Venture Capital investment is a red flag
When looking for a new job you're almost guaranteed to run into them: companies that have just received a bulk cash investment and are hurriedly hiring new talent to realise all their future plans.
What they offer also probably sounds great: freedom to choose your own solutions, room to learn new skills, a new (agile) team rearing to break down those complex business cases into manageable tasks, and probably a decent salary to boot.
What they don't mention is that you'll be working on borrowed time.
Debts have to be repaid, and VC investment is a substantial one. That investment company's goal is to dump money into a business, make it profitable and then sell it on for more than they spent. That means short-term thinking almost from the get go.
The good times
All the new hires and the new teams, they're there to build or improve products to streamline the business. Things that were previously done by hand or via multiple systems, they'll now be automated or made possible within one flashy dashboard. This is the golden period for a developer: money grows on trees during this time, so applications can be updated, improved, new features come in quicker than they can be built: everyone is happy.
But as soon as the investment period is up, work on those new products will take a back seat. Suddenly the business needs to become profitable. The VC company is breathing down the board members' necks, hungry to sell off their asset for profit. And so the business trims the fat.
Cutting back
The flashy dashboard goes into maintenance mode - bugs and security updates only (sometimes not even that). Any devs not on permanent contracts are let go. Those on permanent contracts are reshuffled into other teams, or made redundant. The remaining devs now have to pick up the slack created by the lack of man hours. Suddenly you're required to document every hour you work and what you did. Your hours will be scrutinized and any errors will be highlighted in passive-aggressive emails.
In short, within the space of a few months, your perfect job can turn sour and if you weren't ready for it, it can be difficult to take. If you're someone like me who values stability and feels that things should be done properly, it can be even harder. Being asked the build things that are 'good enough' and which essentially immediately create technical debt goes against everything I find important as a dev. It's very demoralizing to have to put your own values aside because the business no longer finds them important. And I'm one of the lucky ones - at least I still have a job.
Red flag
For me, hearing in an interview that the position I'm applying for is available because of Venture Capital investment has become a red flag. Unless you're someone who likes job hopping, a role created by investment is essentially a temporary contract for a few years. After that time you'll be forced to adapt to a drastically changing business in which your future has become unclear and your role potentially unnecessary.
It can of course be a great time to learn new tech and architect new solutions. The job could definitely give your career a great boost, but just be wary not to become too attached to it.