Ask HN: Founder to Employee
As a founder, I got to do everything -- sales, design, development. This cultivated a very wide interest and general proficiency in a lot of things. My startups failed though, and I felt I needed to learn from others before trying again. Also, my savings were running dry, but that was a secondary motivator.<p>Over the past few years I&#x27;ve been an employee, either at startups or mid-sized stable organizations. When negotiating the job description, I&#x27;ve always requested from the founders&#x2F;managers to chip in in various ways -- PM, design, engineering, etc. They always were enthusiastic to have employees with diverse interests, but reality sometimes proved otherwise:<p>- Some startups gave the flexibility, but it just felt worse than working on my own. I had the same long hours and work pressure, but a fraction of the ownership and was working on someone else&#x27;s vision
- Other startups really just needed engineering muscle. I was evaluated on pure engineering output, and any other mechanisms I had of contributing were viewed as distractions from my core responsibilities and were actively shut down. Doing one thing with my life wasn&#x27;t very pleasurable after wearing all the hats, and I wasn&#x27;t rewarded for being a generalist
- The one mid-sized org I work for tends to value me more; they needed engineering work, but also had growing pains and needed existing employees to step up and fill in the gaps. Having a willingness to do that was eagerly accepted<p>Some general impressions that I currently hold loosely:
- having a stable income is nice and I can afford most everything I want, but it&#x27;s not enough. I miss having the startup belief that my reward is proportional to my output
- company perks (food, learning reimbursement, commuter benefits, etc) are usually deterrents for me now. Colleagues feel more sedated than energized when life is too good. I miss working with hungry (figuratively) people.
- I care a lot about the mission. I have the good fortune of working at an org that actively seeks empathetic, passionate people out. I don&#x27;t think I can go back to normal jobs where I just need to do a thing. This includes even my own startups (which had, in hindsight, little value-add to society)
- the slower pacing actually feels more conducive to personal growth, but to a point. It helps now to be on a team where we constantly try to improve and iterate, as opposed to just being a resource-strapped feature shop. I&#x27;d avoid teams that move too slowly though, or don&#x27;t have the pressure to introduce something new. 
- both startups and large companies can have diverse employees, or can have monocultures. Turns out I like the former infinitely more; didn&#x27;t get that at most startups I&#x27;ve worked at
- leaving silicon valley for a job actually gave me a lot more perspective on the world than struggling as a founder in SF. Turns out there are a lot of big problems people are trying to solve that don&#x27;t get talked about in silicon valley, and the diversity of people trying to solve it seems a lot larger.<p>All these impressions, however, are loosely held because I&#x27;ve come to think of my career as consisting of phases in no particular order: take chances, invest in personal growth, make money, hustle, have predictability and work-life balance, give back, etc.