You take the bad or you don’t get the good; There needs to be a - TopicsExpress

You take the bad or you don’t get the good; There needs to be a clear social contract when you take a job at a startup. Founders need to be upfront about the bad. You will work longer hours. It will be emotional. You may not get vacations, and even if you do, you may feel pressured not to take them. Your job description is fluid; ditto, org charts. You may not grow along with the company. The goal posts — whether you are in sales or product — are really a suggestion more than a rule. They are subject to change. The company may change what it does over the time you are there. But one thing won’t change: Who founded the company. Get comfortable with that founder’s personality and ethos before you take a job with them, because it is forever intertwined with the organization, whether the founder is still in charge years later or not. A founder is not merely “a boss.” In exchange for all of that, you get to help build something. You will likely have more fun than working at other companies. You have the chance to get rich– no matter how slim that chance is. And you have the opportunity to have more responsibility and professional growth than you might on a typical career tract. That’s pretty much it. You don’t get the latter, without accepting the former.