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Ryan Healy is a recent college graduate. He is a founder of 
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During the second semester of my sophomore year at Penn State, I realized exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I marched down to the School of Liberal Arts and figured out how to create my very own major; entrepreneurship. I typed up a proposal, choosing courses in marketing, accounting, communications and public speaking among others. Since there was no actual entrepreneurship major, I figured getting the most well-rounded, balanced education would be great preparation for my future career as a business owner. I would learn the basics of many different areas, but specialize in none. My theory was: who needs to specialize when you can hire specialists to work for you?
Two years later, I graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Accounting. Somewhere along the way, I bought into what everyone else thought a career should be. I had no great ideas to start a business, no potential partners and graduating with a liberal arts degree in a major I created would probably not look good to potential employers. Plus, everyone from friends, to professors, to my parents told me that some real-world experience could only help my quest to start a business. I decided a degree in accounting would provide me with the best all around business background.
I do not regret the decision to major in accounting. What I do regret is listening to everyone who told me that a real job would help me prepare for my future life as an entrepreneur. The fact is, working in an entry-level position for any type of large organization is completely irrelevant for an aspiring business owner. Actually, I would go so far as to say joining the corporate world is probably the worst thing an aspiring entrepreneur can do.
Most entry-level workers I know are pretty comparable to puppy dogs waiting around for our masters to throw us a bone. There is no creativity involved, work is simply distributed to us and the most important decision we make on any given day is what to eat for lunch. Sure it’s nice to make a decent salary and try to put some cash away for that future business idea, but unless you are living with your parents and not paying rent, saving any decent amount of money in your first few years out of school is next to impossible.
I cannot speak for young workers at small startup companies, because I am not in that position. I would imagine working for a startup that allows you to see every part of a business and experience the inevitable ups and downs of the entire process, would be very beneficial. The problem is, those jobs are few and far between and usually require a good deal of programming or web design knowledge.
When I finally decide to take my big leap of faith and start a company, I will look back on my first few years after college and realize that starting this blog actually benefited me a heck of a lot more than my corporate job. Granted, Ryan and I don’t have a balance sheet or income statement, we don’t have employees and we don’t generate any revenue. But I still deal with a partner on a daily basis. We work with each other to determine what our customers or readers want to see, and we argue about the best way to approach situations. We work with a designer to keep up and add to the site. We network with anyone and everyone who reaches out to us, and often we reach out to other bloggers for tips and advice. These types of skills can and will be applied to my future career as an entrepreneur. Taking orders, counting hours and doing busy work will not.
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You know, you really hit the nail on the head with this one. I’d like to add though that even in smaller startups you rarely get the opportunity to contribute like you’d like to unless you had a hand in starting the thing.
I’ve been thinking about where that threshold is that would make me just up and leave. For me I’d leave in a second if I could figure out a way to make nearly the same amount of money while having more flexibility in my hours (i wouldn’t mind working 40+ hours per week if I could control when I worked them and had free time during the day). Time it seems is the real commodity that we trade for pay in an entry level job, not actual work.
I look to actors or writers who work as waiters or do odd jobs while making time to go on auditions or submit work as an entrepreneurial segment of the population. I think this might be an interesting path for the entrepreneur to take out of college, instead of going corporate, why not ignore the stigma and wait tables or work odd jobs while putting a priority on your time and creating a business?
I’m curious to know if anyone has done something similar. Who knows, Ryan, with inspiration from your post you just might have a case study on your hands. If nothing else I’d learn how important having a good idea is vs. just starting to do something.
Where is everyone else’s threshold, when would you be willing to leave your entry-level job and set out on your own? would you be comfortable not having a solid idea?
I’d really love to set out on my own and start something that would be all mine. I’ve considered a few ideas, and may even be dipping into them in the relatively near future. However, I can’t see myself taking the plunge to a full-time thing any time soon.
I just left a career path that I absolutely loved and required a ridiculous number of hours a week, but they were, for the most part, pretty flexibile. The only problem was lack of stability - it had me constantly on the verge of a mental and emotional breakdown.
Maybe this is just my right-out-of-college, no-savings-to-speak-of self talking, and maybe I’ll feel differently in a few years, but right now, I’ll take my less than perfect “corporate” job, because I know I can pay my bills 6 months from now, and that’s a big deal.
Brad,
Believe me, I have considered the waiting tables or bartending thing more times then I can count. I think as long as you can pay your bills and get by, working odd jobs may be a better idea then going corporate. At least you won’t get comfortable doing what your doing. I always thought of doing an entrepreneurial thing as very comparable to trying to make it in the movie or music business. You are pursuing a dream and doing whatever necessary to make it happen.
Maybe I do have a case study on my hands……
Hi Jacqui,
Doing your own thing is definitely not as safe and comfortable as a corporate job, but if you can do it cheap and live at home it’s probably not as scary as one would expect. But who knows, I am still yet to give it a shot.
Interesting posting.
