learn a lot of stuff. It seems kind of rigity, but also flexible.

I'm wondering if anyone can share their experience working in a startup. Is it only chaos and misery, or is it also a good environment to learn a lot very fast?

Edit: they went with the other applicant :(

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] mrmaplebar@fedia.io 6 points 1 week ago

Honestly, working at a startup means being part of a company that is more interested in selling equity than products.

In other words, these guys probably don't care as much about the quality of the applications that they're making (or the code that goes into them) as they do about making huge pitches and promises to potential investors in an attempt to score big multi-million dollar investment deals. In my experience, startup culture is a bunch of people pretending to care about a product, but really only interested in selling an idea of a product.

As a worker without any stake in the company itself, this means that things are probably going to be fast and loose, and more than a bit chaotic. The people you are working for are going to be spending a lot of money quickly (which can be fun to be around) and are eventually either going to score a big investment deal or totally run out of money. You may end up switching gears often and doing different things.