41–50 of 52 posts
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I'd be glad to do a quick mock interview and try to give you some advice. I've done a lot of hiring with various startups.
Can others take you up on this?
As an engineering hiring manager for (mostly) startups, I love candidates that have both BigCo and TinyStartup experience. Diversity of thought and usually by then, the candidates have a sense of where they want to work.
If you find that your tech or skills or experience don't line up with startups then you may have some work to do.
Most BigCos need specialists. Most Startups need generalists. Depending on your field, you might need to study up as some other posters have mentioned. I wouldn't study haphazardly however. Apply to a few startups (or industries) you are interested in and take notes of the questions they ask you and especially the questions you struggle to answer. Those are the areas to spend your time getting up to speed on.
There are so many startups in San Francisco right now, and we're in a strange situation where both demands and supplies are high, but the matching isn't always great and companies (especially startups) are still struggling to hire because they can't find the right fit. (sometimes true, sometimes because of terrible interview processes, sometimes because of not finding candidates like you who might actually be a fit but don't look like it on paper)
If your resume contains things like C#, .NET, etc. chances are many/most startups will overlook you for other candidates. (Not saying or generalizing what your skills might be at enterprises, just giving an example) Vs if you have Node, React, Docker, that sort of stuff, you'll look like an attractive candidate to them.
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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'…
You might be asking for too much money.
Not sure if you've been really clear about your salary expectations and rosk profile, but if you haven't, it might gather you more offers if you are.
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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.
http://time.com/aziz-ansari-modern-romance/
Maybe managers aren't satisficing any more?
I’m also gonna take a stab at reading this so take with a grain of salt. I think the companies are not getting back to you because it’s super low odds of mutual fit. 15 years in and looking at early stage startups, you probably are not going to be a fit unless you are replacing a key team member or part of founding team. You have experience level, trading off for the very unglamorous aspects of early stage means the value prop to you would only make sense with significant stock package and likely a high salary. To get into that, you’re really talking about opportunities coming in from your professional network, or a number of other low odds vectors for getting in the door.
If you want to go down that path I would suggest really building some solid relationships at either bigger companies nearing IPO or midsize, basically you need to expand the pool of people you’re close with who might create new startups
> 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…
I'm in the process of hiring for our company / startup and you hit the nail on the head here. I'm amazed at the number of people who have done 0 research on us, yet tell us how impressed they are at what we've done. My favorite line to follow up on these empty complements is: "Thanks for the kind words. What do you think we're doing that is unique? What would you do differently if you were in my shoes?" In that past…
Smart people will grasp your product once they get going; I'm more interested in their intelligence, skills, and experience. If your product is sufficiently complicated that a solid engineer might not understand it's market appeal three weeks in good luck selling it.
Sounds to me like you like it when people who interview flatter you with their understanding of your amazing invention.
> 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…
It's very hard to find good people. If you're good at what you do you'll easily find an appealing position once you sort out culture. Stay away from the megalomaniacs deluded enough to think you have time (or reason) to do in depth research on their company along with the many others you are applying to.
This isn't an internship, you are already valuable.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm in the process of hiring for our company / startup and you hit the nail on the head here. I'm amazed at the number of people who have done 0 research on us, yet tell us how impressed they are at what we've done. My favorite line to follow up on these empty complements is: "Thanks for the kind words. What do you think we're doing that is unique? What would you do differently if you were in my shoes?" In that past…
Seriously? It's hard enough to find talented people. Why do you expect them to research and understand your company along with 100 others they are applying to? Smart people will grasp your product once they get going; I'm more interested in their intelligence, skills, and experience. If your product is sufficiently complicated that a solid engineer might not understand it's market appeal three weeks in good luck sell…
It's reasonable to not do in-depth research on every company you apply to during a job search (though some would argue that the smart applicant does exactly that and applies to far fewer jobs with a more personalized, targeted approach).
It's completely unreasonable to walk into an interview without having the foggiest idea of what the company does. This isn't complicated; take an hour or two before an interview to learn about the company, the competitors, and the space in general. Yeah, you might get hired by someone without doing that, but you're at a disadvantage against other applicants who understand that "talented" isn't enough.