Ryan, are you saying that you don’t have a job aside from this website? I think you might make a good recruiter and you might like the business. We’ve never spoken so I might be way wrong. But I don’t think so. You’ve got access to people to talk to about it via the recruiting blogs in my blogroll so and if you want to discuss it online I’ll give it coverage.
I’m still planning on having you guys come on The Recruiting Animal Show to fight about Gen Y. But we could also have a good discussion another time about young people becoming recruiters. An interesting question would be: Do they have enough experience to assess candidates and companies.
Ryan,
Your post today was phenomenal. If I was starting a business right now, I would look to contact you, or someone like you. You understand how important experience is, and that will help you get to the point of starting something yourself… Good Luck
WOW Healy that not have been put more eloquently. I could not agree more with the entry-level corporate position being a step backwards for a hopeful entrepreneur. If anything the corporate entry level position could make you less motivated and extermely unhappy as it has done to me. With no incentive to work hard, meaning no bonus or commission, I am starting to feel as if my day job resembles office space. By that I mean i could come into work tomorrow and work 1000% harder then I usually do and not only get no recognition but no compensation monetarily either. There is just a certain drive that most college graduates have and all successful entrepreneur’s need, and it is quickly cast away by the entry level position.
I think the entry level position could be a positive in a smaller company however. This might give you the exposure to all of the aspects of running a business and also maintain your roll as an entry level employee with limited liability. I think that would be a great opportunity to learn how specific functions of a successful business work, and this is all while you are doing your job, learning literally from the “bottom-up”. I think this is something that is all to often preached to our college juniors and seniors, the only problem is, it is almost impossible to have that experience at a large corporate firm. I think they tend to leave out “you can only realistically do this if you are at a small company where you know people to help you get ahead.” Because without that then everyone just gets sucked into the entry level job, because as Healy said “everyone says its a great starting point to gain some experience.”
Just to reflect on that for a moment, most of the experience I have gotten is straight out of my COMPSCI 203 class. Most of my day is spent on the phone with people explaining how to use a computer or what a phone number is. The rest is doing the most mundane task on excel. I am still failing to see how this is preparing me to one day start my own business. I guess if my goal was to start my own business as a secretary then I am on the right track….
This entry was really short, but basically captured everything I’ve been thinking about lately. I’m sending it along to everyone I know (and their mothers, well, mine at least). But for now, I have to get back to work.
Great post, Ryan.
In my job (executive and career coaching for lawyers) I meet a lot of lawyers who have been plugging away in big law firms, earning lots of money and working very hard. A lot of them get the bug after a few years to bail out and start their own law firm so they can up the level of autonomy and control they have over their careers.
The thing is, as you alluded to in your post, being a lawyer (or corporate employee of any kind) is a very different job from being an entrepreneur. You go from a situation (corporate) where you are largely valued for the specialized knowledge and expertise you have amassed, to a situation (entrepreneur) where you need to be a jack of all trades… and very quickly, if you are attached to getting paid.
In my experience, potential entrepreneurs frequently miss the boat on this and think that just because they did well at a law firm/corporation, that they will easily and automatically do well at opening a business. Starting a business can be a great way to make a living for a lot of people, but you’ve got to go in with your eyes open to the challenges.
Keep up the great writing!
I think a lot of these points are excellent follow-up to the “Sometimes big companies are no fun” post from a few days ago. The point was made, during that post, that when you work in a small company, you sometimes have to handle projects and work in areas that are not of particular interest to you, which is very true.
However, in this post, people seem to agree that it’s not such a bad thing, since it gives you exposure to other elements of the company that you’ll have to know someday if you want to brave it on your own.
As a former employee of a lobbying group for small businesses, it warms my heart to see people embracing the fundamentals of the entrepreneurial spirit.
So, I think you make some good points here, but I think it’s a little over-the-top.
My experience is that most kids coming right out of college need a couple of years to become a bit more polished in a professional sense. It’s not a criticism of them as people or colleges to say that going to college and working in an office environment are drastically different in many ways. While a few percent of people make this transition pretty seamlessly, most, especially the genuinely talented ones who know they’re talented, need to get their teeth kicked in a few times. After you’ve been humbled a bit, you come back much stronger and wiser.
The best thing that I think a young and ambitious person can do is get a job in a small company where they will have room to maneuver and grow, but that’s also large enough to provide some structure and guidance–50 to 100 people is probably a great size. The second best is to start something on the side. While a blog is valuable in some regards, its utility is limited I think unless your ultimate business goal is in the publishing or media space. As my partner is fond of saying, “you can’t do all your fighting in the gym,” and until you’re asking people to hand over cash, the exercise is still largely academic.
