Working at a Startup Made it Clear: the famous “Possimpible” Exists!
As a convicted ENFP personality type, I have perpetually fished for the meaning of things. As a child, I constantly insisted on the why, the what, the when, and the how of things. As an adult, I became a questioning adult, constantly wondering about the meanings of life in a general way and also constantly questioned what was dragging me out of bed in the morning.
It might be the reason why my short corporate career always gave me the feeling I was an (useless)outsider as I never found the answer to the simple question “why the hell am I waking up in the morning?”.
This was actually quite a challenge for me to define on a professional field what was the real turn on to me. Some hear the legal call, others the health cares duty, I felt “goal-less”. This was until I coincidentally started to get involved thanks to some freelance copywriting projects in the über exciting world of startups!
Those projects gave me the feeling my work had a meaning. It felt like I could help to change the world and I could finally interact with people who do not give a holy sh** about the established standards and the status quo. Startups do not stick to established rules. They set new rules, which are based on improvements and questioning of the existing rules. Startups stand and work for disruption to build stronger values.
1- F*** YEAH We Can Change Sucky Rules
Joining -my soon to be called former job- at Cocoon taught me that the vision regular people had on recruitment was fake and outdated. It enabled me to understand that my feelings about corporations where I used to work were not totally unasserted. It revealed me that I was not alone back then feeling like an outsider and that many of my former working colleagues were actually looking for places where the initiatives and taste for disruption would be rewarded.
2- Ain’t no day the same
As I claimed in one of my previous article, working at a startup requires a few inner qualities such as flexibility, ethics, dedication and/or the permanent desire to make an impact and to improve the world you are living in. Well be ready for one thing:
Working at a startup involves a strong flexibility and adaptation skills as you work in an extremely fast moving environment in which 3 months is like 3 years.
Be ready to jump into brand new shoes on a daily basis!
3- People Value Purpose
We used to be located at a major Dutch startup accelerator: Rockstart. From the first week, I was positively impressed by the wonderful level of energy that was flowing in the air, emerging from each startup located in the building. No matter the industry those people were involved in, they generally gave me the feeling that their main focus and aim was to improve each failure of their own industry. Everybody had a mission and everybody aimed to success to work their **** off for the sake of change and disruption.
4- It has to be Fast, Good and Cheap!
Many people picture startups people as free spirited folks walking around bear feet, chilling in front of a video game while taking a break. This is true. They do it because ain’t no 9 to 5 mentalities in startups. Sometimes things crucially need to get done. Now. Not tomorrow, not next week. They need to be done right now and very often your budget is quite limited, which will actually take your creative thinking to a much higher level.
5- Ain’t such things as team spirit
What more did I learn? If it’s great to be able to work independently, it is also great to be part of a team, which is empowered by the same goals and ideals. It is inspiring and empowering to work with people who embrace a common vision and people who aim to make an impact.
If you feel like the time has come for you too to rock the exciting startup scene and to embrace a meaningful vision, well, Cocoon has you set with a great range of jobs at The Netherland’s coolest startups. Ready, set, go, wake up for something in the morning!
Get your survival kit for a meaningful job at a startup: download Cocoon on iOs and Android.
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