It's looking to be a good day today

matt2500

Dick Cheney's Pubic Lice

matt2500

I lived in Paris in the mid-90s, and went to the movies a ton, and this is how every theater worked. Two showtimes listed - one for the time the ads started, another for the actual showtime.

matt2500

It sounds like you need to call up the owners, and ask for a second meeting, where you voice your concerns. As I said, the interview process with a startup is just as much you getting info on the company as it is the company getting info on you. I did this when I was being hired.

If it's the kind of company you really want to work for, then they won't have any problem briefing you on what their vision for the future is; what kinds of projects they see themselves taking on, what the growth plans are, etc (after they make you sign non-disclosure papers, probably). If they balk at any of this, and you can't make yourself feel like the environment is good, you've got a great fallback.

All in all, at your age, and with good professional prospects outside of this company, I say go with the startup. It's a great opportunity, and lots of the downside risks are mitigated in your case. Just go in armed with as much information and realistic expectations as you can.

matt2500

So that's good. But you have to have confidence in the owners across all aspects of the business. How well thought out is their business plan? When joining a startup, the interview process is just as much you gaining info on the company and judging its merits, as it is the company doing the same for you.

matt2500

A couple of things. I wouldn't work at a startup without significant stock equity. I assume you're in Europe? I don't know what the climate is like there for startup compensation, but it would be a deal breaker for me to not have a decent financial stake in the success of the company.

Also, people will romanticize working for a startup. I'm one of them; I loved my time at my company in its garage days. But I saw it chew people up as well, especially people who had ties outside of work. It wasn't for nothing that we mainly hired single folks in their early 20s back in the day. If you've got a year where your partner will herself be occupied by school, then you've got a year window to work at the startup and know if it is somewhere you want to be once she graduates.

Finally, startup culture. You mentioned that the hiring process at the startup was lacking. This is a red flag. Early in a startup's history, it should be extremely focused on its hiring standards, which means grueling interviews of multiple rounds. The fact that yours was so easy makes me question other parts of the company's culture. Only join a startup if you're convinced that these guys are going to absolutely own their market. You have to be willing to drink the kool-aid, which means being a believer in the company, its founders, and its culture.

matt2500

The interview process at that startup is a huge red flag. Their hiring practices in their earliest days set the standard for the future of the company. You certainly are qualified for either position, but that lax interview process speaks poorly for the culture at the startup. Do a little research into their business, and make sure they're viable. The way they interview means they could bring on a lot of people in the near future who sneak through with less-than-stellar qualifications, and there is nothing worse than working with people you don't respect.

matt2500

Only you know what type of environment you prefer, and what work you'd be doing at one company vs the other.

Things you should consider: a startup will suck up almost all of your time and energy. If you and your girlfriend are serious, it's something you should discuss together. Heck, even if you aren't, a startup can eat up two or three years of your life in the blink of an eye. That's another reason to get equity - you're trading your youth for an ownership stake.

What kind of code will you be writing at each firm? At the established company, will you just be working on maintaining someone else's code, or will you get to write your own stuff? What about at the startup - is that company building a lot of stuff from scratch? If so, it's likely you'll be handed big blocks of it to develop largely on your own. Do you want to do that? If the startup is growing rapidly, you'll be expected to help break in new developers, and probably to lead a group of them sooner rather than later. Do you want to do THAT?

matt2500

Hey Kylde, you mis-submitted this one ;)

matt2500

A lot of this comes down to your personality, life situation, and your own career goals. An established company brings stability, probably a slow-but-steady path for career advancement, and the perks that come with a big firm, like the good benefits you mention. If you're married, with kids (or kids in the near future), this is a much better environment.

A startup offers the chance to be in on the ground floor of something that could become big. With this means the chance to advance very quickly, in directions you probably can't even imagine right now. But it can be an incredibly unstable, chaotic environment. You'll be asked to give a lot more of yourself to a startup, in time and focus. It can play havoc on family and social life, but can be incredibly rewarding professionally. And the big downside, of course, is that the whole thing could go belly up, leaving you high and dry.

As compensation for that risk with the startup, you should be getting rewarded with equity in the company. I would be hesitant to join a startup that payed a base salary that is competitive for the field, but offered no equity.

