The trampoline job: Optimize your career for growth

This post was trending on X, with critics about the offer.

If you live in a bubble (SF or NYC) then I understand most of the comments. But I think for the vast majority of the population, this is potentially a life-changing offer.

So here’s story time.

In 2018, I finished my MSc in Control Systems at Imperial College London, one of the best universities in the world.

Back then, most “graduate program” offers in London were around £25–27k per year. That’s in one of the most expensive cities in Europe. To make things worse, equity wasn’t even part of the conversation; people just didn’t talk about it.

These programs also locked you in for 1–3 years on the same pay band, with the logic that you were “learning from the real world.”

If I’d been offered something different at that point - a role at a small, ambitious startup in San Francisco - I would have taken it in a heartbeat.

• I would have learned far more, far faster.

• I’d be surrounded by like-minded people immersed in tech.

• I’d be part of a company from 0 to 1, seeing how things get built from scratch.

• And I’d likely have saved about the same as in London.

That’s because an early-stage startup offer is not just a job. It’s a trampoline.

Why it’s a trampoline

The first few months are tough. You’re absorbing everything, getting familiar with the codebase, and figuring out how to contribute real value.

But soon the leverage kicks in:

• You’re shipping faster and adding outsized impact.

• You’re meeting people building cool things in adjacent spaces.

• You’re doing interviews elsewhere and learning what you’re actually worth.

• You’re starting to understand how the startup is doing, and what that 0.5% equity stake might mean (spoiler: ignore the “non-dilution” mentioned above; that literally never happens).

Within a year, you’ve built knowledge, credibility, and a network.

You now have optionality.

That’s the trampoline effect: the experience bounces you onto a higher trajectory than you could have reached through a traditional grad program.

Most people never get their trampoline

Instead, they accept a safe but stagnant 9–5, capped by bureaucracy and slow progression.

By the time they realize it, the opportunity cost is massive.

A trampoline job isn’t meant to be the forever job, it’s the launchpad. If you approach it with intensity, you’ll learn faster than anywhere else, build leverage, and set your career on an entirely different trajectory.

So my recommendation is to optimize early for growth, not comfort.

Look for trampolines, not treadmills.