I lived mostly the same story as this guy, except I was working in a startup when this happened. I was working on great software, but I hated my job and hated everyone around me. And yet I joined this startup because I felt it would be the best job ever. I was so wrong.
I finally left for BigCo afer 6 months and I plan on staying there for years and years because this job is incredible. We write the most beautiful software and the team is simply amazing.
And it seems every week I see my old colleagues post status on Facebook along the lines of "Look at us, working hard into the night!" at 9 or 10pm. They seem to take pride of this sort of thing. Now that I'm at BigCo, I get to leave every day at exactly the same time and 3 days / week I have activities planned on my evenings that I will never miss again because of overtime.
Just remember that these horror stories of "I hate my job at BigCo, let's join Startup and everything will be better" can go both ways.
I can hear the chorus of HNer's working at startups saying "yeah, but just wait until we go IPO or get bought or go viral then you'll see why we worked so hard so late so often for so long..."
I prefer having time for myself rather than killing myself at work hoping that it will pay out. If it does, great for you! But if it doesn't, all those years you've worked your ass off and didn't have time for yourself and people close to you will never be given back. I have my good salary at BigCo and I know that the moment I leave the office, I don't have to think about it.
I think this work / life separation is really important (to me at least). I don't personally think that what you do at work represents who you really are, and having activities outside of work defines you way more than that thing you do from 9 to 5 to earn a salary. In the end, a job is only there to provide you enough money to pay for your lifestyle.
If your personnal goal is to be crazy rich, then go and work your ass off like crazy for years. But when your job pays enough that you can keep your current lifestyle and you like what you're doing like this, I don't see anything that would make me leave BigCo for a startup filled with dreams of being rich.
I finally left for BigCo afer 6 months and I plan on staying there for years and years because this job is incredible. We write the most beautiful software and the team is simply amazing.
And it seems every week I see my old colleagues post status on Facebook along the lines of "Look at us, working hard into the night!" at 9 or 10pm. They seem to take pride of this sort of thing. Now that I'm at BigCo, I get to leave every day at exactly the same time and 3 days / week I have activities planned on my evenings that I will never miss again because of overtime.
Just remember that these horror stories of "I hate my job at BigCo, let's join Startup and everything will be better" can go both ways.