Joining a Startup Out of College is Hard (A Solution)
1–10 of 29 posts
Re: Joining a Startup Out of College is Hard (A Solution)
#2If you're after Brand Value, Security and Compensation, joining a startup is probably a mistake.
You're working at a company no one knows, with minimal money in bank, and compensated primarily in equity.
Basically you'll either join/start a startup, or always find an excuse not to.
Re: Joining a Startup Out of College is Hard (A Solution)
#3This seems more like a complaint from ivy league college grads about lack of wealth in the technology sector compared to the finance sector. Color me unimpressed.
Re: Joining a Startup Out of College is Hard (A Solution)
#4This seems more like a complaint from ivy league college grads about lack of wealth in the technology sector compared to the finance sector. Color me unimpressed.
I don't really see it as a complaint. I'm just mirror-ing what I hear from a lot of people I went to school with; I work at a startup now and I love it. But I know that to attract the "ivy league" talent, or any talent for that matter, it is ideal to appeal to what they know.
And frankly, I think there is more than enough "wealth" distributed amongst VC funds to subsidize some portion of a kid's student loans for a year or two. Is that really that much to ask?
I just want more of my former classmates to be in technology, because they are really smart, and their talents get wasted at high frequency hedge funds and investment banks. So how do you get them? That's what I'm trying to answer; passion is a big part of it, but some people need a hook or starting point.
Re: Joining a Startup Out of College is Hard (A Solution)
#5If you're after Brand Value, Security and Compensation, joining a startup is probably a mistake. You're working at a company no one knows, with minimal money in bank, and compensated primarily in equity. Basically you'll either join/start a startup, or always find an excuse not to.
I disagree, I know plenty of students who just need that initial push.
Also, anyone who has worked at a startup at a junior level knows equity is usually meaningless, and you're lucky if you're getting more than a few bps after a certain point.
Re: Joining a Startup Out of College is Hard (A Solution)
#6There's deeper issues not addressed by this article - why we've created a culture that so highly values 'brand-name resume builders', for one. And I'd argue that startup compensation needs to be rational even when competing sectors are not. But there's real potential in using the prestige (deserved or not) of a venture-capital firm as a recruiting tool.
As an aside, I hired Azeem at my startup after his post-college gig as an investment banker, and he thoroughly kicked ass as an employee. That doesn't come through in his blog post - I wouldn't want people who didn't know him to think he's still an investment banker!
Re: Joining a Startup Out of College is Hard (A Solution)
#7If you're after Brand Value, Security and Compensation, joining a startup is probably a mistake. You're working at a company no one knows, with minimal money in bank, and compensated primarily in equity. Basically you'll either join/start a startup, or always find an excuse not to.
I disagree, I know plenty of students who just need that initial push. Also, anyone who has worked at a startup at a junior level knows equity is usually meaningless, and you're lucky if you're getting more than a few bps after a certain point.
I don't come from an Ivy league background, but I did join a start-up directly after school instead of joining a more traditional company. I did it because it was interesting and seemed like way more fun, and also I could wear jeans and combat boots to work. Money was not a motivator, and the stock options were, of course, not worth the paper they were never actually printed on.
There are those people who feel the money draw, and that's fine, and then there are those who prefer a different set of challenges. They go to work for non-profits, they join start ups or become entrepreneurs, they take their Columbia degree to the wilderness to count mayfly populations. I'm not convinced a start up would necessarily want to attract the kind of person who prefers money and security.
Re: Joining a Startup Out of College is Hard (A Solution)
#8For most people, joining a startup as an employee straight out of college is a pretty bad career move these days. Your first job has an enormous effect on what options will be available to you down the road. A brand-name company like Google on the resume will open doors that a (likely failed) startup no one has ever heard of simply won't. You can always join a startup or found your own company later.
Prior to the dotcom crash, you could at least justify a startup on the potential upside, but with today's meager buyouts and non-existent IPO market even founders don't always end up with a life-changing payout. Employees should expect nothing.
Re: Joining a Startup Out of College is Hard (A Solution)
#9This seems more like a complaint from ivy league college grads about lack of wealth in the technology sector compared to the finance sector. Color me unimpressed.
I don't really see it as a complaint. I'm just mirror-ing what I hear from a lot of people I went to school with; I work at a startup now and I love it. But I know that to attract the "ivy league" talent, or any talent for that matter, it is ideal to appeal to what they know. And frankly, I think there is more than enough "wealth" distributed amongst VC funds to subsidize some portion of a kid's student loans for a y…
This is a bigger issue than simple exposure. Students studying finance/econ at Ivy League schools are on a track that starts early (our author, I assume, applied directly to Penn's Wharton School). The expectations and goals start in high school then, sometimes earlier. It's hard to get away from those expectations and pressure, and students emerge at the end of the conveyor belt onto Wall Street before they even know it, ready to earn their "seven in seven" (a milly in seven years).
I think the bigger deal here is talking about start-ups as a viable career option all around (cultural shfit?), and encourage kids (high school and college) to experiment while in school, since risk is relatively low and time is readily available for most. A better system of on campus incubator/meet-up programs would be a nice complement, too.
Re: Joining a Startup Out of College is Hard (A Solution)
#10This seems more like a complaint from ivy league college grads about lack of wealth in the technology sector compared to the finance sector. Color me unimpressed.
I don't really see it as a complaint. I'm just mirror-ing what I hear from a lot of people I went to school with; I work at a startup now and I love it. But I know that to attract the "ivy league" talent, or any talent for that matter, it is ideal to appeal to what they know. And frankly, I think there is more than enough "wealth" distributed amongst VC funds to subsidize some portion of a kid's student loans for a y…
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