Why it is so Difficult to Get Hired at a Startup as a Business Person and How I Managed to do it — Part 1
Here’s a secret — breaking into the startup world is really hard. It’s even harder when you come from the typical business world, not a programmer, and unwilling to take a big pay cut in exchange for sweat equity to get your foot in the door.
I recently wrote about taking a big risk and making a major career pivot from Corporate America to work at a 10-person startup. What I didn’t cover was how difficult it was to land a role in the first place. During my journey I slowly discovered that my traditional business background in consulting and finance along with my MBA was actually not that valuable in the eyes of a startup and could actually be a liability.
So if you’re a non-programmer like me and your dream is to take on a business role at a start up, you basically have three options in terms of jobs: growth marketing, business operations, or business development/sales. In my opinion it is equally hard to break into all three of these areas without prior experience that is directly in one of these roles.
In this post I want to share my thoughts on why it these difficulties to pivot into startups exist for bright people from Corporate America. I thought this problem was something unique to my situation, but I was shocked to hear how so many of my friends who had finished MBA programs with dreams to join a startup had run into this wall.
Recently I have made it a personal goal of mine to help passionate people find fulfilling careers that work towards a good purpose. My hope is that this post can shed some insight into this job search process so that many others can jump off that corporate ladder and land on their feet.
I had trained myself to succeed at running a big business, not try to build a small business. Big difference.
Growing up there was never talk in my family of becoming an entrepreneur and working at a startup. A career in business meant grooming myself to becoming an executive at a Fortune 500 company one day. My entire life up from the day I graduated undergrad was built on climbing the corporate ladder as fast as possible. This was my game plan:
Step 1 — Become a management consultant at a well-known firm
Step 2 — Get my MBA at a top program
Step 3 — Join a leadership development program focused on internal strategy at a major company
This was the proven method used by countless people to get to the top of Corporate America and I was well on my way.
Little did I know that I would hit a mid-life crisis at 29 and decide that the corporate game wasn’t going to work for me after all. It was time to start over. Hoping to leverage all the great experience and skills I had picked up at this point as a professional, I decided to set my sights on joining the startup world.
Zero. That was the number of interviews I had received back from my initial attempt at breaking into the startup world. The experience left me with a bruised ego, and I was scrambling trying to figure out what went wrong. Would I really have to put all my savings on the line to start my own business in order to break into this world? Luckily the answer turned out to be no.
After a few weeks of dissecting what went wrong and going through several gallons of ice cream to calm my nerves, I came to the realization that my failure was due to the fact that I was treating this process like a traditional job search to work at a large company. This was totally wrong and here’s why:
Regular Recruiting Channels Don’t Work: The standard recruiting process involves using your alumni network, headhunters, and job posting sites like LinkedIn and Indeed. The problem with that is that startups don’t have the time, money, and resources to go through these formal recruiting channels. They are much better for larger companies. Instead, startups rely mostly on personal networks, Angelist, and startup events to find candidates.
Recognizing Your Non-Transferable Skills: My skills and knowledge in finance, marketing, supply chain, and operations for running a Fortune 500 company weren’t transferable. I was a bit naive about this because I thought what business despite its size didn’t need these core functions? Turns out most startups can get by on their own until they hit a certain size.
It is interesting to look at how startups operate when the resources, capabilities, and relationships with other companies that you take for granted at a large corporation aren’t available. Creativity, hustle, and “hacking” abilities are the highly valued attributes of an ideal candidate.
Unfortunately many of these valuable skills and experiences come only from already working in the startup world. The truth is that many startups don’t have time to train employees. They need someone to make an impact right away so they are much less willing to take a gamble on an unproven person that needs time to develop. Instead, they much rather poach someone from another startup that already knows the job. It’s like being an NFL team that picks up a veteran off of free agency instead of investing in a risky draft pick.
Specialization: Job specialization can work both for you and against you during the job search. I believe that generalists can be prized by early startups when they are making their first business hires and looking for someone to handle all aspects of the business as the CEO/COO. Once that role is in place startups are going to want specialized people that really know how to grow a small business in marketing or sales.
During my first recruiting attempts my strategy was to present myself as the do-it-all generalist and relying on my consulting experience to show what a well-rounded professional I was. Instead, the reality was that many of the startups I spoke to wanted a specialist that knew how to do growth marketing or sales really well and weren’t too impressed by my jack of all trades credentials. I changed my tune and that’s when I started getting traction.
Oh the light bulb had finally turned on.
Here is part two of my write-up where I share my story of how I found startup job and my best tips for anyone looking to make a similar transition.
I’d love to hear what others have to say when it comes to breaking into startups. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
