Starting a start-up career

JOB SEARCH: Start-up jobs are a great opportunity to grow personally and professionally. But they can be tricky to find. 

"If you’re looking at the big job boards — stop," says Marie Burns in the career blog The Muse. Since start-up entrepreneurs have little time and capacity for recruiting, they often hire from their personal or professional network.

"Start-up job search should be less about résumés and applications and more (actually, mostly) about networking," Burns says. She advises job seekers to research networking groups and innovations labs in their area.

"Start-up job searches should be mostly about networking."Marie Burns

Meetup.com can be a great source for interesting networking events in the start-up scene, Burns points out: "If you’re looking for a specific type of role (like social media guru), find a specific group for social media professionals, and start attending their events."

If you stumble across a start-up you find interesting, don't hesitate to contact them — even if they aren't actively looking for employees. "[iltt|[R|kontaktieren]each out to] the leaders of those companies directly. Explain why you’re interested in connecting with them and why you’d be a great fit for the company," Burns says. Start-ups value people who are proactive and independent. 

Dan Hawes points out in The Guardian that the entry positions that start-ups offer might not always sound exciting. But this shouldn't discourage job seekers.  "Don't see the job you start with as all you'll ever do — if the company is successful, your opportunities will grow with them," Hawes writes.

For Jeff Bussgang, a venture capitalist and teacher at Harvard Business School, this is exactly what makes start-up jobs so interesting. "You could be in your mid-20s and have no right to be a vice president of product management or marketing, [...] and yet suddenly you’re thrust into the role because there’s no one else available," he says on HBR IdeaCast, a podcast by Harvard Business Review.