Hi I''m looking for a bit of advice here. I''m young, graduated and aim to have financial security when I eventually retire. However I''ve decided recently that I would like to set up my own shareware business, after reading the articles on the dexterity site. However I have been offered a job with a prestigious developer (I have less than a years experience in the industry). What would everyone rather do, would you work for themselves at a high risk ( there is no guarantee to success running your own business ). Or would you rather have the security of a job (which seems to be getting less and less secure as time goes on). Thanks in advance for your help

Take the job
Learn how to run a buisiness from watching how they do it at work
Make some money
Get better at developing
Then think about running your own buisiness at the same time as working
If it works out, quit your job
Then send me money

Ditto all that. Except the last line. Send me the money! :D

Seriously, though, I''d agree that you should take the job. I wish I had that opportunity. You''d be able to learn a lot about the inner workings of the industry while still maintaining a fair degree of financial security, something you almost certainly would not have starting your own business. Like you said, you''re young, so you still have plenty of time to start your own business. Even being just out of college (same here), gaining experience and knowledge, and stabilizing my financial situation (evil college loans) are still my highest priorities at this point. You may be different, but that''s my perspective.

Ditto what they said

Don''t give up on your dreams. But besides gaining INVALUABLE experience in the industry, you''ll gain connections, and reputability if and when you do decide to go off and do your own thing.

Totally. When you do the full-time job, you will learn a million little things that you didn''t know you didn''t know.

Thanks for the replies.

The only problem with starting a business part time, is there is usually some kind of clause in the contract which says you can''t work on any competing products (i.e.e games).

I did however learn a lot in my previous employment as a games programmer, and admittedly there still is a lot to learn.

Having experience in an industry gives you leg up when and if you decide to seek funding for your company. Banks and VCs are more likely to provide funds if you have experience in the industry, while a someone with very little experience will get laughed out of their office.

But aside from them money, you can get the chance to see how all aspects of game developement work first hand. Articles are good, but their is no substitute for real world exposure.

actually non-compete agreements are NOT extremely common ... what is common is not being able to take any of your actual work home / to use on any other projects, ever ...

but often you can run a consulting side business or have a small hobby project which does not interfere with your agreements ... it just matters how much of your soul you sign away with the job offer ...

be very carefull to keep any actual code very seperate and you will have much less legal trouble later.