Look startups aren't perfect. You will most certainly work harder than at a large established firm. Your life balance will be no where near as good as at a large firm.
But why are you electing to work at a startup?
1) You are getting some options and have the possibility of a big upside which does not exist at a large firm.
2) You want more responsibility and you will certainly get it in the form of wearing many hats, but you will work harder.
3) If things are working out you will be promoted faster and move your career forward much quicker than most established firms.
4) There are many other points I could make here but arguably the most IMPORTANT reason to work at a startup is to LEARN, and learn you will.
There are tradeoffs with working at a startup, startups aren't perfect. To say that they are much worse than large corps who are scared of key man risk and keep you at an arms length so they can fire and lay off thousands at a time is disingenuous.
Corporations are generally only after profits big or small. You as an employee have a responsibility to make the right decisions for you.
That's very fair. I can't speak about Amazon, because I've never worked there. You're right that some companies are hanging not on to that startup canon, at least from the outside it seems that way, even after they are large and it's not just Amazon but Amazon is probably the biggest.
My comment generally holds true though that startups have tradeoffs to large corporations. If large corps are trying to take advantage of that then we, as top talent, need to stay away from them so they fail and this trend can go away.
Agreed, a startup has many tradeoffs. For instance, we want to attract key players/talent that we can barely afford. I've been a large contributor to my startup culture over the past 3 years, and while we created an envious work environment, we can only keep the right people that fit the need of the moment. Work hard + play hard really applies to our company and yes it creates some hard times. We live with a constant executive + management pressure to run a lean company and generate profits in our niche market. To me, this is only a mark of respect to the investors that were crazy enough in the first place to believe in our project.
I think that it's hard to understand that chaos unless you've been part of an early startup yourself. I can also understand that 25 years in journalism is a hard fit, it totally goes against the entrepreneurship skills you might need to survive and appreciate the ride in a startup.
But why are you electing to work at a startup?
1) You are getting some options and have the possibility of a big upside which does not exist at a large firm.
2) You want more responsibility and you will certainly get it in the form of wearing many hats, but you will work harder.
3) If things are working out you will be promoted faster and move your career forward much quicker than most established firms.
4) There are many other points I could make here but arguably the most IMPORTANT reason to work at a startup is to LEARN, and learn you will.
There are tradeoffs with working at a startup, startups aren't perfect. To say that they are much worse than large corps who are scared of key man risk and keep you at an arms length so they can fire and lay off thousands at a time is disingenuous.
Corporations are generally only after profits big or small. You as an employee have a responsibility to make the right decisions for you.
Edit: some spelling mistakes.