What effects do startups have on your resume?
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What effects do startups have on your resume?
1–10 of 32 posts
Re: What effects do startups have on your resume?
#2Interesting article, but I'm actually more interested in what effect having started your own startup (and failed after, say, a year) has on your resume.
Re: What effects do startups have on your resume?
#3Perhaps, other things equal, it's better to have a big-name company on your resume. However, consider that you'll probably make more contacts doing a startup which may be useful when you need to find a job later on -- you'll never be sending your resume "cold" again.
Re: What effects do startups have on your resume?
#4I saw a slight division where the startups/small companies seemed to place less emphasis on the brand-name employers than the larger/traditional orgs would. For both, it's just one more data point. Is it just me that read it that way?
Re: What effects do startups have on your resume?
#5Interesting article, but I'm actually more interested in what effect having started your own startup (and failed after, say, a year) has on your resume.
I was in exactly that situation a couple of years ago. It definitely closed some doors for me. At every single interview I was grilled about my desire to start another company. It definitely cost me a job I really wanted. They freely admitted that I was well qualified, but their concerns over my bolting for another run at my own thing kept them from hiring me.
Of course, they were right. I was out on my own again within 6 months:)
Re: What effects do startups have on your resume?
#6Interesting article, but I'm actually more interested in what effect having started your own startup (and failed after, say, a year) has on your resume.
I was in exactly that situation a couple of years ago. It definitely closed some doors for me. At every single interview I was grilled about my desire to start another company. It definitely cost me a job I really wanted. They freely admitted that I was well qualified, but their concerns over my bolting for another run at my own thing kept them from hiring me. Of course, they were right. I was out on my own again wit…
It's all in the presentation. If you write 'programmer for xxx.com' on your resume that's one thing, if you put 'CEO of startup xxx.com' on there then that's quite another.
In both cases you do the same work but the first is not going to raise too many follow up questions.
Re: What effects do startups have on your resume?
#7I saw a slight division where the startups/small companies seemed to place less emphasis on the brand-name employers than the larger/traditional orgs would. For both, it's just one more data point. Is it just me that read it that way?
Good point, when applying for a position at a traditional corporation coming from another traditional corporation might be a positive on the resume, if for nothing else you are accustomed to all the office politics of a big corporation.
As a side note I came from a 3 developer software company a few years ago when I got my current job with a major television broadcaster and to this day I am baffled with the amount of office politics people employ.
Re: What effects do startups have on your resume?
#8I have worked with a number of people in the industry over the years and have seen a bias against startup founders, more than a desire to hire them. But on the flip side people want to hire engineers from startups. Basically being at a startup is desirable because they often think it bring good qualities (of course evaluating the position and individual too) but being a found brings the concern of them being discontent with the job and leaving to do their own thing again.
I think you have to look at the individual, their specific fit and how old they are.
Re: What effects do startups have on your resume?
#9Perhaps, other things equal, it's better to have a big-name company on your resume. However, consider that you'll probably make more contacts doing a startup which may be useful when you need to find a job later on -- you'll never be sending your resume "cold" again.
> you'll never be sending your resume "cold" again.
That's the takeaway. If ten years into your career (baring a situation such as a move to a new area or wanting to work on something completely different from what you're doing now), you're sending in your resume cold to HR you're doing something wrong. You should have made connections in the industry: people who can vouch for you, whom you respect and want to work with. A good resume (with interesting projects as well as companies which do interesting, technically challenging things) can make you a more lucrative target for passive recruiting. However, a resume is a representation of your experience, not the other way around: it gets you in the door, but if you can't pass a technical interview an impressive resume won't save you.
Go where you'll be working with the smartest engineers (you can tell that an interview, based on what questions they ask and how they answer your questions) and the work (specific projects you'll be working on) is the most challenging and interesting. If out of all the places you've talked to, the place that meets that criteria is the a startup, go there; if it's a big company (but with serious technical DNA) go there instead. Don't join a startup for the sake of joining a startup, don't join a big company for the brand-name.
Re: What effects do startups have on your resume?
#10I have worked with a number of people in the industry over the years and have seen a bias against startup founders, more than a desire to hire them. But on the flip side people want to hire engineers from startups. Basically being at a startup is desirable because they often think it bring good qualities (of course evaluating the position and individual too) but being a found brings the concern of them being disconte…
> I think you have to look at the individual, their specific fit and how old they are.
Isn't that descriminatory ?