Leave hyperscaler for larger role at a smaller company?
Current AE at a hyperscaler. $350k OTE, last year’s W2 was $420k and this year will likely land around $370k TC. Will hit a bit of a comp cliff next year as my initial RSU grant dries up, and will probably drop down to $290k OTE. I’m 28, and have a stay at home wife and 2 young children.
Have a couple of career options and I am struggling to make a decision.
Option 1: Stay where I’m at. I enjoy my team, manager and like my book of business. If I perform well (which I likely will), I can likely get more RSUs/comp increase during next year’s performance review. Not a ton of career growth potential, but the lowest risk in my opinion as I have already built up a reputation/trust within my org.
Option 2: Take a sales manager role at my current company. Will come with a slight OTE increase, but not substantially. Will be good to get people leader experience at a large company like this, but the downside is I go from being in the field to having to be in the office 4-5 days/week with a 40 min commute.
Option 3: Leave and join a smaller ($1B annual revenue digital transformation company, so basically the implementation arm for the services that I currently sell). I would be the “Head of X Practice”, basically a client/sales executive for a new vertical they are targeting. Would get to build the GTM strategy from scratch. OTE would increase to $450k, with a ~$265k base and the rest of comp from an annual bonus plus commission (uncapped). It will definitely be a grind to build pipeline from scratch, and I’m not confident that I’ll make a ton in commission for at least 12 months as sales cycles can be a bit longer too. Honestly I’m just not feeling confident about my network, abilities, and experience, and I’m nervous that I won’t be ready to succeed. Could be a bit of imposter syndrome.
Things I’m grappling with:
- Is getting people leader experience at a large company worth it for a resume boost? Even if I only do it for a year or so?
- If leave and don’t like it, does coming from a smaller company make it substantially harder to get back to a hyperscaler/premier startup?
- Does taking a larger role at a smaller company meaningfully accelerate your career, especially early on?
Really just looking for advice, things to consider, etc. from someone with more life experience than me lol Thanks!