Marc Andreessen is starting a series of posts of what I am sure will be excellent career advice. This is from the first:
I believe a huge part of what people would like to refer to as “career planning” is being continuously alert to opportunities that present themselves to you spontaneously, when you happen to be in the right place at the right time. . . . [for example:]
* Your former manager has jumped ship to a hot growth company and calls you three months later and says, come join me.
I am continually amazed at the number of people who are presented with an opportunity like one of the above, and pass. There’s your basic dividing line between the people who shoot up in their careers like a rocket ship, and those who don’t — right there.
A friend of mine worked at UC Berkeley with Bill Joy, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems. One day he got a call from Joy: Want to join me at Sun? My friend would have been employee #5 — something like that. He said no. It was a huge mistake, just as Andreessen says.
Conversely, I’ve a friend who, in a similar situation, jumped from a well-paying university tech-support position to move half-way across the country to join a dot-com. Over the past few years he’s seen several of the businesses he’s worked for sell out and close down. He’s happy where he is, but his income isn’t much higher than it was when he started working for the start ups. If he’d passed on the opportunity, he’d have tons of seniority at the university, fewer periods of unemployment, and more security than he’s experienced.
Would he do it again? Probably. But it’s reasonable to make the same risk-assessment and to decide not to leap.
So many people devote their heart and souls to start-ups that go nowhere. They work nights, weekends, etc. for mediocre salaries and end up with little or nothing to show for it. Some people get rich that way, of course, but most end up chasing failed dreams. I’ve known several people who stayed at their “boring” jobs, while others went and chased riches, and actually they ended up making the most as their “boring” companies ended up being sold or they rose high up in the company.
For every start-up that suceeds, more fail – however like gambling, the big risks pay the most! I worked for an SME startup, it had the best working environment, a great training scheme…but it only lasted six months!
I guess you can’t win them all, but at least you can try!