Startup Guide: True meaning of career growth and stability
Near the end of the hiring process in startups, most of the discussion with candidates happens to be related to the stability of company or compensation. While I understand they are important for them but only a few people end up talking in depth about of learnings they would be getting, the team with whom they would be working with as well as future growth opportunities available to them.
It definitely looks like people are easily getting swayed by short-term benefits vs long-term substantial gain. Those who have chosen latter have definitely seen those aspects of success that only seldom have been able to achieve in that short span.
Sure, stable company with (initially) higher pay seems to be attractive at first but there are real, career-defining reasons to heed the siren song of a startup. Even if the startup doesn’t succeed, everybody gains a lot in terms of experience and learning which is invaluable and hard to get anywhere. In case of growing and funded startup, there is a lower risk of instability in near to medium term and still higher upside of learning & growth so better option, however, it doesn’t mean that the journey is going to be smooth & easy but all the worth to achieve the goal that is meaningful.
This blog is just an attempt to bring some awareness and confidence in the people who are though interested in learning more or exploring themselves but finding it hard to make a decision between the two. Here is the true meaning of career growth and stability, as per me:
Career Growth:
- You are learning at very fast pace, practically and not theoretically.
- You are able to do a lot of different things and attaining different skills now and then.
- You work speaks more than your profile and you are getting recognized for the same (along with failures)
- You are getting opportunities to take on new challenges and responsibilities as you keep excelling in previous ones.
- You have good and great people to mentor you and learn from continuously. They accept your failures but at the same time, utterly honest and best critics of you to keep pushing you forward. In short, they care about you deeply.
- Last but not the least, you are constantly interacting with folks who have other functional roles, and those interactions making you more knowledgeable with a deeper understanding of how businesses are built.
Stability (It should be about how talented are you and not how stable the company is):
- You are not dependent on the company for your job but company depends on you.
- You know that you will get the first job you look for due to skills attained.
- Company chasing you with offers instead you chasing them while you having freedom to choose field of your interest. Perhaps, they are forced to create a role for you.
- You have grown fundamentally and are highly versatile to take up any kind of role or responsibilities in your field anywhere.
If you are getting most of the above in any of the startups, I’d say to take the plunge and give it a shot. In the end, money and stability will follow the talented and not the other way round. Few big companies too have faced unexpected bankruptcy and almost every so-called stable companies have gone through layoffs, however, people showing above-mentioned traits stay strong and keep growing onwards and upwards, no matter what. Hence achieving stability in the true sense. :)
Few related articles to read more in depth: how is it to be working in startup, 8 reasons to choose startup
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
