The Google layoffs remind me: When I considered starting my first company I worried about "job security".
My then-girlfriend said:
"Big companies do not provide job security. They provide the service that you are the last person to know when the job is gone."
Wisdom.
@HalvarFlake Absolutely. The notion that jobs at big companies are more "secure" than small ones is a lie peddled by the big companies to give them leverage in hiring and terms.
Every job is a *contract* between you and the employer. Negotiate that in as clear-eyed a way as possible, viewing yourself as an equal in the process, and don't believe anything about "job security" unless you get it explicitly and clearly in the contract. (Which you won't.)
@HalvarFlake And yeah - when I first went to start my own company (after being laid off), I wound up chatting with my comic book dealer, and he remarked how scary it all was. Took me a while to realize he wasn't saying that starting a company was scary -- he was saying that giving you someone the power to fire you (my previous job) was scary.
It was a moment of revelation for me, and I've kept it in mind every since.
HalvarFlake
Justin du Coeur