The decision to found a startup comes from a deep dissatisfaction with the status quo. Either because there is a problem you are so passionate about solving that you are willing to drop everything, or because you are dissatisfied with your existing work environment, and want to try to create your own.

It takes a tremendous amount of drive and passion to deal with the negatives of working at a startup. Low pay, odd/long hours, uncertain future, non-existant code base...

For many people, taking that junior programmer job at the big corporation is much closer to their pace and risk level.

And let's not forget that if you have that much drive and passion, you might be better off being a partner at a startup, instead of being a hired hand.

PhD: No.

Google Job: Yes if you can get it starting out.

Startup: May be in a couple of years after getting some industry experience. Contrary to what people may say, it is extremely tough to just found a startup when you have no experience, connections, vision or even idea of what you would want to do. If you have the vision, connections, experience etc, sure go for it but most likely you don't.

I certainly agree that you’re more likely to get the things you mention at a startup, but it’s possible to get those elsewhere (I have them now, with the exception of inexperience). Since I only need one job, I care more about the upper bound than the expected value.

Everyone has a different definition of ‘interesting’, but, IMO, Microsoft Research has more interesting work than pretty much any startup out there. Since I don’t have a PhD, there’s no way I’d get hired there; I’m just using them to illustrate a point.

As nostrademons points out, Google’s also full of interesting projects. Their process is notoriously slow, so I can’t tell if my resume was thrown into a black hole, or if it’s actually being considered, but that’s at least within the realm of possibility. Even IBM, which is known for not being a great place to work, has teams that are doing really cool stuff. Here in Austin, I’ve heard very good things about their Linux group, and, of course, IBM Research has lots of groups working on fun problems.

The reality is typically the opposite. Most startups are technically straightforward to start with and only get really advanced with scale.

I do startups because I have a problem communicating my ideas in a way to influence larger organizations to do the things that interest me. Simple as that.

If I have a theory to move the needle, in a startup, I can do it, analyze it, and launch it with very little buy-in, although my impact to an industry may be less. In a BigCo, my impact on the industry may be more but the battle isn't about product-market fit, it's about corporate alignment and buy-in before I can even test product-market fit, which I just don't enjoy.

I was in academia for a bit, and eventually dropped out of my PhD because it didn't feel right. I was in startups (both as founder and early employee) for a while, and while I learned a lot I was mostly miserable. I also did some freelance work, and worked for a small web agency/consultancy.

I am now working in a R&D-like group at a very large company. In many ways, it combines the best of all worlds: large corporation, academic research, startups. I like reading papers and thinking about the future. I like the scrappy hard working startup attitude. I like working in a team with people that have been there for more than two decades. I like not having to worry about my job because the company is large and printing money. I like having a HR department I can go to if I encounter unethical behavior (I did not have that luxury in startups). I like having an office of my own without people talking about their life while I'm trying to work or my boss breathing down my neck every 30 minutes (open floor plans have scarred me). The list goes on and on; the gist of it is that I find it to be the best career move I've made so far.

But I don't see a growth opportunity in a big company, the work is boring as hell and there are engineers, who joined 5 years earlier than I did, are still on same level as mine.

And the key engineering work is hold tightly by early members, unless they retire, I don't see a chance.

And I want to do robotics. Although my current company is investing in the area, they only need people with the right background, i.e. PhDs in robotics. And I have talk with google recruiters, they let me choose a position before the interview, but all my selections are as boring as my current position.

Doing a startup seems to be only way?

Not everyone can be so lucky though- startups are often doing more interesting stuff than large companies, so there's an appeal.