My early experiences working in product based startup companies
By: Mihir Kumar
Tags: Startup, Jobs, Services, Company, Product

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

What you have heard is true: Product based companies are a great place to learn and pick-up new things for a beginner in a much more involved and hands-on way.

Hello readers, today I want to share my personal experience working as a Software Developer/Engineer in various Product-based startup companies for nearly two years, I know this is kind of early to share this experience but this is meant as an early take on the environment, the great, the bad & how it compares to Service-based Companies. Pardon me if I sound like a beginner, but this is meant to be my start.

I’ll like to make it a 4-part thing:

1. The great

2. The bad

3. How it compares to Service-based Companies

4. Final thoughts

The great

For starters, the thing that you would have heard a thousand times are true, it’s a great place to start your career and grow faster. Most of the time, you will be given 1-2 weeks to learn but then you’ll start working on real-world products and modules. It gives you a sense of responsibility in a short period, so you feel a lot more informed about the system and the work. Like in my case, I started in a team shifting a legacy portal into modern technology and based on that I got a better understanding of the picture.

You might be provided random opportunities or responsibilities like being invited to architecture meetings, educating freshers from time to time apart from your work which makes the experience very diverse and yet very wholesome.

In general, you also get a bit higher number on your paycheck so that’s a yay too. Plus having a small team leads to more time someone might spend on your growth and more interactions with people who know better.

Every work that you do is always being noted and discussed upon, doesn’t matter you know about it or not, but people know your strengths and your weaknesses so you can expect great feedback from your seniors. The seniors’ help will be very crucial in shaping your learning and growth curve which in my case worked out awesome for me. The team starts to feel like a family and the office starts to feel like a home away from home.

Overall, Product-based startup companies are a great place to start your career.

The bad

What if I say, everything I mentioned above is conditional? Like maybe you’ll get it all or maybe you’ll get none or mixture of different elements. That is almost always the case, if the products are already mature then you might face a stagnant working experience. If the team you get in is already complete, then you are just a backup or an extra hand for easing some tasks.

Random opportunities & responsibilities are dependent on how much proficient you were with responsibilities already provided and most of all your current work and your past work hugely influence the next work you are going to get as you are always being discussed upon.

Your work-life balance is also affected by being in such an environment. Some startups can suck the life out of you making it seem like a bad choice sometimes. For example, you might get stuck in production issues you fix them up, sit tight from 10 in morning to 11–12 in the night to support, but find no-one bothering to call you off your duty, well this is one of my personal experience.

Lastly, the startup can be a failure.

So, Product-based startups are very risky too if they are not properly researched about beforehand.

How it compares to Service-based companies

There are pros and cons with every other choice, no one choice is always perfect, the same thought applies here too.

Service-based companies won’t offer you with a complete product to get started, they almost always don’t offer you with a 100% hands-on experience with the system or stack. But it’s not end of the world either. What they do provide is stability and less pressure for you which enables you to take things slowly, learn and implement, pick up new tasks, learn and implement and repeat. Well, this is from the experience that my awesome group of friends share with me about it. Service-based companies always keep a pool of nice resources which you can check out and learn from in your own time or while working on something.

You are losing on some key aspects like having great feedback, seniors to help you out with issues due to the big size of the team or a bigger number on your salary slip.

You need to surround yourself with enthusiasm as not every day will be a challenge filled day that you will get the fun out of, so it’s your responsibility to create fun out of it.

Lastly sometimes in all those people, big teams and crowd, you might get lost. As one of my great friends says, “Either you have to love it or leave it”.

Final thoughts

Product-based startup companies are best for people who love more action in a small amount of time or people who can learn fast, implement faster. Not that being fast is always great than being slow but there are advantages here and there that you can’t ignore being a fast learner. But you shouldn’t jump on every Product-based startup opportunity that you get either as going into something without knowledge and preparation is never a good idea, it can be disastrous. The most crucial aspect about working with Product based startup company that I found out is, it’s the balance that you can create between your work and your life because believe me sometimes lines get blurry, it’s also about the amount you give vs what you get and it’s valuation and your satisfaction from it.

On the flip side of that coin established Service-based companies offer you enough room to grow slowly, model yourself around more people, learn new things from the big pool of resources but this takes a personal commitment that you’ll always learn and not become stagnant enjoying on your earning that you are getting for less work. Also, you rarely get time to finish what you started in learning so it’s always your job to go back to learn more about it in-depth. In essence, the crucial point here is your commitment to learning and your hustle to grab better projects. Now no one choice will work out for every one of us, it’s the differences that make us interesting and it is the differences that take us to different places. Explore your options but above everything, be informed and research properly, because one thing is sure, being lazy won’t take you to great places as said in a few noble quotes.