I would have to agree with you. I've been at a "real" company for 12 years now. Prior to that was s dot-com-ish place. The peaks at $bigco aren't as high maybe as a startup, but then again the valleys aren't as low. Stability is good. I can do my job, get paid fairly for it, and not worry too much about coming in one day to find that the next round of funding didn't work out and I need to find a way to pay my mortgage with office furniture and servers.
Oh, the manchildren-companies. I've worked for one full-time, and done a lot of freelance work for a few others. I don't miss them at all. The NO GIRLS sign is especially onerous when you happen to be a girl.
I like academia because it's a good mix of freedom and rules. Eccentricity is accepted, but seriously destructive viciousness isn't. There's enough structure to keep everything running smoothly (if a bit too much bureaucracy here at Saltmine U.).
I worked for a two cofounders startup in the Days Before The Internet. Despite them both being slightly arseholish, it worked well and became fairly successful, mainly because they both had technical and business skills, and a similar idea of how the company should work.
The idea behind the company was actually about how it operated rather than having an original product as such - having seen how other consultancies worked, they spotted there was an opportunity to compete by being much leaner and more technically-savvy than the big boys.
They ran the company without debt and in the early days only recruited by word of mouth. The result for the first 8 years or so was constant growth and a fairly contented workforce with relatively little churn. Things got a bit messier later, but failing to manage growth beyond a certain point is par for the course. They got out with a load of cash and long term employees like myself got a few bob, too.
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Excellent piece of writing!
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I like academia because it's a good mix of freedom and rules. Eccentricity is accepted, but seriously destructive viciousness isn't. There's enough structure to keep everything running smoothly (if a bit too much bureaucracy here at Saltmine U.).
Reply
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The idea behind the company was actually about how it operated rather than having an original product as such - having seen how other consultancies worked, they spotted there was an opportunity to compete by being much leaner and more technically-savvy than the big boys.
They ran the company without debt and in the early days only recruited by word of mouth. The result for the first 8 years or so was constant growth and a fairly contented workforce with relatively little churn. Things got a bit messier later, but failing to manage growth beyond a certain point is par for the course. They got out with a load of cash and long term employees like myself got a few bob, too.
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