> I don't know about the advice to take the job where you learn the most. It's great advice for startup founders and company owners who can get naive young new graduates for below market rates. Not so great for the graduates themselves.
Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion.
For what it is worth I don't think a startup (or, for that matter, any place that treats you poorly) is the best place for a new developer. Having been part of a couple of startups, I don't know if they are the best place to learn (especially for new developers). Often, chaos reigns, it's hard to get direction, and stuff is often on fire. Not an optimal learning environment.
This varies for different risk profiles, learning styles and long term career desires, but if forced to choose I'd probably pick a small consulting company as the place where you'd learn the most. (BTW, you'd probably get paid decently as well, since there'd be no options at the end of the rainbow.)
Absolutley agree. Before working for a small consultantancy I worked for two startups and a big company. At the startups I had next to no guidance but I guess I learned self reliance. At the big company the pace of work was too slow (although good for me at the time as my first Job). Now at this agency I'm earning more than I ever have before, I get to work with a variety of technologies with different clients and different teams. All the engineers in the shop are very pragmatic. No over engineering because there isn't time for that. Plus at the one I'm at there is a nice atmosphere and social life. As a new engineer you don't get put on some bullshit intern project in the corner with no real world connection. You get put on a real project with real impact, you have to take responsibility for your work and you are trusted with stuff you're only just about ready for. Nothing compares to building a different key component of a production system 5 times+ a year. If it fails that's your responsibility so you learn pretty quickly how to build robust software fast and what counts towards that and what is just fluff.
Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion.
For what it is worth I don't think a startup (or, for that matter, any place that treats you poorly) is the best place for a new developer. Having been part of a couple of startups, I don't know if they are the best place to learn (especially for new developers). Often, chaos reigns, it's hard to get direction, and stuff is often on fire. Not an optimal learning environment.
This varies for different risk profiles, learning styles and long term career desires, but if forced to choose I'd probably pick a small consulting company as the place where you'd learn the most. (BTW, you'd probably get paid decently as well, since there'd be no options at the end of the rainbow.)
I actually wrote about this here:
https://www.culturefoundry.com/cultivate/digital-agency-life... That said, my advice is anecdotal and based not on science or statistics, but on my experience. So it may not be worth much more than you paid for it.