Seed: A series about tech startup careers. Issue #1.

4 Signs You Should Work at a Startup as an Engineer

Aka, the four reasons I made the switch in my career.

In the Spring and Summer of 2022, I was underemployed in a job that was sucking the life force out of me. I had virtually zero challenges, a minuscule impact on the business at large, and I just wasn’t connected to the work. Some may be happy making just over $100k and only working my 5–10 hour weeks, but I wasn’t. I fantasized about using my extra time for writing, growing an audience, building startups, etc. But I found myself wasting it instead because this job was so misaligned with my needs.

So, after years in that job, I finally decided it was time for something new. After what ended up being almost a year of soul-searching (and a five-month sabbatical), I realized what I was looking for: an engineering role at a seed-stage startup.

This is the company I joined in January of this year (scroll down to see me in the list of team members as the second Founding Software Engineer — yes, I was employee #2).

Choosing the startup route over a more established tech company comes with some sacrifices. I would estimate that I’m sacrificing approximately $80k/year in compensation and…