When to say no to a job offer?

I worked as a software developer in big corporation for 9 years. Worked on my part-time project for about a year. I quit about 5 months ago to focus on my project and here are my observations. Working for big business for some time you will:

• Learn how this business works, should and should NOT work. The "should not" part can be very enlightening.
• Learn about your strong and week points.
• Meet many smart people, make valuable contacts and friends.
• You can accumulate some money for your dream project. This can help whether you need an outside investment or not to develop it.

The downside is that you can waste a lot of time, learning all this. Big corporations have have many levels and paths of communication, processes, procedures and so on. You'll be part of it. There is no going around that usually.

My experience: I don't regret those 9 years, I learned a lot, but the next 9, I would.

There is a third option of course. You can join a small startup as an employee.

Consider this:

1. Decide on how many months it will take to build something that users would want. (6 months should be enough to build the most important differentiating part). Multiply that by 2.
2. Figure out how much you need for expenses. $2K/month should be more than enough.
3. For big company offer '$', calculate 'n' so that [1]+n x [2] = n x $.
4. Work for big company for 'n' months. And work your butt off during that time. Impress everyone, make contacts, build network, learn and be an entrepreneur from within (making change happen).

Note: You will notice that 'n' is not a very large number. But, if you spend more than [2] during your 'n' months, then realize that it will be very very hard to come out of it. (you have the flawed entrepreneurial gene and if you can't resist the temptation you might be dooming yourself to torture).

From my experience - before launching a business, a person would need to know a lot of things/skills/experience and many friends/contacts.

So if you're starting at an early age (before 20s), just jump into business. Over the time you'll gain experience and make contacts.

Otherwise, take up at least 3 jobs, spending at least 6 months in each before jumping into biz. That's a smart approach, less risky and you'll have much clearer picture.

That was exactly my situation, I rejected job offers, "continued" with my venture. However, 8 months later I took up one start-up job offer. Learned many new things there and this helped me a lot in my business.

Take the job and learn what goes on in a big company. Off course at the same time start working on your business idea as well.

Benefits of working for a company

I'd go work on my startup because thats what I want to do. What do you expect people to say? Do what you want to do.