- Check side-project directories for inspiration! For example you can check: https://profithunt.co/
- Find an old idea/startup and try to make it better in some way! Sometimes we try hard to find novel ideas, but making an old idea better, is more rewarding actually.
I think the most thoughtful/fair approach is to use more than one factor: role, years of experience, costs of living (having kids? big or small city? etc.) and loyalty (how many years in our company?) are the most important factors that come to my mind...
I came here to say exact same thing. I think a 30-40% pay-cut is OK as far as you choose a really more fulfilling job.
But about regrets: There are days that I doubt my choice too. Probably because I never experienced working at big corporations. Maybe I'm OK with them? Maybe I should go experience that for myself? But usually these doubts don't last long. And hopefully your more experience helps you never encounter these doubts! ;)
Every solution has its pros and cons. Based on what people actually need, they choose the most proper tools:
-If you're really not into code, Wix or SquareSpace are good choices. But they have very limited capabilities beyond static pages.
- For dynamic pages or a full control on your website's functionality, Wordpress is an excellent choice. But it's hard to implement without any coding skill! You can have a lot of functionalities but you can't customize them if you are not a developer.
- Airtable or Notion gives you a lot of customization without any coding skills. So can make a nice dynamic page based on them with the help of an external no-code tool. Their problems? Very functional but without a decent UI!
It was my experience and I could be wrong. But as a no-techie, I think my experience could be relevant!
Let's make a shortlist step by step. There's a good chance that we find the next big company in the Unicorn List. There are around 500 startups in such a list:
Which startups in this list have the potential to grow rapidly in the next few years? Not all of them for sure! But there are a lot of them: SpaceX, Stripe, 23andMe, Discord, Grammarly, Duolingo, Calm, Intercom, Brex, Airtable, Figma, Canva and Udemy to name just a few.
The final factor? How many of them are in a market big enough to make big companies like Microsoft? This factor gonna make our list way too shorter! But it's hard to be sure. If I want to guess? I easily remove names like Udemy, Canva, Calm, Grammarly and Duolingo from our list...
Actually, I think Udemy might be in a very big market. It competes in the market for continuing learners who could not get an education they wanted during their 18-25 year ages. I would love to work at Stripe and perhaps Discord. SpaceX too, but I am not a resident American.
Although I have my serious doubts about educational startups, seeing them more successful will make me happy for sure. They make a real difference in the world...
I'm not sure which Unicorns are outside US or which one hire remotely... But there are a lot of them. InVision is the only one that comes to mind right now.
My main problem is that I got into a big company straight out of school and there were not any opportunities for me. I have been working on systems like FileNet and Neoxam. This greatly limited my opportunity to do something else. Now that I'm married and have a kid, I can't afford to change companies. When I joined the company I could recite pertainate parts of meetings verbatim, but not anymore. I feel potential I had was squandered.
The team I am currently on is finally using some AWS, but i feel the project level leadership is short sighted and the subject matter is extremely boring.
I totally understand you and I know changing the situation can sometimes be way harder than what people would assume...
I heard a heartwarming story recently from Brandon Sanderson. He was saying in his writing class that a full-time writer has an advantage, but don't worry if you can't afford being a full-time writer! If you only write for 4 hours a week, after a year you would have a novel. You have even less time? It would take 2 years but you gonna have your novel eventually. The important thing is consistency...
As an outsider it's not my place to give you any advice. And I know it's not gonna be easy. But I want to encourage you to pursuit what you like to do! It maybe take more time but eventually it's achievable...
I'll just work at my shitty job until I win the lottery, die, or get fired. No one is entitled to happiness, so as long as I can pay my bills I guess that's the best I can hope for.
Money, size (I prefer small startups), culture, interview process... all of them matter but eventually the most important factor for me is the challenge. I prefer really challenging jobs and to be honest it's not always the smartest path...
It can work great, you can make a huge impact on growth of a promising startup, but it can also fail...
I remove the UTM too and I don't think it's unethical.
Digital marketers try their best to segment people properly, to measure everything accurately, etc but in the end there's NO WAY to do these things perfectly!
There's a lot of measurement inaccuracies after all and it's a normal part of their job... They find other ways to achieve their goals.
- Check side-project directories for inspiration! For example you can check: https://profithunt.co/
- Find an old idea/startup and try to make it better in some way! Sometimes we try hard to find novel ideas, but making an old idea better, is more rewarding actually.