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Ask HN: Startup to enterprise and back to startups – how?

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Re: Ask HN: Startup to enterprise and back to startups – how?

#21

Post by czbond »

mikekij wrote: post #10

As a startup -> enterprise -> startup guy, I see your 8 years of enterprise experience as a huge plus, honestly. If you’re having trouble getting back into startups, it may be one of two things: 1) employee thinks your risk averse 2) ageism. Unfortunately is real when applying to startups. As for 1, I think proactively addressing this in a cover letter / interview would be helpful. Hit me up if you’d like to talk. We…

Agree here. I've been both, and what I find is most lacking in early, mid-stage companies is "process" and "ability to think of execution strategically".

Re: Ask HN: Startup to enterprise and back to startups – how?

#22

Post by charleyma »

What type of roles are you specifically looking for? Engineering, sales, marketing, business, etc

Also what type (industry) and what stage startup are you applying to?

For example, "startups" like space-x I'm assuming value having a ton of enterprise experience versus something more consumer facing like Snapchat two years ago.

Different stages as well as industries will be looking for different potential + proof of experience and you should highly tailor your resume + interview to those expectations!

If it's more on the business side, happy to chat further if helpful :).

Re: Ask HN: Startup to enterprise and back to startups – how?

#24

Post by ryanmarsh »

tixocloud wrote: post #5
throwaway41441 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got direct feedback from one that I lacked skills in fast growing startups and two feedbacks that I wasn't a fit (even though I had all requirements in the job description). So that got me wondering what I could improve. I think I'm competing with fresh graduates. I applied at startups with 20-200 employees initially. Really looking for that experience of taking something of the ground and scaling. I know we shouldn'…

Might be talking to the wrong startups but also might be dealing with leaders who lack vision. Spend time to figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are with those "fresh graduates". As a startup founder, I would take a 10x engineer any day. Fresh grads bring great energy and enthusiasm but experienced heads make sure my business is going to make the simple mistakes. Don't sell yourself short. You're definitely…

Having worked at and hired in both startups and the enterprise the startup cop-out is to stereotype someone with an enterprise background and expect them to behave just like an enterprise, bureaucratically. This is a major fear within startups because they often don't have the spare time/energy to reshape someone's mindset. It's unfortunate and leads to a lot of skipped candidates but expediency !== efficiency.

There comes a stage in each successful startup when they start looking for adult supervision and explicitly seek enterprise experience. If you are looking for early stage work you should make it obvious that you get the startup's space and have a fast-execution mindset.

Re: Ask HN: Startup to enterprise and back to startups – how?

#25

Post by fecak »

I have advised hundreds of clients that have made this same transition, and it's not as complex as you might think. Much of the problem is how you talk about that enterprise experience, which includes both on a resume and in an interview. The company name and size are not really an issue if you position your experience properly and understand your brand and value.

Re: Ask HN: Startup to enterprise and back to startups – how?

#26

Post by some_account »

karthikb wrote: post #19
amirathi wrote: post #6

> What could I do now to make myself more employable at startups? Startup hiring is a fuzzy science at best. Apart from abilities it's a lot about what impression you make in the first few interactions with the team. Before talking to the team, invest a good amount of time researching on the space the company is operating in. The problem space, adjacencies, incumbents in that space and their offering, know what's uni…

And the first impression does not have to be made by you! With several years of experience, you probably have a strong personal network. An introduction with a few sentences recommendation can go a long ways.

I can recommend you. I would put it this way: I saw this guy asking advice on hacker news how to manipulate you into liking him, even though clearly he is not honest, genuine or trustworthy. But he will be really good at acting like he is.

I will make sure to ask if they need anyone like that.

Re: Ask HN: Startup to enterprise and back to startups – how?

#28

Post by lmeyerov »

There's a silver lining: As an enterprise startup (graphistry), we value enterprise product experience!

As long as we think a candidate would be productive in our stack, or quickly ramped up, works for us!

We'd be more curious if you have the startup attitude, where the support, and bottlenecks, are yourself and our can-do team.

Re: Ask HN: Startup to enterprise and back to startups – how?

#29

Post by ShabbosGoy »

dvtrn wrote: post #8
JSeymourATL wrote: post #7

> Got direct feedback from one that I lacked skills in fast growing startups and two feedbacks that I wasn't a fit ... Hilarious - Are they right? Consider the source -- frankly, many startup leaders lack the executive seasoning and managerial savvy to make a balanced scorecard assessment of talent. Their hiring criteria often boil down to 'hot or not'. Get clarity on your targets -- specifically, WHO is the Founder,…

Hilarious - Are they right? How would one find out? If as OP stated, their skills lined up and matched the job requirements, how will they ever know? Startup recruiting seems a lot like modern dating: a lot of terribly communicated expectations resulting one party effectively "ghosting" on the other, ending in a lot of frustration and apathy from one party at the other because of said terrible communication-and that…

> How would one find out? If as OP stated, their skills lined up and matched the job requirements, how will they ever know?

Job hunting as a software engineer has just become a literal grindfest. There’s very little signal you can obtain from the entire process, but you can gain a lot of noise.

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