So you want to work for a STARTUP?

If you don’t invest enough time in learning new stuffs day in and out, you will soon become irrelevant to the company.

Working for a startup is a new trend among young graduates. It is more like a sign of pride among students. I am not exactly sure what has triggered this. It could be media’s hero-worship of entrepreneurs or an economic downturn which has shaken the job stability in big companies. But what I can confirm is that not everyone knows why they want to join a startup.

After interacting with many students over past couple of years, I can confidently say that most students are never prepared for the market — the reputation of the college doesn’t count either. But they do give you interesting answers when asked why they want to join a startup. One of the most common answer is that they want to start something on their own in future and wants to gain some experience, some are looking for a challenging role, some are not sure what they want to do hence are looking for an open environment to experiment, some are just too tired of corporate cultures of big companies.

But none of these reasons are right ones to join an startup, its just that there are too many myths around the startup culture which is deluding people. If you want to start something new in future, you need to start now and no amount of startup experience is going to help you. Challenging roles are everywhere, one simply needs to accept the challenge and stop looking for people to invite you to solve problems. If you are tired of big companies, joining a startup is not going to help you. And if you don’t know what you want to do, you might be risking the startup you are going to join.

So here are few of the things that a young graduates need to know before they think of joining a startup.

Your need to forget your past achievements and awards.

In a startup, everyone, including founders, do not carry their past glories to the work. Every day is a new challenge and you need to keep pushing the limits of your potential and not get complacent. Working with a startup means pressing a restart button. You start from level zero and build your reputation on it. It’s only when you push, you discover your limits.

Your standard job description doesn’t exist.

Startup, inherently means low resources, low budget but more work. Hence clinging to your JD is not going to help you. You will have to explore and adapt everyday and create your value in the company. If you can’t juggle tasks, you are in trouble.

Responsibility is grabbed not served in a plate.

Most employees grief for not being given enough responsibilities. But truth is that it is never given, it is always taken. And this is more true in case of startup. If there is one truth about startup, its the fact that its a total chaos. And dividing tasks and maintaining a gantt chart looks good only in books. In chaos, every member needs to keep check of each others and thrive among the opportunities. Founders respect such attitude and give more preferences to such culture.

Immune to peer pressure.

Fundamentally every one wants to grow and climb the tower of Maslow’s hierarchy. Hence when you are working for a startup, your peers who might be working for big companies will be moving at high speeds in their social circles — house, vehicles, family etc. But when you work in a startup, these achievements of your peers should never distract you. Startup is never meant to be easy. Only thing that drives people in startup is work and the value it is generating in the society. If you are not immune to these feelings, you might as well quit. That doesn’t mean working in a startup is going to be total slave.

Growth is not proportional to position.

In bigger companies, position means everything — more than work. But in startup, no one has time to focus on what your position is. Even if it’s CEO, it will make no difference. Only thing that matters is your growth in the confidence. If you are not confident about your work, you are not going to grow. Only way to gain confidence is to take responsibilities and lead in your tasks.

Founders are not teachers.

It’s interesting how people have this confusion that they are going to learn from founders. Founders are not teachers, else they would be professors. Hence when you join a startup the only person who is going to teach you is yourself. If you don’t invest enough time in learning you stuff day in and out, you will soon become irrelevant to the company. There are no seminars and lectures in startup, there is only tasks which you need to complete. If your work is not teaching you, you are certainly in the wrong place.

Office doesn’t start at 9AM.

Every founders will tell you that the IDEA of office as a fixed space surrounded by walls do not exist. Work moves along with you, follows you in your bathroom, your kitchen and even in your dreams. But this really doesn’t mean that you are stressed 24 hours with work. It simply means that you are required to work for the task given not for the time allocated. If you are not use to dreaming about your work, forget it.

Its your company.

Its obviously hard to expect everything from an employee in a startup. But most of the time, the core problem lies in the way employee’s feel about the company. Until you can come to think that its your company as well, you will never grow. No matter how hard you work or contribute, the core idea that should drive you is that its as much as your company as that of founders. When you carry this attitude, all the other things will fall into its place.

One final note. Working hard for long hours is not important. What is important is you are very conscious about your work and the impact it is going to have. If you are not clear about this, you will never be able to appreciate the work and the startup.