A Complete Guide To Landing A Startup Job Now That You’ve Graduated

Planted
Planted
Aug 24, 2017 · 6 min read

Congrats, you’re a graduate! You donned the cap and gown, strutted onto the stage to accept your diploma, and vigorously shook a robed stranger’s hand. Your parents took tons of pictures, you got brunch, and with that, your seventeen years of continuous schooling has abruptly come to an end. Now what?

If you’re like the vast majority of recent college graduates, you’re going to want to earn some money, put your degree to use, and start working off that student debt. Fortunately for you startups are growing larger and larger every day. They’re expanding their teams and offering high impact, entry-level jobs for people just like you. These are jobs where you can essentially get a crash course in how a business operates and grows, sort of like a professional bootcamp.

Also, unlike bigger corporations, startups don’t know their hiring needs until they need to hire, so right now is the best time to start your search. Where do you start? Well, luckily we’ve compiled a step by step guide on how to go about finding a job at a startup.

Before you even enter the job hunt labyrinth, you first gotta decide whether working at a startup is something you’d even enjoy. We can’t stress enough that startups aren’t for everyone. The hours are long, the direction could constantly be changing, there’s not a lot of handholding or formal training, and oftentimes you’re getting paid way less than you would at a bigger company. Yes you get to wear jeans to work, but not every startup can afford the luxuries of Google or Facebook (It’s a sad fact that 9 out of 10 startups don’t have trampolines). The Social Network didn’t show the part where they ate ramen for a week and hand wrote Christmas cards until 2 in the morning.

Having said that, if you’re ambitious, hard-working, want to make a long-term impact, are intellectually curious, and are okay with working as a team to accomplish a greater goal, working at a startup is the perfect job for someone straight out of college.

Before you apply, think about what it means to work at a startup beyond the buzzwords.

2) Do your homework (even though you’re done with school)

Research what companies you want to apply to before applying to any

Before you start applying to every job listing you see, do some research on the industry. First think as broadly as possible and narrow down companies from there.

Ask yourself where you want to work? Right now San Francisco and New York are probably the hottest startup hubs, though there are thriving tech scenes in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and even Israel if you’re not afraid to fly.

Once you figure out a location, hit up TechCrunch, CrunchBase, and AngelList to discover what startups are in that city. Don’t rely on your school’s career portal as most startups don’t have time to post there. As you research, take note of what excites you about a company and narrow down your search to startups in that space. Do you seem to be gravitating more towards ed-tech companies but shying away from ad-tech?

As you research, make a list of the companies that pique your interest, what sector they’re in, how much funding they have, who the founders are, and (most importantly) why they seem cool. Also, make sure to take note of companies that have just raised a round of funding, as they’re more likely to have immediate hiring needs.

Don’t stop until you have 20 companies on your list.

3) Apply yourself!

Send your resume via their website, email, or (if there aren’t jobs listed) cold outreach

Now that you’ve compiled your list, it’s time to execute on all that planning. First, check out the company’s career page! The bigger or more well-funded companies will most likely have sophisticated HR process while the smaller ones might not have any jobs listed at all.

If they’re using an applicant tracking system, read through the jobs and apply to the ones that you feel like you’re most qualified for. Make sure your resume is well formatted and clearly emphasizes your skills and experiences.

If they’re not using an applicant tracking system, email your resume to the specific email address the startup provides, usually it will be of the form jobs@startup.com or careers@startup.com.

If the company doesn’t have ANY jobs listed, but you’re still amped about working there, just reach out directly. If you show passion for their mission, they’d be nuts to not at least chat. They’ll usually have a “Contact Us” section or a general e-mail address listed on their CrunchBase page.

When reaching out to companies directly, we recommend ditching the cover letter attachment and just writing your “cover letter” in the body. Don’t write something overly stuffy or formal and let your personality shine. Refer back to your research, remember what excited you about the company in the first place, and let them see that you’re genuinely interested. If you’re actually excited about a company’s mission, it shouldn’t be hard to channel these ideas into a unique, engaging, and succinct email.

4) Follow Up, follow up, follow up

If you have to ask yourself “Should I follow up?” the answer is yes

The one mistake new graduates make when applying for jobs is not being aggressive enough. We’ve heard every excuse in the book to not following up: “I don’t want to be annoying.” “I’ll just wait another week.” “I know I emailed the founder 4 weeks ago but I’m sure he’s just taking his time to write back.”

In reality startup employees are juggling 1000 things a day and many times an email that’s not an immediate priority will get thrown to the wayside. It’s not their job to reply to every person who reaches out, no matter how awesome the applicant. It’s your job to do whatever it takes to make your voice heard.

The bigger companies might never respond, but we promise that 90% of earlier stage startups will respond if you’re persistent enough. That might mean sending 3, 4, 5, or 10 emails.

The worst case scenario is that a hiring manager thinks you’re really annoying, writes an email telling you to screw off, and you don’t get hired at that company. But at least you got a response! If you didn’t follow up you weren’t going to get hired anyway, so besides the ego shock, it’s really no loss.

The best case scenario? A hiring manager admires your persistence, realizes that you can take initiative, thinks you have the ability to excel in a fast paced environment, and you get hired.

Entering the startup world where there aren’t a lot of defined rules can be daunting. Yes we’ve seen people get hired through their networks, and yes we’ve seen people set up informational interviews that eventually leads to job offers, but most of all, getting the attention of a startup is just about putting yourself out there. You have to be willing to escape your comfort zone and convince people who are investing their lives into an idea, why you deserve to join their team. Those very same skills come in handy when working at a startup, whether you’re reaching out to new companies to partner with, arguing for why your company should take on a new initiative, or learning a skill that you never thought you’d have to take on.

Startups are about passion, persistence, and a whole lot of hustle, so why should job hunting for one be any different?

Want to take some of the job-hunting weight off your shoulders? Check out Planted, and let us show you which startups are hungry to expand their teams.

Also, as you begin your research, check out our blog post on NYC’s top startups that are hiring for non-tech jobs. We also have one on Ed-Tech Startups that could come in handy too!


Originally published at www.planted.com.

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Planted

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Planted

Helping you find your next job at the best startups. https://www.planted.com

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