As a point of reference, I joined a startup, and worked for a few years for peanuts, but had a stock package that paid off handsomely. Those early years were absolutely nuts, but amazing at the same time. I was able to build, from scratch, expertise in an industry I had zero experience in prior to joining. I saw dozens and dozens of people do the same - literally people we hired as temp labor rise to positions like software engineers. The work was hard, often frustrating, as we dealt with double- and triple-digit month-to-month growth. A buddy referred to working for this company as 'surfing the chaos,' which was pretty apt.

After those heady years, the company eventually morphed into a big, established firm. With that comes stability, but also bureaucracy, politics, and all of their frustrations. Personally, I much preferred the startup days, but that's just me (I did stick around for quite a few years past the garage days, as I kind of found an interesting area to settle down, and was still working on some big and interesting projects). Some people we hired early on could not handle the chaos, growth, and rapid change.

matt2500

Dude, you could at least change the headline before you steal a front-page pic and repost:

http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/d96r5/apparently_as_you_get_older_your_standards_change/

Also, here you did it again:

http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/dairv/chicks_dig_guys_who/

Which was front page stuff a few days ago:

http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/d8rep/chicks_dig_guys_that/

matt2500

The Essays of Montaigne.

matt2500

If you give it your best shot, and it fails, then you'll have gained, at the very least, valuable experience. And if you treat suppliers, customers, and contacts honestly, and really work hard at this, and it still fails, then you'll have a network of contacts to fall back on.

matt2500

Ah, that's nothing. Last year, Adrian Beltre caught a ball in the nuts, and wasn't wearing a cup. He had to go on the DL. Ken Griffey Jr got him good on his first AB after coming off the DL - he got the PA guy to play the Nutcracker Suite when Beltre came to bat.

No video, but here's the audio: http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/mariners/nutcracker.mp3

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/marinersblog/2009788119_los_angeles_angels_at_seattle_2.html

matt2500

I did my junior year of college in France, but then, I was a French major.

I say absolutely go for it. It broadens your perspective on the world in ways you can't begin to imagine before you go. I have no regrets at all at having done my year abroad (in fact, I did more in grad school).

matt2500

I grow these, and like to pickle them. Cut them into halves/thirds, then brine them overnight (I think the brine mix is about 1 part pickling salt to 4 parts water), with a plate on top to keep the peppers submerged.

I then pickle them in a pretty standard pickling brine, with whatever other herbs/spices you may want to add. I like to throw in some pearl onions and a whole crushed garlic clove in each jar.

After several weeks, you'll have delicious pickled peppers, reminiscent of pepperoncini, which go perfectly in salads and on sandwiches.

matt2500

I used to sit and draw for hours as a kid. It would almost always start with a soldier on one side of the piece of paper shooting at a soldier on the other side. By the time I was done, the paper was full of dozens of soldiers in elaborate bunkers, helicopter gunships, and even X-wing and TIE fighters, all shooting at each other. And lots of soldiers getting shot in the junk. That's always good for a laugh when you're 12, or 42.

matt2500

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrNbLBS1D2Q

matt2500

Your friend is right, in that the word can be used as a synonym for 'fairness.' I'd say the primary meaning these days is the one you use, but the word does have two distinct meanings.

matt2500

Wikipedia's List of Unusual Articles. I hope you didn't have anything important to do for the next day or so!

matt2500

Totally. I can see it being a long time, if ever, if Wonder Years can be streamed, or even put out on DVD.

matt2500

Yep, the music licensing thing is a real pain. One of my favorite shows was Northern Exposure, which used a LOT of licensed music. They eventually released the first two seasons on DVD with all the music intact, but they were really pricey. For the later seasons, they filled in a lot of the original music with filler, to keep the price down.

matt2500

Ground Kontrol for classic video games and beer.

matt2500

Small red ones. The best accompaniment for a steak that there is. Also, OP, find a boyfriend who appreciates a better piece of meat than filet.

matt2500

I pretty much agree with everything this guy says.

matt2500

There's no denying she's a charismatic performer, and has that star factor. That judge was right when he said she was born to be a pop star. I even kind of liked the song. I'm assuming that was a dramatically different arrangement than the Soulja Boy version?

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matt2500

TROPHY CASE

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