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New here? Employee Evolution is a blog written by Ryan Healy. Ryan is a Co-Founder of Brazen Careerist, the webs #1 social network for young professionals. Ryan speaks with organizations on best practices for recruiting and retaining Generation Y and how to effectively use social media to reach your target market. To contact Ryan, please visit our contact page.
Leaving your large company to join a start-up is never an easy decision to make. You have to take many factors into consideration, including your tolerance for risk, how much cash you have in the bank, your family situation, student loans, and lots of other things.
When I left IBM to form a 3-person start-up, I had already thought this stuff through and I knew it was the right time in my life. But everything I’ve learned about start-up life since then is unbelievable, so here are just four of those things to consider before you ditch your large company for life in a start-up.
1. Do you really like the people?
When you interview, you must make sure you like the people in the company. And I don’t mean just sort of like the people, you have to really really like your co-workers if you’re joining a small team. So the interview process should be much more of a two-way interview than if you were interviewing with a large company. You need to interview them as much, if not more, than they are interviewing you.
As an entry level recruit at a large company, there’s a good chance you will interview with a random HR person, only to never even see them again after you start work, so the personal connection is not that important. But when you interview for a start-up, you WILL work with your interviewer on a regular basis, and you will spend an insane amount of time with everyone you meet so you better like them, and they better like you.
2 . Do they want you to negotiate?
I believe everyone should try to negotiate salary, no matter what size company and no matter where you fall on the totem pole. It can’t hurt to try and get a little more cash, options or benefits. But when you interview for a start-up, you can’t just try–you must negotiate for every penny you can, and it’s important because the company should expect you to negotiate.
At a start-up, everyone needs to be a self-starter, and everyone needs to be somewhat business savvy. Taking the initiative to negotiate and not back down easily is important, and the good start-ups will recognize your negotiations as a good sign for the future, even if they think you’re a pain in the ass. So try to get those stock options, and remember, DON’T GIVE THE FIRST NUMBER.
3. Do you live to work or do you work to live?
If you want to make a good paycheck, you’ve got to work a lot of hours, no matter what size company you’re at. But in a large company, anyone with some street smarts can figure out how to “work the system” and get by with a typical 8 hour day.
In a start-up, there is no working the system, there’s just a lot of work. So if you love the thrill of working around the clock, you’re competitive and you’re achievement oriented, 12 hours a day at a start-up could be the place for you.
4. Can you handle uncertainty?
In a start-up, there is always uncertainty. There’s uncertainty about next month, next week and even tomorrow. There’s no telling if your company will even make payroll every other week. And there is always that slight chance that the CEO will walk in the room and say, “Guys, the game is over.”
But with uncertainty comes excitement. Sure it may make you a little anxious or nervous, but it’s a thrill. If you’re reading this and thinking, “How is uncertainty about a paycheck a thrill?”– it’s probably time for you to stop dreaming about a start-up. But if it’s making just a little sense, then it may just be time for you to get out there and start networking with some entrepreneurs.
Good Luck.
People walk a fine line when negotiating salary with a startup and for non-founders entering the company its actually a tougher negotiation than negotiating with a large corporation (like you said you have to work closely with the same people everyday from then on).
If you play your cards right there shouldn’t be much negotiation. You should have been moving the negotiation along towards your desired range throughout the interview process, never wait until they actually name a number to start setting the companies expectations of what your salary should be. You dont have to name a specific number in order to make inferences as to what you think you’re worth.
The one benefit to startup negotiations is that you should never be looking at startup jobs if you absolutely need the job or you wont make rent next week. More than any other type of company you have to be willing and able to walk away from an offer when negotiating with a startup. Its an unstable enough situation already, dont do yourself the disservice of starting the negotiation at a disadvantage.
I’ve worked in startups all my life and I think it is hard to generalize. Someone who is starting a startup is in a very different role than someone joining a startup at a more individual contributor level. One thing that is true though is that people in startups love to glorify the difficulty of it all. It’s a cliche, but there are startups where “work smarter, not harder” is the rule of thumb. But the main rule is that there are no set rules and the culture can change overnight…you need to be comfortable with that to work in a startup.
One that I would add is, “Are you ready to accept failure and rejection?”
For the great successes and “yes” answers you get, there were countless other investors, partners and media types who said no, plating roadblocks in your way and bringing down that start-up confidence.
The best thing to have is the ability to get back up and believe in your start-up so much that you don’t give a sh*t about the no’s.
Your point about uncertainty is excellent. Which is why it’s smart not to quit your dayjob right out.
One of the most important things I have heard recently about start-ups is the setting of limits right off the bat.
It’s really glorifying to talk about the commitment, energy and time you put into it. Saying it is okay that it dominates your life is up to you; but the typical person, or group, needs to set limits to start. This means managing its growth properly so that it doesn’t drive you insane.
The friend I spoke with recently started a computer and website related business with a couple of friends. They set their hours as a rule, and work certain hours in weekends. The first thing they realized was that without these limits, their lives would hardly exist for the first 3 years of business.
Good post!
Torb make sure to differentiate between a “lifestyle business” (which it sounds like might be what your friends have started i.e. in the vein of a 37signals style company) and a startup (takes investment tries to grow very quickly etc…)
The biggest problem with a lot of the discussion around “startups” these days is that every one who starts a business wants to call themselves a startup and the original meaning of the word has been mangled
Point taken. I should wiki the difference.