Why it’s so Difficult to Get Hired at a Startup as a Business Person and How I Did It — Part 2

Image Source — the Dispatch

Last week I wrote about why startups seem to have it out for people coming from the traditional business world and why it can be so hard to land a job despite your solid business skills. For Part 2 of this write up I will jump into my story and share my unconventional approach to how I found my job in the startup world.

I wish there was some blueprint to finding a job at a startup but there really isn’t. I believe everyone’s journey is different and that’s what makes the adventure into this world so great. For me there was no information session with recruiters, endless coffee chats with employees, or weeks of waiting to hear back on a decision. This was such a great change.

Here is a quick rundown of how my job search process with MindSumo went:

1. I created a detailed profile on AngelList with a specific position in mind
2. I updated my LinkedIn profile with relevant information and my story (this is the new resume and cover letter)
3. I drafted a compelling message to startups I was interested in and included a link to my LinkedIn profile. MindSumo was among those companies and within a few days I got a response
4. I completed my first interview which was a phone screen and a mini-case to work on at home. The case had a few simple questions to test that I knew growth marketing and could put a plan in place for MindSumo
5. I had a final round of interviews the following week which involved meeting the team in-person in San Francisco and a call with one of the co-founders in the North Carolina office. It was a simple get to know you + a brainstorming session with the team on ideas for growth.

From my first message to my offer letter, the entire process took under 3 weeks. I had been passively testing the job market for about 2 months until then. Needless to say, things move fast with startups because when they are looking for someone, they needed that person yesterday.

What I loved about the process was that I didn’t need 10 years of experience to break in or have a certain pedigree from a particular university or previous company. All I needed to do was master the tools and metrics for the role (gained from some relevant experience working on a side project) and came up with some ideas that could immediately make an impact at the company.

After my experience, the tips that I would give to anyone looking to break into startups would be the following:

Do Whatever it Takes to Gain Relevant Experience: When it comes to startups, relevant experience trumps any other qualification that you have from your previous job. How I picked up relevant experience to become a growth marketer was actually a bit of luck. It came from launching a small consulting company on the side with some friends of mine when I went back to graduate school. Not knowing that a career such as growth marketing existed, I put myself in charge of customer acquisition and was responsible for creating content via blogs and forums, testing out Facebook and Google Ad Campaigns, and re-configuring our website design to get more people to sign up. It was a total accident that this happened to be the foundation of growth marketing. You don’t need to start a business to gain experience though; the point is that those small side projects you’ve done are important, even if your day job isn’t what they’re looking for.

For example, if you are a programmer, you already know about GitHub and the benefits of using their shared platform to create amazing pet projects to show off your skills. For all us non-technical people, we have to find an alternative to building a portfolio. For me that meant becoming a subject matter expert on a topic and then creating valuable content on that topic to share with others. Using my admissions consulting company, I became an expert on admissions and driving customer growth with an MBA audience, and I used blogs and forums as my way of becoming an authoritative figure. Now I had a great story and experience that was relevant for my target job in growth marketing.

Anyone can be successful with this approach. Let’s say I wanted to be in business development for a food startup but had no prior experience in sales, food, or working at a startup. My first step would be start by learning as much as I could about food to become a subject matter expert. I would next find a platform where I could share my content and opinions on food whether it be a personal blog, newsletter, forums/Quora, or YouTube. Then I would create some sort of product, whether it was a book or consulting services, and work on selling this offering to different customer groups. Viola — you just became a one-person startup with business development experience. If that’s too much work for you, there’s always offering your services to a young startup for free in exchange for experience.

Another valuable option is to look into programs offered by organizations like General Assembly, GrowthX, or HackReactor where you can learn from industry experts. These programs cover literally every skill you need to know be successful in the startup world, and they have a lot of connections to set you up with for your first startup job.

Abandon the Standard Job Hunting Process: You won’t find many startups recruiting through LinkedIn, at job fairs, or on college campuses. Like I mentioned above in the previous section, startups operate through other channels. Try something like AngelList and go to as many in-person startup events as possible.

