Am I dumb for turning down VC as an undergrad?

I recently got a VC offer (300k TC) for an associate role at a T1 firm. The firm is small and I would be doing sourcing, due diligence, etc working very closely with partners. I'm a CS major at a top school and have been tech (SWE, AI/ML) focused in the past few years. I plan to not take the VC job and to prioritize building my eng skills and joining a ~400 person startup. My goal in 10 years is to be C-suite. I'd ideally want to be a CTO/VPE but am open to CEO/COO. Am I making the wrong choice? My main concerns are: 1. everyone says that VC is so hard to break into. Am I wasting this opportunity? 2. Is VC a shortcut to becoming a COO?

I need to make a decision by tomorrow and would love to hear any opinions.

Which job should I take?

VC
70% (23 votes)
Join the startup
30% (10 votes)
Total votes: 33
 

If you don't want to do VC then don't do VC. If you want to be a CTO then go join a startup. VC is not a shortcut to becoming a COO, you develop very little in the way of transferrable skills. VCs who exit VC to go to startups join business development teams because your job is doing deals but you don't really have the M&A skillset. But also please find out if the firm at which you got an offer is hiring for VP/principal level roles lol.

 

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