There may be interesting work going on at a large company, but you can't expect you'll be near enough to where it's happening to know about it, much less get to do any of it. Roles at big companies tend to be narrower, and timelines tend to be longer; should you get stuck with something tedious, that may be all you ever get to work on. (This was my experience at both Microsoft and Google.)
At a startup, things change quickly and people tend to wear many hats, so even if you have a tedious grind to deal with right now, next month you'll probably be working on something completely different. You will certainly know what the interesting work is and who is doing it.
That in turn implies that there always is interesting work in startups, doesn't it? On the flip side, there is "interesting work" that only happens in large companies. If you want to orient yourself towards that, you have to join one. In my experience, strong enough motivation and starting to work with the right teams can get you there. This begins with applying for the right positions. But even then I'm not talking about any "grand plan", just about naturally gravitating towards the work that interests you over time. It may take a while, but by the time you're fully there, you've got experience (and de facto worked on it) already.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 24.3 ms ] thread> I’ve worked at a FAANG and i’ll say my days were filled with a bunch of mundane work that’s not actually interesting.
Obviously there is also very interesting work at FAANG. Just like there is also very mundane work in startups or small companies.
At a startup, things change quickly and people tend to wear many hats, so even if you have a tedious grind to deal with right now, next month you'll probably be working on something completely different. You will certainly know what the interesting work is and who is doing it.