I went the opposite direction, burnt out by startups and went to a BigCo.
I have never been at a startup where you could remotely set strict boundaries on work. You have to be available at all times to deal with whatever crisis is happening.
Moving to a BigCo, they treat me way better than a startup, and there is less day to day stress. I have weekends and my time off work really is "off" again.
I couldn't be happier with the switch. Do I miss things about working at a startup? Sure.. but being treated like a professional and having a life again is more important than the chance at glory, money or being "the" guy to fix this critical unsolvable problem.
Now I'm one of many many people solving problems no startup I've been in could dream of solving.
Just my experience, I'm sure many people have divergent experiences.
Edit:
I would also like to add a key driver to my happiness is that I'm in a position of change at the BigCo. It's not just endless meetings, and I have a great deal of autonomy, and am working on exciting things.
I had this in startups too... so I didn't trade usefulness for constant meetings.
Thought that was important to add, I'd feel differently if I didn't have a useful, interesting and rewarding job at a BigCo... which I could have never gotten without working in startups for the beginning of my career.
Perhaps its down to the job market in the UK and .NET that everything is handled by recruiters that hide lots of details about BigCo jobs or make them sound dull.
I have never been at a startup where you could remotely set strict boundaries on work. You have to be available at all times to deal with whatever crisis is happening.
Moving to a BigCo, they treat me way better than a startup, and there is less day to day stress. I have weekends and my time off work really is "off" again.
I couldn't be happier with the switch. Do I miss things about working at a startup? Sure.. but being treated like a professional and having a life again is more important than the chance at glory, money or being "the" guy to fix this critical unsolvable problem.
Now I'm one of many many people solving problems no startup I've been in could dream of solving.
Just my experience, I'm sure many people have divergent experiences.
Edit:
I would also like to add a key driver to my happiness is that I'm in a position of change at the BigCo. It's not just endless meetings, and I have a great deal of autonomy, and am working on exciting things.
I had this in startups too... so I didn't trade usefulness for constant meetings.
Thought that was important to add, I'd feel differently if I didn't have a useful, interesting and rewarding job at a BigCo... which I could have never gotten without working in startups for the beginning of my career.