This may be an unpopular opinion here, but I'd strongly advise you <i>against</i> working at a startup as an employee.<p>Some key things to consider:<p><pre><code> * What comp are you giving up?
* Will your options be worth more than Facebook/Google/Amazon/Apple RSUs?
* Can you even afford your options?
* Will the options ever be liquid?
* Are you willing to earn-out after an acquisition?
* Will you have to do extra work? Are you compensated for it?
</code></pre>
Starting a startup is great and you totally should. But working at one is (on average) setting yourself up to be worse off financially than working elsewhere. Make that decision deliberately and consciously only after really running the numbers and thinking critically about it.
The one thing I saw missing from the application was a salary floor / expectation. I currently support my wife on my salary, and wouldn't be able to work for less than a certain amount. I would apply through this for a lot of startups, but I wouldn't want to go through the entire interview process and realize that they can't pay me what I need to support my family.
Hi folks! I’m an engineer at YC and the main developer of Work at a Startup.<p>Startups are an increasingly popular place to work in the tech industry. At the same time, the most common problem founders need help with is hiring people. Work at a Startup is a new way to help solve this pain point for both parties by connecting people interested in working at startups directly with the founders of the 1100+ active YC companies by completing a common application.<p>This the next iteration of the "Work at a Startup Day" idea that YC started hosting way back in 2010 [0][1][2]!<p>For now, Work at a Startup is targeted at software engineers who want to work at US-based companies since that’s the most common need of YC companies. We will be expanding to other roles and countries once we've validated the product for applicants and founders.<p>[0] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1346103" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1346103</a><p>[1] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2888696" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2888696</a><p>[2] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3676578" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3676578</a>
The friction of entering and it demanding so much information is a killer for me.<p>If you do make a decision that only vetted applicants should have access to apply, you should make it way more enticing to commit. Seeing some interesting jobs and then getting excited will get the user more willing to forkout so much information.<p>As it is, it felt like people harvesting and I just left the site.
At first I did not understand that it is built by YC - thought someone had used styling. It would be helpful to add some additional message, e.g.: "built by YC team", may be even have an alias for a while work.ycombinator.com
The main problem for me regarding this and other similar services (eg. Triplebyte) is that there is no reason to care if you live outside the US.<p>Gettings a visa is hard, startups do not sponsor visas and the large majority of startup roles are onsite. Unfortunately, this is yet another waste of time for me along with many other similar opportunities to find a job when you aren't part of a network of people working with startups.<p>That said, this seems like an interesting program by YC and I am looking forward to see how it will continue and how the other countries' expansion will actually work.<p>Congrats @mattlong.
Really cool. What niche is this serving that TripleByte doesn't? My impression was that if you wanted to apply to any YC company at once, TripleByte was the way to go.
Recruiting process is so connected to applicant tracking systems, so applying via external services vs directly to career pages won't provide you benefits.<p>Do you plan to integrate with ATS?