your roadmap for landing a role at a startup
DESCRIPTION
Learn if a startups is right for you, what they are looking for, and how to best prepare and position yourself for the career opportunities they offer.TRANSCRIPT
Your Roadmap for Landing a Role at a Startup
Intro
Why join a startup? Is a startup right for you? Key roles for students & new graduates What companies look for in candidates• Academics• Project-Based Experience / Side Activities• Work Experience• Key Software/Technical Skills (for CS & Software Engineers)• Personality Traits
Additional way to pick-up skills Communicating and engaging with employers Wrap-up
Connecting Talented Students with Amazing Startups ThinkB1G.com
Why Join a Startup?
Be part of ambitious missions Work on challenging problems Have an impact and make a difference Learn from exceptionally talented people Enjoy a casual work environment & flexible hours Equity upside of joining a successful company (for full-
time employees) Learn ropes firsthand for starting your own company
Connecting Talented Students with Amazing Startups ThinkB1G.com
Is a Startup Right for You?
Startups value people who will go after opportunities without prompting• If you need to be told what to do and prefer that working style, then a
startup is probably not for you With leaner and meaner teams, you must be prepared to be hands on• Even if you are leading a functional area, you’ll need to get “into the
weeds” and actually do the work versus telling other people what to do Be prepared to run lean & scrappy in terms of how you get things done• Even those startups that have been funded, don’t have big budgets and
learn to do a lot with less Do you love to execute and “do stuff”• Startups need people who create, iterate, and generate value
Source: “Finding Startup Jobs” by John GannonConnecting Talented Students with Amazing Startups ThinkB1G.com
Key Roles for Students & New Grads
Software Development – build, develop and manage the life cycle of products
Data Science – analyze, understand and extract knowledge from data Product Design & User Experience (UX) – design & build beautiful
products that are intuitive to use DevOps – keep all the servers, networks and cloud computing
environments running Growth Hacking – use creativity, analytical thinking, and social
metrics to gain exposure and expand market share Sales – sell products that are new and often ambiguous Technical Account Management – interface with customers and
help them become successful with the product Marketing – generate awareness & demand, engage community
Connecting Talented Students with Amazing Startups ThinkB1G.com
What Companies Look for in Candidates
Project-Based Experiences & Side Activities Key Software/Technical Skills• For CS & Software Engineers
Work Experience Academics Personality Traits
Connecting Talented Students with Amazing Startups ThinkB1G.com
Project-Based Experiences & Side Activities
Valued above all else: Startups want to see that you’ve built things
Class projects count, but not as much as independent projects• Demonstrate you enjoy programming to devote your free time to it
Seek out the "hacker culture" at your school and get involved• It's not enough to be in the groups – you have to build things
End goal (having side projects) is more important than how you get there• Pursue personal projects of interest. Do things for fun that help show your
passion and skills. (i.e. droid games or apps)• Build anything. Great programmers start out as crappy programmers
“I would hire someone with a 2.0 GPA from a no-name college and tons of side projects using cool tech versus a 4.0 MIT CS grad who focuses only on
school.” Connecting Talented Students with Amazing Startups ThinkB1G.com
Key Software/Technical Skills
Javascript: The language of the front-end, and an increasingly popular choice for backend work
Other good languages: Python, Ruby, Clojure, Scala, Haskell – anything not traditionally taught in class
Apps: Important to have at least attempted to build a web app, mobile app, or other interesting thing
Modern version control systems: Git or Mercurial are also typically not taught in class, but are incredibly useful for everything you do (a HUGE plus)
Databases: Even if you learn it on your own (DB classes aren’t mandatory)
Connecting Talented Students with Amazing Startups ThinkB1G.com
Work Experience
Employers prefer candidates with internship experience over those with high GPAs• Experience at startups and tech companies is ideal• Experience at other companies is good, but also need to show
that you’re picking up the skills that startups look for Try to find internships early in your academic career• “If I see you’ve worked in non-technical internships for the
first two years of college, I already have tons of red flags raised in my mind.“
• If you don’t land an internship with a startup or tech company, compensate with more project-based experiences
Connecting Talented Students with Amazing Startups ThinkB1G.com
Academics
Grades mean less to startups than they do to established companies• Some put significantly less weight on GPA
Class projects carry weight• Demonstrate how they tie into your interests and passions
Even more important:• Can you map your academic experience to real life projects?
Added bonus (for some)• Take relevant but unorthodox classes that demonstrate intellectual
curiosity in your field
“Don't just take the 400 level class, communicate why the topic is so interesting.”
Connecting Talented Students with Amazing Startups ThinkB1G.com
Personality Traits
This is particular to each company, but here are some common traits:
Intellectual curiosity • Evident desire to learn more about things
Passion• Deeply care about your areas of interest and exhibit that you’re willing to
make the effort to grow and expand your skills (because you love it) Self-starter• Exhibit ambition & drive in how you go about things
Do things differently• Anything that makes it clear that you didn’t just follow the herd
Commitment to personal growth and learning• Explore topics outside your field of interest, focus on self-improvement
Connecting Talented Students with Amazing Startups ThinkB1G.com
“What I Know Now Didn’t Come from Class”
Don’t limit yourself to just the material offered in class• Take advantage of opportunities offered by your department/school
Don’t waste time• Submit your assignments early and work on your own projects
Learn on your own• Khan Academy• Coursera• Code.org• Stanford Engineering• MIT OpenCourseWare• Channel9
There are plenty of opportunities out there – Everything is a click away. Connecting Talented Students with Amazing Startups ThinkB1G.com
Source: Den Delimarsky
Obtaining Skills (for CS)
Go beyond your CS curriculum Learn more programming languages Try different operating systems Create apps Contribute to an open-source project Read tech books Spend sleepless nights trying to debug that web service
that fails every single time someone tries to upload a video larger than 200MB.
Connecting Talented Students with Amazing Startups ThinkB1G.com
Communicating & Engaging with Employers
Resume (what’s important)• Name & contact info• Projects and work experience• Languages/tools/frameworks/etc (if software/engineering)• Educational info & GPA• Extra-curricular, hobbies, etc.
Highlight your body of work• GitHub (huge plus) - great way to show off all of those side projects• Online portfolio or personal website• Personal blog
Kill the generic cover letter and send a personal email• Communicate why you want to work for the company• Personal touch and effort significantly increases probability of a response
“We can usually get a good feel for how curious and motivated someone is by the way they talk about what they're working on, whether it's class or side projects.”
Connecting Talented Students with Amazing Startups ThinkB1G.com
GitHub is Critical
Summary
Demonstrable skills through project-based experience is KEY• Projects > GPA• Challenge yourself outside the classroom• Find the “hacker culture” on campus and participate/build things • Try to find an internship as early as possible
Curiousity and passion are held in high regard• Explore new ideas & ways of doing things, even outside your major
Package and communicate your background and experiences to emphasize the above
Reach out and network, but not generically• Be personal and with focus and purpose
Connecting Talented Students with Amazing Startups ThinkB1G.com
Next Steps
About ThinkB1G Connecting talented students
with amazing startups & high-growth companies
Interested in joining a startup? Openings• ThinkB1G.com/Startups
Newsletter: ThinkB1G.com Student profile• ThinkB1G.com/Students
Connecting Talented Students with Amazing Startups ThinkB1G.com
Your Roadmap for Landing a Role at a Startup