Startups are small companies which are normally newly started and will have very limited number of people. In India, there is a new trend of entrepreneurship where people want to create new companies and want to build there ideas into product.
As a software developer, you can work for these newly started companies rather than working for a well established companies. In this chapter we are going to look at pro's and con's of working for a startup company.
Working in a startup makes you learn lot of things. As startup will have very limited resources you have to do lot of things which you may not do in a big company. So you will be learning new things almost every day which will contribute immensely to your career.
Startups will have only few developers. They cannot hire separate people for backend and frontend. So if you work for a startup you end up working in all different levels of software development stack. You will be doing backend server coding, database and front web and mobile development simultaneously. Surely it will be a challenging task, but if you are really passionate about work it will be really rewarding experience.
In a startup you will not do just development, as company grows you will be given more and more responsibilities like managing people,interacting with customers and going to on site etc. So being in startup teaches you how you can build a company from scratch. If you have entrepreneur fire inside you, working in a startup is best choice.
Normally startup attracts best people. If you look into silicon valley, every great company was started as a startup and many of these founders will have a great product ideas which are built in these startups. So if you work for startup you will get a chance to work with them. It's a very good experience as you can learn lot of things from them in very short time.
As you learn in very fast pace, you will be improving your capabilities in very short time. You will be more confident on things than your peers with same experience. It gives you edge over others in job market. You can easily go from startup to bigger company but reverse is not so easy.
Now you know pro's of working for a startup. But you also have to be aware of con's. The following are few con's of working in a startup.
Startups in their initial phases are funded by their founders. They may not have deep pockets like big companies do. So if company doesn't do good in the longer run they may run out of money and they may have to close it. Though it's a worst case scenario , but according to the numbers only 20% of startups survive more that two years. So before getting into a startup make sure that you are informed about economic status of the company.
You have to be very careful when you choose a startup. Not every startup created with same passion and interest. There are many reasons for a person to start a company. So before you signup for any job, make a point of talking to it's founders and understand what's the rationale behind having a new company. Unless you are convinced about their idea and passion it's not good to work for them.
If you work for a startup, it becomes your life. You will not really have much time for your personal life. It's manageable in the beginning of your career as you may not have many commitments. But as you become more experienced it may become challenging. So join startup only if you can dedicate lot of time. It's not a typical 9-4 job.
Now you understand the pro's and con's of the startup life. After knowing all these, you may ask how you can look for startup jobs. There are many resources you can use to get into a startup
Most of the startups encourage recruiting through referrals. Normally good candidates try to bring more good candidates with whom they want to work with. So find out any of your friends working in the startup. If you like their startup, ask them to refer you. It's one best way to find startup jobs.
There are many job boards dedicated for startup recruitment. You can go through these job boards to find out which are the startup jobs available in your city. The following are few job boards which you can refer
Working for startup is a rewarding experience with a little bit of risk. Go through more about the startups online and make up your own mind.