If I truly loved your vision or product or something or believed in it, I probably would start my own competition. If I want to invest in it why not go all in.
But I don't. So it is a transaction and you are one in hundreds of options I have over years. And you should also treat it like that.
Isn't there some healthy middle ground? I find some domains more interesting than others, I prefer some technical aspects over others. Some projects make more sense to me, or at least make me feel better.
Not enough to start my own company, but enough that the options leaning towards those will have the nod. You can be engaged without dedicating your life to it.
I think it is more question that if a startup ask for passion and believe in their marketing. And one really had that, would it not be better to drive it yourself?
For those with not that strong convictions. Picking up reasonably interesting roles and fields where they have some skill coverage is entirely reasonable way to do things. Go for roles and companies you can be content with.
not everyone who believes in a business has the resources or the will, or even the skill to do that. also, if i believe in a business, that doesn't mean it makes sense to compete with them.
to give an example, i really love what valve is doing for gaming on linux. i would love to work for them. are you suggesting that i should start my own gaming company?
if i really like a company, i want to see that company succeed, not start another.
also, for myself, i really don't want to work for a company whose business i don't believe in. i would, if it was the only option, but if i have a choice then i prefer to work for a company whose business goals and practices i can agree with.
with startups in particular, there is also the issue that, if i don't believe in their business, that means i won't believe that they will be successful and then it doesn't make sense to work there.
This. I have been in enough family businesses and startups to know that there is nothing to believe in. Upper management just thinks you're adorable. Middleanagemwnt thinks you need to eat shit, like them.
On one level, it's more enjoyable to do work that's aligned with your values. That gives you "self-actualization" points in the ol' pyramid.
But on another level, either because you're getting equity, or because you'd like to stay employed for a while, "believing" in the company is a shorthand for saying you think that the company is going to succeed, so that your equity is worth more, or so that you don't find yourself out of a job on someone else's schedule.
... or mine, I need the medical benefits because I have a family member that needs the medical benefits.
If it were not for the way to get medical benefits via employment, I would pursue a passion versus sit in front of a keyboard and type things up that will not exist in 6 months.
True, but among the organizations that have work and money you can do to get the money, some seem to have aims or products or work in domains that align better with your views on the world than other organizations. In the context of job-getting, money as an extrinsic motivator is a given. Parts of a candidate's motivation that are more towards intrinsic might be relevant.
Maybe with the population of this site this is more true than the most, but I'd still consider it a minority, even here.
I doubt many plumbers cite a love of modern world development, when they get hired for fixing toilets, or that people assembling washing machines have a passion for clean clothes for other people... or even people working for google don't really have that much passion for collecting other peoples personal data and exploiting it to show ads.
No, but they might like the sort of projects the organization does with respect to complexity, or that they mostly serve governmental buildings, or that they work in the community they're part of, etc. In the end, you have to make a choice between organizations to work for, and usually they all pay more or less the same. So, what's then the deciding factor?
By the way, this definitely doesn't mean to glorify an organization and what they're doing. Far from it. They're just in it for continued existence and making some money, I suppose. But it is nice if an organization has some social utility, as compared to, say, sell advertisements for crap no-one needs. And I think, if that's important to you, you can refer to that when you're applying for a job.
Of course, if you're working in a field where there's much more candidates than jobs, this is pretty meaningless because you have to take whatever comes your way.
there is a difference between the choice of profession and the choice of company after learning the profession.
above we were discussion which tech company to work for, because most of us here are in tech. but tech companies have a wide variety of business goals and practices.
plumbers not so much. they do plumbing. they all have the same business goal, the differences are where they operate and how nice the coworkers are and the work conditions and pay.
for a tech company it makes sense to ask, do i like their product, independent of the job i'll be doing there. for a plumber not really.
"you have work to do, and have the money, I can do the work, and want the money"