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Ask HN: How do I write a resume after five years of a startup?

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31–40 of 131 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do I write a resume after five years of a startup?

#31

> So, how does one communicate that they are hirable after running a semi-successful startup for years The fact that you've held a job for more than just 6 month stints is enough to push you all the way to the front of the line. Most applicants we see just do 6 months here and there. I refuse to hire anyone that hasn't stayed at a company at least 2 years (excluding new grads). 4 years is pretty much a unicorn nowada…

Company I come from I was at 5 1/2 years, through 2 departments, 3 managers, 2 CTO's, and a number of just fucked up things in general.

The company I'm going to even highlighted that me being somewhere for 6 years was unheard of today, especially to have put up with everything I went through at that place.

Re: Ask HN: How do I write a resume after five years of a startup?

#32

Are you behind snap2print.me? Looks super cool. A good idea for sure.

Yep, it is pretty cool but the decision-makers at most of our client companies are slow to approve budgets for Snapchat. It has been fun to work on, it's our first big push into hardware so I've had a ball. We'd like to push our prices way down to hit weddings but our hardware needs to be overbuilt as all hell to handle the rigors of being shipped and handled by half-drunk wedding photographers :P

We shipped our hardware in Pelican Cases. They are indestructible, and they come with foam liners that can pretty much be custom molded or "plucked" to fit the object your are shipping.

I could almost guarantee what we were shipping was more fragile than your printers, (not a pissing contest) but it was precision instrumentation that needed to not get jittered around. Pelicans worked great for us. http://www.pelican.com/us/en/

And they arent even that expensive.

Re: Ask HN: How do I write a resume after five years of a startup?

#33
post #3

Do not fixate on job title progression alone; your co-founder titles are impressive enough. Outline your area(s) of responsibility on each project, especially if you all rotated roles once in a while. Focus on growth of both top and bottom lines, and highlight margin improvements over the 4 years and 4 projects. Try to quantify your accomplishments in dollar figures since they stand out more. Statements such as "Grew…

> Hiring managers hone in on results, not only titles.

A lot of them kind of don't, but you don't want to work at those places anyway. This is good advice.

Re: Ask HN: How do I write a resume after five years of a startup?

#34
If your a developer with a good amount of experience and stuff/projects to show then you have nothing to worry about.

If you didn't pick up any coding or tech skills during running your start-ups you may or may not have issues.

For me my start-ups were like going to school to pick up a new/in-demand skill that I could fall back on if my startup dreams fell flat.

Re: Ask HN: How do I write a resume after five years of a startup?

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, it is pretty cool but the decision-makers at most of our client companies are slow to approve budgets for Snapchat. It has been fun to work on, it's our first big push into hardware so I've had a ball. We'd like to push our prices way down to hit weddings but our hardware needs to be overbuilt as all hell to handle the rigors of being shipped and handled by half-drunk wedding photographers :P

We shipped our hardware in Pelican Cases. They are indestructible, and they come with foam liners that can pretty much be custom molded or "plucked" to fit the object your are shipping. I could almost guarantee what we were shipping was more fragile than your printers, (not a pissing contest) but it was precision instrumentation that needed to not get jittered around. Pelicans worked great for us. http://www.pelican.…

Oh yes, I love our Pelican's, we use them for our printers as well. The problem was the first few iterations of our printer were fragile once outside the protective cocoon of the pelican and in the hands of live-event people. As a result, we've beefed up our gear but it's expensive to do as such a small scale (dozens not thousands).

Re: Ask HN: How do I write a resume after five years of a startup?

#39

I'd be happy to spend ten minutes giving you pointers. I've a tech recruiter in Chicago and I've worked with a number of CTO's from 1871 (local co working space/tech incubator) to transition from their startup to a new role. But like many have said here if you write on your resume what you have actually been building over the last couple years you should be fine. Being able to clearly talk about your experience is mo…

I'm open to such advice as well (going through similar experience). Feel free to ping me at radley@cloud.tv

Re: Ask HN: How do I write a resume after five years of a startup?

#40
I went through this a few years ago.

Ran a semi-successful web / mobile app development company. We were a small team of four, hitting early to mid thirties. From the outside anyone would have thought our company was successful. Good brand recognition in our geographic region, finding clients was easy. They found us.

We paid ourselves decent salaries, paid the bills on our dev infrastructure, we all worked in the trenches, at our own pace, and we all generally loved what we were doing.

However, after about five years we got that itch. In a way we were too comfortable. Our finances looked the same year after year. We purposely weren't growing. Or maybe we just didn't want to take that risk. I guess we peaked early and got comfortable staying there.

At first no one really talked about it. You could feel it though. As we got older. Being so close to the business administration became a chore. Planning summer vacations with a small team became a chore. Riding out December became a chore. Maintaining apps over a five+ year lifecycle became a chore. Dealing with dev infrastructure maintenance became a chore. Wearing too many hats became a chore.

Life outside of work becomes more important as you get older. Family and that sort of thing.

So we decided to shut it down. Lots of emotion, soul searching, panic, joy.

Anyhow ...

I personally had the same feeling you did. Does co-founder look good on a resume? What the hell did I do for the past five years? Will I fit in with corporate culture? How do I transfer my skills to the corporate world?

What I learned is that you've got nothing to worry about.

Working on a small team, and staying profitable, and paying the bills means that you understand the value of money. You wear multiple hats. You're skilled at sticking to a budget and meeting deadlines. You had to "show up" every day. You worked the trenches and enjoyed getting your hands dirty. You worked twice as hard and twice as fast. You stayed the course for four years. You're loyal. You're reliable. You understand the entire lifecycle of building something from start to finish. And you've done it successfully multiple times over. You understand failure too, and know how to bounce back. You have an amazing combination of business savvy and technical smarts that's difficult to find. You're entrepreneurial. You've got vision. You're an ideas person. You've got real-world experience. And a track record of success. Most startups crash and burn early, you didn't, and you're leaving it on your own terms. Knowing when to exit is an extraordinary skill in itself. You understand how it all works. You haven't lost touch.

Don't scare potential employers with big fake C-level job titles. In a company of four you never really had a specific job title anyways. Use that to your advantage.

Custom tailor your resume for different roles. You've got so much to offer your challenge will be figuring out what to "leave out". You've got volumes of specific examples and accomplishments to draw from, which you can talk about for hours.

You're still young. In fact you're in your prime. You'll be a massive positive addition to any team.

Look for a larger (than yours) company that hasn't lost their entrepreneurial spirit. You'll be right at home. Don't settle and don't be surprised if five or six years from now you get the itch to embark on another startup.

It's all good.

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