Freshers, Why Should You Join A Startup?

So, we had earlier written about what a student wants from a startup and here’s something from a startup as to why a student should join a startup.

I have seen many bright guys in their final year, having been placed in one or couple of MNCs through campus placement but have their heart with a startup. And are confused as hell about it. Well, this article is for you. Here, I will try to clear this picture of – “joining an MNC” vs “joining a startup” for a fresher. In this article, MNCs refers to fat indian (service) software companies.

Let’s start then:

MNC vs Startup on Timeline

Almost all MNCs provide you with training, mostly it’s around 3-6 months with no guarantee to get tech-stack of your choice. After that, you might get a project or go to the bench and even if you get a project, there is absolutely no guarantee for it being of your choice. I have seen people making it to project some 1 or 1.5 years later after joining. This timeline may change depending on company. Even in few popular companies, people copy paste things and fill excel sheets as their regular work. If you consider this much time period with startups, a lot many things change, also you get to learn a lot many things. So, even if you work for 1-2 years in startups, you score a lot more for your time.

Giving the MNCs a fair chance, they do a decent job of training people and they have their reasons for making people sit on bench also. But come on, you can think for yourself.

MNC vs Startup if you want to do post graduation

Actually startups eat up more time than MNCs do. So if you need all the time for PG entrance preparations, then you might opt for MNC and hope to sit on bench as well. Otherwise, startups do really well improving your profile. As discussed in timeline point, at startups you get to learn a lot of things in very short time.

MNC vs Startup on salary

Do keep in mind that “package” is actually “cost to company” or CTC, which includes your salary and cost of other facilities provided. Most of startups on other hand, give packages with only salaries in it. So keep an eye on what package breaks in while comparing. In case of startup packages – funded startups pay good and close to market standards. Salaries can be little less for non-funded startups.

Apart from package, there is one more thing to expect from startup which is very valuable and not available with MNC – ESOP(employee stock options). Startups get a lot of brownie points here.

What to expect at Startup?

Being in a startup is certainly not a regular job. You won’t be given a list of todos with deadline date and expected to finish. Most of the times, you will get to see vague thoughts getting shaped into ideas. You will get those ideas, think for yourself to create your todos and finish them. You are not expected to do what you think you are expert at, but everything. At a startup, your role is from that of a peon to developer to tester to system administrator to marketer. So jump in only if you are passionate and interested in what the startup is doing.

But Startups Rock

Yes, they do. There are a lot of variables which decide success or failure for a startup. Also, there are equal chances of winning or losing for startup. But, you will get to have few stories and memories with you, which you will cherish forever.

Getting in a Startup

Currently there are many startups who hire freshers if they are passionate about programming. So, if you are very good at something like python, rails, android then you won’t have big problems. There are few startup job posting portals in India, you may get to see opportunities there. Also, keep your eyes open for new startups via various startup events or various blog coverages, and post to ones that interest you.

About the author:

Two years back Ratnadeep (Twitter) left an MNC job as fresher to join a startup. Since last one year he is running his own company RainingClouds – they are bunch of guys building a product – AppSurfer.