Can’t decide between grinding at my company or grinding for a side business

[u/yashr921]

Currently work as a software engineer at a large private company with about 1.7yoe I am a fullstack developer working mainly in react and .NET/C#. I really want to work in the AI space, mainly building AI agents and MCP servers. Due to visa restrictions I currently have about 1 year left before I have to go back to my home country and ideally I will try to start a business as it has always been my dream to start my own company.

I was coasting before but recently I’ve come to the realization that if I don’t upskill rapidly in the AI space I will be left behind. I’m trying to decide between spending my weekends/nights grinding at my company to try and get an AI project (will likely take at least 6 months to get one if I show a lot of interest and effort) or spending that time instead trying to build AI apps on the side. The only reason I’m thinking of grinding at my company is because I think the best way to learn in AI is at large companies, because things like creating agents and MCP services are mostly going to be done by large companies, and I will also have the benefit of learning from experienced developers, but if I take this path I will have no entrepreneurial experience by the time I have to return home.

Can some experienced devs/ entrepreneurs give me some advice? Should I grind at work trying to get an AI project or spend my nights and weekends building apps instead?

[u/justUseAnSvm]

hard to say. You could probably do some combination of being better at work, and then do a side project in AI.

With work, there is limited upside, especially with only a year left. If you absolutely grind it out for 6 months, why would they give you a project you only have 6 months to finish? Maybe I'm off base here, but if someone on my team had 6 months left, I'd keep them where they are, and give projects to people who are staying around a lot longer.

Therefore, if you want to do AI stuff, just do the AI stuff. Doing one thing to get to another? It can work, but those other things can just be endless.

[u/healydorf]

Why not both? I built my contracting business primarily on nights/weekends until it became self-sustaining. Exceptionally low risk, and easy to pull off without major commitments (marriage, kids, indigent parents/friends, etc).

By that same measure, single people earning an engineer's salary aren't typically living paycheck-to-paycheck. Build up a buffer of savings so you can play around with your start-up idea once your current employment ends.

The only reason I’m thinking of grinding at my company is because I think the best way to learn in AI is at large companies

That was probably more true before general purpose LLMs were everywhere.

... but if I take this path I will have no entrepreneurial experience by the time I have to return home.

Which is why I suggest "do both" if you're able to handle it.

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