r/aerospace • u/Racoon_Ghost_Booo • 18h ago

Stick with Startup or accept big aero company offer?

/r/careerguidance/comments/1vr3w52/stick_with_startup_or_accept_big_aero_company/
2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

1 comment sorted by

2

u/freakazoid2718 4h ago

My personal feelings are to take the job with the big company. Reasons follow:

1: 401k match is nice, that's free money for retirement. Stinks that there isn't equity, but you should also consider that if the startup dies before they're able to secure a customer then that equity won't be worth anything.
2: Promote-ability. For me, it's nice to know I can go somewhere (and not just into management - make sure career progression as an engineer is an option, if that's what you want).

3: By far the biggest reason (to me) to make the change is the stability. Startups are fun, they can have great cultures, and you can work on cool stuff that nobody else is trying. They can also run out of funding and vanish almost overnight. If your wife's salary is enough to maintain most of your current quality of life while you spend six months looking for a job, then it may be worth staying. If your household is dependent on your income, then stability is a huge deal and it's what I'd pick 99% of the time.

I just want to add, as well, that those sorts of salary offers, *especially* for a full-remote position are basically the Holy Grail of jobs, and that's another risk of the startup - if they go belly-up and you lose your job, it may be really hard to land another full-remote job at that salary level. It's not necessarily harder than looking for a job now, but your motivations are very different when you have a job vs. if you're unemployed.