Having been the CTO of a startup and then a SWE at a FAANG company for 8 years, I disagree. Being at a startup does indeed require a broad technical skillset, but being effective inside a large company requires a lot of skills (both technical and not) that early startup employees may not have or need. I've grown a lot from both environments.
Are you me? I am constantly being gutchecked that a startup mentality does not fly when you have several hundred million in the bank. That said, my enterprise and upper management butt kissing experience from the 00s don’t seem to matter either. I can stay heads down in code and I’m not in fear over being downsized. The hard part is teaching these young kids how to scope.