As for me getting introduced to MindSumo, this opportunity came through AngelList. Many startups are active on sites like AngelList, AngelPad, Authentic Jobs, Crunchboard, and Hacker News, which isn’t surprising considering that they don’t have HR departments to handle their recruiting. Knowing how to message companies on here is an art that I’ll get into later on.

Another great option that multiple people recommended to me during my job search was to reach out venture capital funds and accelerators. These organizations have a vested interest in making sure the startups they manage are successful so they are usually open to strong business people stepping in. The managers running venture capital funds also usually come from traditional business backgrounds and MBAs so they are more likely to value that type of experience as well.

Finally, don’t underestimate the value of face time with the people and companies you want to work for. Networking can be miserable at times, but knowing people goes a very long way. One of the best decisions I ever made was moving to San Francisco and joining Growth Marketing meetups and conferences so that I could meet people in person and learn from them. I have found that the startup community is very open and helpful to making sure that you succeed.

Update Your LinkedIn Profile: This should be a no-brainer every time you are starting a new job hunt but your profile plays an even bigger role in this job search scenario. Really focus spending time on nailing a strong introduction that tells visitors who you are and what problem you are passionate about solving. Rework all your past experience to make it more relevant to the role you are after and be sure to add lots of detail to the work and results.

Remember that your LinkedIn profile is your resume. When you are sending messages through AngelList, Facebook, or Twitter you can’t attach a PDF version of your resume so what you do is you send them a link to your LinkedIn profile instead. That way they don’t have to send out a follow email to get your resume or try to search for you themselves on LinkedIn.

Also if you plan on using AngelList or any other job posting platform, make sure that you put the same amount of time investment into building a great profile on their site. That means a solid introduction of who you are, what position you are looking for, and what you have done. For some ideas on how to create your AngelList profile feel free to check mine out.

Rethink How You Introduce Yourself: Your first message to startups are extremely important and you can’t approach it like you would a standard cold email or cover letter. During my recruiting process, I experimented with multiple messaging approaches to test which ones would garner the most responses. Here are a few learnings that I would recommend for your introduction message:

1. Explain why you are genuinely interested in their company. What real problem are they trying to solve? Why does it excite you? Passion means a lot here
2. Mention the one or two most valuable skill(s) and experience(s) that is relevant to the role and valuable to the company
3. Keep your message short. No more than 4–5 sentences are needed otherwise you risk losing your reader
4. Sound like a real person. Treat this like a 30 second introduction that you would have in-person with a stranger
5. End the message by directing the person to your LinkedIn profile

Here is an example of a message that I sent to another startup called Plate IQ for a position that I wasn’t qualified for. Yet the message landed me an interview.

Hi there. I don’t fit either of the job descriptions you have posted but I wanted to reach out anyways because I really like what Plate IQ is doing and would love to find a way to get involved. My parents owned a restaurant and I worked in it growing up so I appreciate the problems that you are trying to solve. With my business background in marketing, software, supply chain, and finance I think I have a lot to offer to the team in helping you develop the value proposition of your product and communicating it to your target customers. Please check out my LinkedIn profile to get to know me and let’s chat if there are any opportunities

Give Them a 90 Day Plan for Your Role: The biggest recommendation I can give anyone that is recruiting for a startup is to provide the company with a detailed two-page plan of what you will do in your role in the first 90 days. Include a strategy, specific actions, rationale, and metrics. I would send this after your first phone screening once you get a sense of what the company’s priorities and issues are.

Offering a plan to startups removes a lot of anxiety and pressure off their plate which is what you want to do. Because of how small the teams are and the limited resources available, startups are going to expect you to take the reins from day one and be a rock star in your role. They are much more likely to offer the job to someone that has a plan already in place for day 1 and the first 90 days.

I can’t tell you how huge creating this document was for me. By laying out my plan could show startups that I really knew growth marketing when it came to metrics, tools, and content. I could also earn bonus points with companies by demonstrating that I understood their business model, pain points, and customers. This exercise is time consuming but well worth it.

With that said I wish all of you considering a startup as your next career move all the best of luck. Remember anything is possible with a little bit of hustle, luck, and creativity. If you found this post helpful, please recommend it. I would also love to hear what other tips worked for you during your startup job search in the comments.