Blogging also I think has a real danger of energy dilution. Back when I was working as a writer full-time and trying to finish my novel, friends would ask me about it, and I refused to talk about it, because “talking about writing a novel is the opposite of actually writing one.” Time spent blogging about starting a business is, ceteris paribus, probably time that could have been better spent on research or actually building something. I actually think reading blogs (by people who have real knowledge or wisdom) can be very well spent, and blogging can be useful in specific cases. But you have to be careful that you’re blogging because it’s advancing your business goals, and not just because you enjoy blogging.
hey ryan,
not to be a hardass here (i generally like your posts, after all) but why not practice what you preach first before writing about what your “ideal” situation would be? don’t get me wrong: i think you’re a highly intelligent writer with great insight, but as most of us already know, there’s a difference between knowing the path and taking it. lots of us fantasize about what it would be like to run a multibillion dollar corporation with the words CEO appearing before our names, but only a few of us stop talking about it long enough to get the ball rolling.
and no need to come down so hard on corporations! believe it or not, the corporate world can instill a certain level of discipline and structure in peoples’ lives.
let me know how that business of yours ends up doing!
A good book that I think all graduates, non-graduates, and people who’ve never been even been to college, should read is “Success without a college degree” by John Murphy. It’s one of the few self help books I’ve read that actually offers up some really good practical advice. A college degree is really just a foundation. As most people visiting this site will probably agree, nothing impresses Mr. Bigheads more than solid experience; the more you have the better. I’ve found that many top executives for companies such as Panera Bread and Microsoft Corp actually obtained their degrees in fields outstandingly different from the postions they currently hold. Michael Markowitz, senior vice president and head branding officer for Panera Bread, majored in political science and literature. College is a HUGE investment, but the
choice of major and the direction that you decide to take with your career should solely be your choice. Forget what your parents think. You can’t live for them. You already have a boss who can’t relate to your excessive need to check facebook updates, so why settle for what your parents want you to do. Your an adult now. You will never get rich by slaving for someone else your entire life. And it’s not necessarily a bad thing to want to be your own boss in the very beginning. Who came up with the rule that you have to work your way up the later in 15 years in order to be worth while. All the CEOs who are running the world started their own thing, many never having even graduated.
If you do desire to work in the corporate sector then my suggestion is to learn the ropes of your company, don’t be afraid to speak up, and if it get’s tough suck it up, and keep moving. Then again you could always become a teacher.
Hi Ryan!
I agree in the sense that running a blog does give you a number of invaluable skills for when you plan to open up your own business, such as independence, initiative, hard work, etc. But I do believe that, no matter how great a blog is, or how much you learn from it, a blog can only take you so far.
It is a great way to learn a number of different skill sets, yes. But is it a good way to learn how to run a business? No. Running a business requires a number of other different skills which running a blog may not be able to teach you (and which you in fact mentioned… finances, etc.). In fact the most important aspect of running a business, and which in fact may be the main reason for having own, would be the finances. A blog can’t teach you how to budget money, nor does it generally teach you how to get it or earn it. A blog is a great way to learn a lot of skills, but to run a business? It may not be enough.
A job on the other hand, does teach one the value of money. After all, you are earning money for the work you do. However, it may often curb the enthusiasm, initiative and independence needed to run own’s one business. So neither option seems to be a total package when it comes to learning how to run a business.
So far though, the best alternative may be a mix of the two. Get a job, and run your own blog. I believe the combination of skills learned from both endeavors would be ideal for running a business later on.
Just my thoughts on the matter. Thank you for the thought-provoking post. Cheers!
Hi Guys !
Having first hand experience getting out of 9-5 corporate job and starting as successfully business, I thought sharing my thoughts might be helpfully for you guys. While i started my career in with a fortune 100 company very soon i realize that is not going to let achieve my financial goals. Though I had MBA degree in finance and good IT skills i was compensated very poorly, only $38K. After I realize that my friends in IT fields are easily doing 60-80K i decide to make a move in that field and start accruing new programming skills. I end up getting goo job offer for about 60k for working with a small consulting company, however i was soon exposed to problems to this field including small duration of projects, ever changing skills requirement for next project, gaps in project times etc. At that point i made my mind to go by my own. I had feeling that I am not using my skills to its maximum and that can only be done while working for myself. So I started my own offleased computer wholesale export business with $5,000 investmetn mostly form credit card.
I had to go through lot of challenges but still I liked what i am doing. Business have its own dynamics and frustrations, but it kept growing and I was able to pay my bills while working from my home. One thing I learned that you really need to stay informed about what you are doing, ability to look ahead and adjust your strategies,(sort of like being on driving seat), have strong nerves because there will be many testing times, and work hard. Another important lesson i learn after that there is end of every thing so you need to keep looking for new ways growth because if you fail in that you will not have much time to get back on your feet’s.
As I anticepated my business also have come to as saturation point, prices for new computers, easy access to my contacts by internet, and new legislation all have contributed to decline of this business.
Now I am in search of some new venture. I have many good ideas but again its starting a new business making new contacts and new products and services. Its get very scary some time when you have big family to support and you are only one responsible to bring food on table for your family.
During transition period I am evaluating all my options, including going back to corporate America.
But my real passion is still to start at IT company based on great innovative idea. But to survive I need
to do some thing meanwhile.
I hope you got some flavor of being an entrepreneur. For all to be entrepreneur’s I would recommend
Entrepreneur.com and CNBC’s ” Big Idea with Danny”. Good Luck. Let me know if i would be of any help.