Interning in Tech: A Learning Experience
I love my job. I’m not just saying that because my bosses are going to read this either (Hi Mitch and Kevin!) I work at TransparentCareer, a startup based in Chicago, looking to gain a foothold in the — you guessed it — career services space.
While Glassdoor takes a more anecdotal approach (like Yelp for jobs), TransparentCareer provides users a better idea of what to expect regarding salaries. By using our site to compare themselves to others with similar backgrounds (education, race, experiences), we help people find out how much they’re worth and use that information to leverage job offers. Our data works, too. Since the product launched less than 18 months ago, our website has earned job applicants a total of $6.5 million in salary offers. Once the full site goes live, you’ll also be able to find jobs and apply on the site.
With something so successful I haven’t quite figured out why they want me to work there, but don’t blow my cover — I’ve gotten several free meals out of this. Food isn’t the only thing I’ve gotten though. The experiences that you get from working at a startup are invaluable and transferable to practically any job.
At startups everyone must be versatile.
The company isn’t large enough to have an entire sales, accounting, or HR department, so it’s all done by your team. I was originally hired to write blog content that provides information about working and applying for jobs in various industries. Each employee meets a variety of needs.
The blogs are all finished — but my work isn’t. Since then, I’ve worked on entirely different projects. I currently work on our email marketing campaigns. It’s taught me how to deal with the frustrations of “clickthrough rate” which is when someone (hopefully) clicks the link in the email you’ve sent. In the future, I’ll get to work in sales too, and speak with actual clients.
I love getting to try a bunch of things at once. When you intern at a startup you aren’t put in a box. There isn’t even a box to begin with. Or maybe you’re put into a lot of boxes at once? No…that doesn’t work for a variety of reasons.
Startups also provide the opportunity to watch a company grow. TransparentCareer had been around for less than a year before I was hired, but even in these past few months the company has evolved. I got to witness the stress of a relaunch. The company had previously been exclusively in the MBA space, but wanted to reach undergrads. TransparentMBA was becoming TransparentCareer.
The website was receiving a complete overhaul and things were right on schedule, but on Launchmas Eve — we love our corny catchphrases — the team didn’t feel ready. At what should have been a quick meeting we made a frenzy of edits to the website. “Should we change this font?” “I like the button over here, not there.” Our lead developer Neel Bhat wrote a great piece on this chaotic night.
Your first experience at a startup is most likely your founder’s first startup too — or at least their first as an owner. It’s a unique situation where you’re learning from the company as you learn with the company.
The launch taught me a valuable lesson: There’s always more work to be done. I learned that there’s always something. Be it yourself, a product or a hobby — you can do more. Don’t let anything stop you from putting yourself out there.
Working at a startup provides exposure to a much different environment compared to the more traditional office setting. The environment is more relaxed, and there’s an openness to it. Everyone at TransparentCareer works in one office with five desks. Sure, it can get cramped, but this small space leads to some of the best parts of the job. I can’t say with certainty that all startups have good work environments, perhaps it’s only the wonderful TransparentCareer (Hi Mitch and Kevin!). But everything I have read points to startups being great employers for young people.
The process is streamlined, and yet everyone gets to participate. There’s a collaborative energy that I haven’t seen at other jobs. I don’t know a line of code, but if I have an idea for a feature I can get it on the site within the day. I can see a part of the site and vividly recall the discussion to plan that idea. Startups can really bring out the team player in you. I can’t help but get excited each time I see a new person sign up to the site, or when we break the record for site traffic.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I encourage you to sign up for TransparentCareer if you want to improve your job prospects. Better yet, if you’re looking for a job, why not sign up for ProMazo too? To be safe, maybe you should just sign up for both.
Hauk Nelson is a marketing student at DePaul University and a guest writer for ProMazo’s Millennial Voice. Check out what ProMazo writers are doing to disrupt the current job recruiting model here, and read their other writing here.
