Great advice. I am currently in my second summer internship with a great startup. Last summer, I started with near-0 web experience, and built an internal web app that is still used constantly by our sales team. The metrics it provides have convinced more than a few companies to demo us (b2b). I'm very thankful they took the chance on me, knowing there would be a big learning curve. I was working mostly on my own, since our devs were overseas, but it was still a great experience.
At the end of my summer, they raised a series A, and this summer it feels like a whole different company. We're three times the size, and everything is moving even faster. We have four full-time developers in this office now, and I'm working alongside them on production code.
Personally, I think startups can be more valuable learning experiences than big companies, but I can only speak from my experiences. I feel lucky to have been part of this company when it was ~8 people as well as now, when it's ~25 and we have free food and a nicer office and I'm integrated into the "enterprise" (in a good way) development processes.
Compare this to my friend at one of the biggest companies in the Valley (but an older one...), who is in a cubicle all day and told me she could go three days without doing any work and nobody would notice.
At the end of my summer, they raised a series A, and this summer it feels like a whole different company. We're three times the size, and everything is moving even faster. We have four full-time developers in this office now, and I'm working alongside them on production code.
Personally, I think startups can be more valuable learning experiences than big companies, but I can only speak from my experiences. I feel lucky to have been part of this company when it was ~8 people as well as now, when it's ~25 and we have free food and a nicer office and I'm integrated into the "enterprise" (in a good way) development processes.
Compare this to my friend at one of the biggest companies in the Valley (but an older one...), who is in a cubicle all day and told me she could go three days without doing any work and nobody would notice.